Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Final Score 3-1 as Lions Go Gently to that Goodnight
The performance on Decision Day against Toronto wasn’t rock bottom. Orlando was second best from the jump in Chicago and is out of the playoffs.
Orlando City never appeared to be in the match in a thorough 3-1 loss to the Chicago Fire in the Eastern Conference wild card match at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL. The Lions somehow managed to keep the game scoreless for a half, but Brian Gutierrez scored early in the second half and Hugo Cuypers added another less than 10 minutes later by blocking a Pedro Gallese clearance attempt into the net — the second time in three games that’s happened to Orlando — after Cesar Araujo made a poor choice to pass back from close to his goalkeeper.
Cuypers put the game away with a second goal as Orlando completely capitulated. Tyrese Spicer spoiled the shutout with a late goal for the Lions, who crash out of the postseason and finish without a win in any of their final five matches of the season.
“Frustrating and disappointed just to end up losing in this first game of the playoffs,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “And we have pain, knowing that we could have done much better, but probably the second half was an image of what happened in the last few games. Chicago in the second half was much better and created those three goals.”
Pareja had his usual starting lineup available to start the game. Gallese started in goal behind a back line of David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Alex Freeman. Araujo returned to the starting central midfield with Eduard Atuesta between wingers Ivan Angulo and Marco Pasalic, with Martin Ojeda and Duncan McGuire up top.
The entire first half belonged to Chicago. Orlando City’s attacking players struggled to combine every time they crossed the halfway line. As a result, the Lions got generously credited with one shot attempt in the first half on a Schlegel header from the top of the area on a 40-yard set piece from Atuesta late in the half that went out of play about halfway between the left post and the corner flag. Only one team looked likely to score, and it was the one Orlando kept giving the ball to.
That came to fruition in the second half, which consisted of seemingly endless giveaways and Chicago counterattacks, with cracks in the defense turning into gaping holes. Orlando was at least able to muster a few shot attempts in the second half, including Spicer’s goal, but the damage was already done by that point.
Each team won an early set piece but neither did anything with it in the opening 10 minutes of the match as the teams felt each other out. The first shot attempt didn’t come until the 15th minute, when a ball was knocked away from a Chicago attacker in the box and fell to Gutierrez, who shot first time but sent it well over the bar.
Brekalo blocked a Jonathan Dean cross out of play for a corner moments later but needed treatment and had to get checked for concussion. The Lions had to defend the set piece with 10 men as a result and Jack Elliott had a free header, sending it just inches wide of the right post. Gutierrez tried from long range again in the 23rd minute but hit the shot well wide to the right.
McGuire got into the box in the 29th minute with a nifty play to chip the ball over the center back to himself, however, the touch was heavy enough that Dean recovered and cleared it before McGuire could reach it and shoot. That was as close as the Lions came to a true scoring chance in the opening half.
The Lions should have gotten a scoring chance in the 35th minute when Ojeda picked off a wayward Chicago pass. The Designated Player had space to shoot at the top of the area, but he tried to thread a ball through traffic and turned it over instead. That was the Lions’ final chance to make Fire goalkeeper Chris Brady do anything in the opening half.
Cuypers started to make a nuisance of himself a minute later, darting behind the defense to get in on goal. Gallese came out and made himself big, blocking the attempt out for a corner.
Gallese parried the entry ball on the corner kick but didn’t make good contact. He was, however, able to scoop it up after it deflected off a body off to the side of the net.
In the 39th minute, Cuypers again split the center backs, getting to a ball over the top behind the back line. Jansson was able to catch up and bother the Chicago striker enough so that his attempt was off target.
The Lions survived quick transition moments after giveaways by Atuesta and Angulo in the defensive third as the half wound down. Orlando finally won a free kick from long range late. Atuesta served it to the top of the box and it came off a head in the middle. That head was judged to be Schlegel’s, although it was difficult to tell. The ball went nowhere near goal.
Orlando City was fortunate to make it to halftime without conceding, given almost all of the first 45 minutes were played in the Lions’ end of the field. Chicago finished the half with more possession (53.5%-46.5%), shots (9-0), shots on goal (1-0), and corners (2-1). The Lions passed slightly more accurately (83.8%-83.1%) but struggled to connect on anything once they reached the halfway line.
Chicago wasted no time breaking the scoreless deadlock after the half as absolutely nothing changed on the field for Orlando City. The Fire came straight down the field to start the half and Gutierrez saw his shot blocked in the 46th minute. Two minutes later, Gutierrez put Chicago on top. Angulo was unable to deny a cross in from the right and Jansson, who appeared to be perfectly positioned to deal with it, slipped and fell. The ball got through as a result and the midfielder stuck it inside the post to make it 1-0.
