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 Wednesday night wild card matchup between Orlando City (14-9-11, 53 points) and the Chicago Fire (15-11-8, 53 points) at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL (8:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, Apple TV). This is the third meeting of the season between the two Eastern Conference clubs and the first time they’ve met in the postseason.

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

History

The Lions are 8-6-8 in 22 MLS meetings with the Fire and 8-7-8 in all competitions. Orlando City is 3-3-5 against the Fire on the road in the regular season and 3-4-5 away to Chicago in all competitions. During the regular season, Chicago got the better of Orlando City, going 1-0-1 and taking four of a possible six points. The clubs drew in the match held in Chicago.

The most recent meeting took place in Orlando on May 31, with Chicago winning 3-1 at Inter&Co Stadium. Orlando did not cover itself in glory, with Pedro Gallese allowing Philip Zinckernagel’s shot to slip right between his hands and in for the first goal. Hugo Cuypers scored a brace just a minute apart with Rodrigo Schlegel a mere passenger for both goals as Chicago built a 3-0 lead in the first half. Alex Freeman scored a consolation goal for the Lions. Assistant Coach Diego Torres skippered the Lions that night in place of the suspended Oscar Pareja.

The first meeting of the season came back on May 3. Despite Fire goalkeeper Chris Brady getting sent off before halftime for fouling Duncan McGuire and denying him a goal-scoring opportunity, the teams played to a 0-0 draw, as Orlando City simply couldn’t find any precision in front of goal.

These two teams last met in Orlando on June 22, 2024, 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 Schlegel handball in the box) and 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 an awful 4-2 loss at Toronto FC on Saturday in a match that looked a lot like the 3-1 loss to Chicago in May 31 — sloppy defending and goalkeeping that was less than stellar and a dominating advantage in shots with a lack of lethality in front of goal. Orlando is on a four-game winless streak (0-2-2) and has lost its last two matches. The Lions have also gone winless in four straight road MLS matches (0-2-2) and are 0-4-3 in their last seven away matches in all competitions. In other words, Orlando City is not in the midst of a run of good form. That form is unlikely to improve if Robin Jansson (knee) continues to be unavailable, which seems likely, although he’s officially listed as questionable. The Lions are 6-4-7 on the road this season, so they are no stranger to grinding out results away from home.

Chicago was able to host this match by getting a last-gasp 2-2 draw at New England on Decision Day. By getting one point — coupled with the Crew’s win — Chicago held the eighth spot, tying Orlando at 53 points and holding the wins tiebreaker. The Fire enter the postseason in much better form than Orlando, having gone unbeaten in five games (3-0-2). Chicago is just 6-5-6 at home in 2025, which isn’t a typical home record for a playoff team. The Fire have gotten results in their last two home matches, however (1-0-1).

Beating Chicago means trying to contain a dynamic offense led by Cuypers, Zinckernagel, Jonathan Bamba, and Brian Gutierrez. Cuypers has enjoyed scoring goals against Orlando in the past and finished the regular season with 17 goals and three assists. Zinckernagel set the pace with the club’s most overall goal contributions, notching 30 and splitting them evenly with 15 goals and 15 assists. Bamba chipped in five goals and 10 assists, while Gutierrez scored nine goals and added six assists. Orlando City will need to figure out how to tighten down a defense that has used multiple personnel groups in recent weeks and hasn’t kept a clean sheet in months.

“The playoffs have already started for us,” Pareja said ahead of the match. “We have been prepared for this. Obviously, the players recognize how hard this year has been and have worked hard to put this team into this stage of the playoffs. Now we have to go into this one game, and it’s probably one more game than we wanted, but we’re good. The boys know about our responsibility to go to Chicago and try to advance to the next phase.”

The Lions will be without Gustavo Caraballo (international duty), Shak Mohammed (thigh), Tahir Reid-Brown (thigh), Joran Gerbet (knee), Wilder Cartagena (Achilles), and Yutaro Tsukada (knee), while Jansson is listed as questionable. Chicago will be without Leonardo Barroso (lower body), Andre Franco (lower body), and Viktor Radojevic (lower body). Additionally, Chris Mueller continues to be away from the team for non-injury reasons.

Match Content

• The most recent epsiode of the PawedCast includes our key matchups and score predictions for tonight’s match.

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Official Lineups

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

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

Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Cesar Araujo, Eduard Atuesta, Marco Pasalic.

Forwards: Martin Ojeda, Duncan McGuire.

Bench: Javier Otero, Adrian Marin, Zakaria Taifi, Kyle Smith, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, Colin Guske, Nico Rodriguez, Tyrese Spicer, Luis Muriel.

Chicago Fire (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Chris Brady.

Defenders: Andrew Gutman, Joel Waterman, Jack Elliott, Jonathan Dean.

Midfielders: Brian Gutierrez, Dje D’Avila, Sergio Oregel.

Forwards: Jonathan Bamba, Hugo Cuypers, Philip Zinckernagel.

Bench: Jeffrey Gal, Samuel Rogers, Omar Gonzalez, Kellyn Acosta, Romanigue Kouame, Mauricio Pineda, Justin Reynolds, Maren Haile-Selassie, Tom Barlow.

Referees

REF: Drew Fischer.
AR1: Ryan Graves.
AR2: Walt Heatherly.
4TH: Rosendo Mendoza.
VAR: Timothy Ford.
AVAR: Tom Supple.

How to Watch

Match Time: 8:30 p.m.

Venue: SeatGeek Stadium — Bridgeview, IL.

TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 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.

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Enjoy the game. Go City!