Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Five Takeaways

Orlando City played over an entire half with a man advantage but couldn’t create many clear-cut chances and had to settle for a scoreless draw with the Chicago Fire. The Lions struggled to break down the bunkered Fire defense and often settled for shots from distance that didn’t come close to troubling the goal, and they didn’t deserve more than a point in the end. What follows are my five takeaways from the game.

Lions Lived Dangerously Early

The game was scoreless at halftime but that seemed like an extremely unlikely outcome based on the first half hour. The Fire took 11 shots inside the first 30 minutes and tested Pedro Gallese constantly, as El Pulpo was forced into making five saves. The highlight was an outstanding double save in the 10th minute, first from Philip Zinckernagel, and then again from Hugo Cuypers on the rebound. Orlando’s goal got absolutely shelled, and Cuypers really should have opened the scoring from an 11th-minute corner but somehow contrived to fire the ball over from about two feet away. Chicago was so dangerous that it racked up 2.91 expected goals from 11 shots in the opening half hour, which is good for a pretty impressive .26 xG per shot. If not for Gallese’s brilliance and Chicago’s poor finishing, this thing could have been over early.

Route One Gave Chicago Trouble

That being said, the Lions had some moments of their own, and the most dangerous ones came when OCSC dispensed with trying to keep possession and build with the ball, and simply chose to play long balls over the top of the defense. That sort of direct play gave the Fire all sorts of hell in the 7-2 thrashing they received at the hands of Nashville SC last week, and the few times that the Lions played long balls over the top, they looked extremely dangerous. Duncan McGuire flashed a shot just wide of the post in the 17th minute after getting on the end of a long ball, and then in the 36th minute he was on the verge of getting on the end of another one, but Fire goalkeeper Chris Brady rushed off his line, got all of Duncan and none of the ball, and got sent off as a result. Had the Fire kept 10 men on the field, we’d surely have seen Orlando keep trying to lob balls over the top.

Red Card Did Not Change the Game

In theory, one team going down to 10 men should drastically change the game. The side with the man advantage should be able to overwhelm the team with fewer players, apply pressure to the goal, and eventually break through. That’s not what happened here, though. The Lions had a ton of the ball in the second half, with 69% possession, and they took 15 shots. But they only put one of them on target, and took seven of those 15 shots from outside the box. Too often, Orlando was reduced to shooting from distance rather than playing through or around the compact Chicago defense, and OCSC often looked short of ideas in the final third. The Lions have often struggled to break down teams that choose to bunker deep and clog the middle of the field around their box, and that was the case again in this game. They did still manage to carve out a few chances, with Marco Pasalic and Martin Ojeda both hitting the woodwork, but it was a woeful offensive performance considering the circumstances.

No Atuesta, No Party

Eduard Atuesta was unavailable for this game after picking up a neck injury late in the week, and frankly that was probably a big part of Orlando’s anemic creative output. It was great to have Cesar Araujo back, but he isn’t exactly renowned for his offensive capabilities, while Atuesta does so much work linking defense to attack, and is more than capable of providing a key pass or assist. Whether or not he would have been any help when trying to break through the tightly compacted Chicago lines is anyone’s guess, but not having him on the field certainly didn’t help Orlando’s chances. He isn’t going to be available for every game either, particularly as the fixture congestion piles up, so the Lions are going to need to find some creative juice from other sources.

Road Point Feels Hollow

It’s hard to win on the road in MLS and a point is a point. But it’s hard to feel good about it when Orlando played for over a half with a man advantage but spent most of it looking like it was the team that only had 10 men. Yes, the Lions’ unbeaten run is now at eight games, but four of those are scoreless draws. Points are points but this was an extremely frustrating point considering the circumstances. It was sort of an odd game in that I felt Orlando was extremely fortunate to still have the game at 0-0 after the opening 30 minutes, and then for the remaining 54 minutes after Chicago’s red card, I ranged from annoyed to frustrated by the Lions’ inability to carve out meaningful chances. Some draws you’re thrilled with and accept without asking any questions, but this absolutely wasn’t one of those cases.

Those are my five big thoughts from a frustrating evening for Orlando City up in Illinois. Be sure to voice your thoughts about this game down in the comments. Vamos Orlando!