Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More
The Lions look to bounce back on the road with a midweek visit to Chicago.
Welcome to your match thread and preview for a midweek matchup between Orlando City (4-6-4, 16 points) and the Chicago Fire (2-8-5, 11 points) at Soldier Field (8:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+). This is the first of the two scheduled meetings between the Eastern Conference rivals in 2024 and the only matchup in Chicago. The teams are scheduled to meet in Orlando in a few weeks on June 22.
Here’s what you need to know about the match.
History
The Lions are 7-5-6 in 18 MLS meetings with the Fire and 7-6-6 in all competitions. Orlando City is 3-3-3 against the Fire on the road in MLS play and 3-4-2 away in all competitions.
The Lions swept the two-game season series in 2023 by identical 3-1 scorelines. In the most recent meeting between the sides, the Lions got goals from Wilder Cartagena, Ivan Angulo, and Facundo Torres (from the penalty spot) to overcome a 1-0 deficit supplied by Mauricio Pineda, winning 3-1 on the road.
When the teams met in Orlando, the Lions rode a Torres brace to a 3-1 win on July 1. Xherdan Shaqiri pulled a goal back from the penalty spot after a Kyle Smith foul in the box against Brian Gutierrez, but Ramiro Enrique added an insurance goal.
Orlando City claimed a 1-0 victory at Exploria Stadium on April 9, 2022 on Ercan Kara’s first MLS goal. The two sides met at Soldier Field just over a month prior to that match and played, officially, to a 0-0 draw on March 5. The game is another Orlando City match that will live in infamy due to the Professional Referee Organization’s statement after the game that Junior Urso’s goal should not have been overturned upon video review by Ismir Pekmic due to Kara not having clearly and obviously handled the ball in the buildup in any of the available replay angles. Alas…
The teams met in Orlando on Aug. 21, 2021, with a second-half Benji Michel strike lifting the Lions to a 1-0 victory. Tesho Akindele set up the play by forcing a turnover. In that year’s meeting at Soldier Field, the Fire got the better of the Lions to the tune of 3-1 on July 7. Andres Perea scored his first career MLS goal to open the scoring, but a defensive lapse in first-half stoppage allowed Boris Sekulic to equalize just before the break. Chicago rode that momentum, adding goals by Robert Beric and Chinonso Offor.
The Lions were 0-4-4 in the eight meetings before smashing the Fire 4-1 in Orlando on Sept. 19, 2020. Orlando City withstood two Chicago penalties and saw two Fire goals overturned by video review in that rain-soaked match. (Weird things usually happen when Chicago visits Orlando.) The Lions got goals from Chris Mueller, Nani, Urso, and Michel, while Chicago had only a Beric penalty to show for an otherwise good offensive performance.
The last meeting of 2019 was the last time the Fire won on the road in the series. It was a debacle for the Lions, who lost defender Robin Jansson to a back/neck injury early and shipped a handful of goals in a 5-2 home loss in the regular-season finale. Orlando got goals from Akindele and Michel but largely played like a team that couldn’t wait to end its season. Chicago got an own goal from Orlando’s Smith and strikes from CJ Sapong, Aleksandar Katai, and Przemyslaw Frankowski (twice) in the rout.
Orlando City was seconds away from a road win on March 9, 2019 before Sapong’s free header in the 95th minute leveled things in a 1-1 draw in Chicago. Dom Dwyer scored Orlando’s goal.
In 2018, the Fire swept the season series. Orlando fell 2-1 at home on May 26, 2018, with Alan Gordon’s wondergoal breaking a 1-1 deadlock. The return leg in Chicago that September was an abysmal performance by Orlando in a 4-0 Fire victory.
Chicago went 1-0-1 in 2017, with the teams playing to a 0-0 draw on June 4, 2017, with the Lions reduced to nine men. The previous 2017 meeting was the Fire’s 4-0 beatdown of Orlando on June 24 of that year. David Accam figured in all four goals, with a hat trick and an assist on Nemanja Nikolić’s goal.