“it was super soft,” Jansson said of the SeatGeek Stadium turf. “I was unlucky. I slipped. I had studs, but, yeah, couldn’t even help with studs. So, I don’t know what I should put on my cleats. I feel like those are the type of goals that we have conceded, which is too easy, and we have to work so hard to even create and score goals. Just frustrating.”
The Fire broke in the 51st minute and Gutierrez hit the post. The bigger problem for Orlando at the time was that Jansson slipped and came up injured on the play. For the rest of the match, the captain was unable to run at full speed, could hardly jump, and even visibly winced after sending a long ball up the field with his left leg. Despite being obviously injured, he stayed on the pitch and was a liability in transition — a problem, given the Lions were trailing the game.
Three minutes later, Gallese made a stop on a try from Jonathan Bamba to keep it a one-goal game.
Angulo got credit for a shot from a tight angle on the left in the 55th minute, but it appeared to be a cross that was simply too close to Brady.
A disastrous sequence doubled Chicago’s lead in the 57th minute. Araujo did well to get in between Chicago players on an attack and had control of the ball. Facing goal and only a few yards from his goalkeeper, Araujo passed slowly back to Gallese rather than simply clearing the danger out for a throw or sending it behind for a corner. Cuypers continued his run and although Gallese tried to fire it out wide to his left, Cuypers got a foot in front and deflected it into the net to make it 2-0.
Orlando finally got a legitimate look at goal in the 60th minute. A ball deflected out to Pasalic at the top of the area and the Croatian took his shot on the volley. He got decent contact, but didn’t hit it as true as he would have liked. His effort was on target but bounced perfectly up for Brady to knock wide. Two minutes later, McGuire got his head to a floating cross but couldn’t get much power on it and Brady got over to catch it.
Cuypers tried to make it 3-0 in the 64th minute, trying to hit a shot with his first touch from the left side, but he missed the target badly. Bamba got in behind down the left, running onto a perfect curling long ball as Schlegel got caught up the pitch, which was a problem throughout the second half. Jansson struggled to keep up after aggravating his knee injury but did well to at least force Bamba to stay left of goal. Gallese made a huge save to deny Bamba, but Gutierrez picked up the rebound on the other side, sending his shot off the post in the 66th minute.
“We were asking (Jansson) about his pain in the knee. Many times he expressed that he could persist and play normally,” Pareja said. “But I think two of those three goals in the second half, it was the result of somebody’s sliding or something.
Two minutes later, Orlando’s deficit grew. Chicago broke in transition yet again, and Brekalo was playing much more narrowly than usual, possibly because Orlando was trying to go to a three-man back line or because he was trying to compensate for Jansson’s lack of mobility. Either way, it left room for Philip Zinckernagel to send him down the right. The Designated Player fired home to make it 3-0. If the match hadn’t already been put to bed, the third goal hammered the final nail into the coffin.
Luis Muriel came on for Pasalic after the goal and Orlando immediately turned the ball over on the restart and Schlegel conceded a free kick on the counterattack. The free kick turned into a corner that Orlando dealt with. However, Bamba got a good opportunity moments later, only to be denied by Gallese.
Down three goals, Orlando continued to turn the ball over and concede set pieces, but the Lions were at least able to handle those. Gallese made a good save on Zinckernagel in the 77th minute and Brekalo blocked a Gutierrez shot two minutes later with an empty net behind him as the Lions kept handing Chicago transition opportunities.
Ojeda hit the outside of the post in the 81st minute looking to get Orlando on the board, although by that time it was probably too late.
Brekalo blocked another Zinckernagel effort in the 83rd minute to keep the score from getting worse. Rominigue Kouamé then missed the net moments later.
Spicer spoiled the shutout in the 89th minute. The second-half sub got down the left side alone on Brady on a great through ball from fellow substitute Adrian Marin and blasted a cannon shot over the goalkeeper’s right shoulder and in to make it 3-1. It was Marin’s first assist for Orlando City.
After one more save from Gallese on Kouamé, the match — and Orlando City’s season — was over.
Chicago finished with the advantage in possession (52.4%-47.6%), shots (25-7), and shots on target (9-4). Each team won three corners and Orlando City passed slightly more accurately (85.2%-84.2%), but most of the passes from both teams took place in Orlando’s half of the field.
“The first thing that comes to mind is it’s not good enough. It’s a sad moment,” Jansson said. “I felt that we came out with at least the energy in the beginning, the first half of the first half. I think we had the energy there. We tried, but we didn’t really manage to get the ball up there to create something, and then we started to lose a little bit of that energy I felt like halfway through the first half. And then, yeah, the second half was not good enough.”
“I thought we could have been better,” Pareja said. “I still want to show our gratitude to our fans and the people who have supported us during all this period, and today we just feel pain not to advance in the next stage.”
That’s the 2025 Orlando City season. It started with a lot of promise but seemed to be completely derailed by a run in Leagues Cup that was much deeper than the roster turned out to be. The Lions were never the same team after the midseason competition.