Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

Welcome to your match thread and preview for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City (4-2-4, 16 points) and the Chicago Fire (3-4-3, 12 points) at Soldier Field (8:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV). This is the first of two scheduled meetings between the Eastern Conference rivals in 2024, with Chicago scheduled to make the return trip to Orlando later this month on May 31.

Here’s what you need to know about the match.

History

The Lions are 8-5-7 in 20 MLS meetings with the Fire and 8-6-7 in all competitions. Orlando City is 3-3-4 against the Fire on the road in the regular season and 3-4-4 away in all competitions.

These two teams last met on June 22, 2024 in Orlando, with the Lions capturing a 4-2 home victory. Facundo Torres scored a brace, with Luis Muriel (from the penalty spot) and Ivan Angulo adding goals to offset a penalty by Maren Haile-Selassie (after a Rodrigo Schlegel handball in the box) and Hugo Cuypers.

The two sides clashed at Soldier Field just a few weeks prior to that on May 29, playing to a 1-1 draw. Torres opened the scoring early with a scrappy goal in traffic, and the Lions should have had a penalty late in the first half when Angulo was clipped while in alone on a goal after rounding the goalkeeper, but the video assistant referee did not overturn the no-call on the field, and referee Malik Badawi did not look at the play himself. The Fire tied the match in the final 20 minutes on a Cuypers goal.

The Lions swept the two-game season series in 2023 by identical 3-1 scorelines. On Aug. 21, Orlando City got goals from Wilder Cartagena, Angulo, and 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 3-0 home win over Atlanta United a week ago, snapping a three-match winless streak but extending their unbeaten run to seven matches (3-0-4). Orlando City is 1-1-3 on the road this season, having gone four consecutive away games without a loss (1-0-3). Orlando no longer has Torres, which is too bad, considering he scored in each of the last four meetings between the teams, including two braces, for six goals in his last four games against the Fire. Torres’ replacement, Marco Pasalic, leads the Lions in scoring, with five goals, adding two assists early in the season. Angulo has goals in two of the last three meetings with the Fire, so he should be looking forward to tonight as he has yet to find the net in 2025.

Chicago is winless in its last five matches (0-3-2) and is coming off a 7-2 beatdown at Nashville SC last weekend. The club is also winless at home so far this season (0-1-3) despite several close calls. Still, the Fire look like an improved team overall under new coach Gregg Berhalter, having played Inter Miami to a 0-0 road draw recently and losing just by one goal against FC Cincinnati during the current skid. Only two teams in the Eastern Conference have scored more goals than the Fire, while Chicago has conceded 22 goals, tying D.C. for the league’s worst defensive record in 2025 — although it is important to note that seven of those goals came in a single match.

Beating Chicago means trying to contain Cuypers, who is currently leading the MLS Golden Boot race with seven goals to go along with his two assists this season. Midfielder Jonathan Bamba is tied for fourth in the league in assists (5), while midfielder Philip Zinckernagel has contributed three goals and four assists on the season. Orlando City will need to maintain its recent defensive form to bring points home from the Windy City.

“First, we want to maintain that balance that we’ve been searching for or trying to achieve with the team. It seems like we found it against Atlanta United. We kept the solidness of our defensive phase and got back to scoring more, especially with the guys that have more influence in our team up front,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the match. “So, we reached it, and now we need to keep it. That has been the mentality we have worked on during the week. We are doing our regular drilling and seeing what condition Chicago is in and all those things. That’s our preparation so far.”

The Lions will be without Wilder Cartagena (Achilles), Yutaro Tsukada (knee), and Joran Gerbet (lower leg), while Favian Loyola (thigh) is questionable. Chicago will be without Leonardo Barroso (lower body), Chase Gasper (lower body), Rominigue Kouamé (lower body), David Poreba (lower body), and Carlos Terán (yep, you guessed it…lower body). Additionally, former Lion Chris Mueller has been away from the team following the birth of his second child.

Match Content

• The most recent epsiode of the PawedCast includes our key matchups and score predictions for tonight’s match.
• Our David Rohe provided his three keys to an Orlando City victory in tonight’s match.

Official Lineups

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

Defenders: David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Alex Freeman.

Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Cesar Araujo, Kyle Smith, Marco Pasalic.

Forwards: Luis Muriel, Duncan McGuire.

Bench: Javier Otero, Rafael Santos, Thomas Williams, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, Colin Guske, Gustavo Caraballo, Nico Rodriguez, Martin Ojeda, Ramiro Enrique.

Chicago Fire (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Chris Brady.

Defenders: Andrew Gutman, Jack Elliott, Christopher Cupps Jonathan Dean.

Midfielders: Mauricio Pineda, Brian Gutierrez, Sergio Oregel.

Forwards: Jonathan Bamba, Hugo Cuypers, Philip Zinckernagel.

Bench: Jeffrey Gal, Omar Gonzalez, Omari Glasgow, Sam Rogers, Rominigue Kouame, Sam Williams, Dje D’Avilla, Maren Haile-Selassie, Tom Barlow.

Referees

REF: Victor Rivas.
AR1: Corey Parker.
AR2: Kyle Atkins.
4TH: Luis Diego Arroyo.
VAR: David Barrie.
AVAR: Mike Kampmeinert.

How to Watch

Match Time: 8:30 p.m.

Venue: Soldier Field — Chicago.

TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish).

Social Media: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow us on Bluesky Social at @themaneland.bsky.social or follow Orlando City’s official Twitter (@OrlandoCitySC) or Bluesky (@OrlandoCitySC) feed.

Enjoy the game. Go City!