The teams split the points in 2016, drawing both meetings. Cyle Larin and Accam traded goals in a 1-1 draw in Orlando on March 11. The Fire again came from behind to draw, 2-2 in the return leg that August.
The teams met once in Orlando in 2015, with the Lions and Fire battling to a 1-1 draw. You may recall that five-hour, weather-delayed affair with Eric Gehrig’s own-goal canceling out an Accam strike. The other three meetings came in Chicago, with City winning 3-2 and 1-0 in MLS matches and falling 3-1 in U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal action.
Overview
The Lions are coming off a controversial 2-0 home loss to the Columbus Crew on Saturday that saw an Orlando City penalty reviewed and a penalty awarded instead to the Crew for a soft call on Cesar Araujo at the other end more than a minute earlier. The play also cleared Diego Rossi of any wrongdoing on what appeared to be a clear foul in the attacking phase of play that preceded the Araujo foul. Rossi added a second goal in transition and sealed the fate of a wasteful Lions team that struggled to split the difference (again) between hitting the goalkeeper squarely and missing the net entirely.
That loss snapped Orlando’s three-game unbeaten run and dropped the Lions to a dismal 1-4-3 at home. The good news is that City is 3-2-1 away from home this season and 3-0-1 in its last four road matches.
Chicago has struggled in 2024, but both of the team’s wins have come at home, where the Fire are just 2-5-1 in eight games. The Fire are coming off a 1-1 road draw against D.C. United over the weekend, which extended Chicago’s current winless streak to eight matches (0-5-3). Leading the Chicago offense are Hugo Cuypers and Brian Gutierrez, who each have three goals and an assist on the season. Attacking midfielders Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabian Herbers have each chipped in two goals and two assists on the season, while USMNT midfielder Kellyn Acosta has two goals and an assist.
“I see a team as well that is changing things. Their structure in the last game has been modified,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the match. “We are adapting to those things. Pretty much thinking, if we have that optimism and think about our team, we can get our result. They are probably more direct than Columbus and they have good players. We have to be very crafty to penetrate and not let up. That’s what we asked of our players.”
The Lions list Mikey Halliday (knee), Duncan McGuire (shoulder), and Tahir Reid-Brown (thigh) as out on the availability report, but the club did show a photo of McGuire getting on the plane Tuesday.
Match Content
- The most recent epsiode of the PawedCast includes our key matchups and score predictions for tonight’s match.
Official Lineups
Orlando City (3-5-2)
Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.
Defenders: Robin Jansson, Wilder Cartagena, David Brekalo.
Wingbacks/Midfielders: Facundo Torres, Nico Lodeiro, Cesar Araujo, Ivan Angulo, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.
Forwards: Luis Muriel, Martin Ojeda.
Bench: Mason Stajduhar, Rafael Santos, Kyle Smith, Alex Freeman, Rodrigo Schlegel, Jeorgio Kocevski, Felipe, Ramiro Enrique, Jack Lynn.
Chicago Fire (5-3-2)
Goalkeeper: Chris Brady
Defenders: Andrew Gutman, Rafa Czichos, Carlos Teran, Mauricio Pineda, Jonathan Dean.
Midfielders: Kellyn Acosta., Federico Navarro, Brian Guitierrez.
Forwards: Tom Barlow, Hugo Cuypers.
Bench: Spencer Richey, Wyatt Omsberg, Gaston Gimenez, Javier Casas, Chris Mueller, Fabian Herbers, Maren Haile-Selassie, Arnaud Souquet, Georgios Koutsias.
Referees
REF: Malik Badawi.
AR1: Justin Howard.
AR2: Kali Smith.
4TH: Calin Radosav.
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic.
AVAR: Jonathan Johnson.
How to Watch
Match Time: 8:30 p.m.
Venue: Soldier Field — Chicago.
TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.
Radio: FM 96.9 The Game (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish).
Twitter: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along at @TheManeLand, as well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).
Enjoy the game. Go City!