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 midweek matchup between Orlando City (12-13-6, 42 points) and the Chicago Fire (15-10-6, 51 points) at Soldier Field (8:30 p.m., Apple TV). This is the second of the two meetings this season between the two Eastern Conference clubs.

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

History

The Lions are 8-7-8 in 23 MLS regular-season meetings with the Fire and 8-9-8 in all competitions. Orlando City is 3-3-5 against the Fire on the road in the regular season and 3-5-5 away vs. Chicago in all competitions. The Lions are 0-3-1 in the last four meetings in all competitions.

The teams last met on Aug. 19 with the Fire winning 2-1 in Orlando. Severe weather delayed the start for about 90 minutes, and when things got going, Puso Dithejane put the visitors on top inside the first five minutes. A David Bekalo goal tied things up early in the second half, but Robin Jansson’s silly challenge in the box gave Robert Lewandowski the chance Chicago needed to put his team ahead from the spot, which he did.

These teams met in the wild card matchup to start the 2025 Eastern Conference playoffs last season. The Fire ended Orlando’s season with a 3-1 win, blowing open a game that was scoreless at the break. Brian Gutierrez struck early in the second half and Hugo Cuypers added a brace. Tyrese Spicer spoiled the playoff shutout.

The last regular-season meeting of 2025 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. Cuypers scored a brace with the two goals coming just a minute apart 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 last season took place 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 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 Rodrigo Schlegel handball in the box) and a goal by Cuypers.

The two sides clashed at Soldier Field on May 29, playing to a 1-1 draw. Torres opened the scoring early, 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 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 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. 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 and Orlando meet, in case it wasn’t clear from the preceding paragraphs.) 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.

In the last meeting of 2019, the Fire won on the road. It was a debacle for the Lions, who lost 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, 1-1 in Orlando and 2-2 in Chicago.

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 disappointing 2-2 home draw against New York City FC on Saturday. Orlando City was seconds from an important win when Jonathan Shore’s shot through traffic from the top of the area found its way through all the legs and just inside the left post. The Lions have gone 2-0-2 in their last four, however, even though they haven’t won a road match since Sept. 9 at Atlanta. The Lions are 3-9-3 away from home this season. On the bright side, Antoine Griezmann has scored in four consecutive games and Martin Ojeda has found the net in each of the last three. Defense continues to be an issue, and the team’s biggest problem on the road, as Orlando City has conceded 21 goals in its last seven away matches against MLS competition (six MLS games and a U.S. Open Cup semifinal at Philadelphia). That’s three goals per game on average in that span, and that’s bad.

The Chicago Fire are one of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference and have clinched a playoff spot already. They can still improve or move down in the standings, so there will be no letup from tonight’s hosts, who are 9-5-1 at home this season. Chicago is coming off a 3-2 win Saturday at Atlanta United. That win snapped a two-game skid as the Fire had dropped tight games to New England and Philadelphia.

Beating Chicago means trying to contain a dynamic offense led by Lewandowski, Zinckernagel, Maren Haile-Selassie, Dithejane, Jonathan Bamba, and others. But this isni’t strictly an attacking team, as the Fire have also conceded the fourth-fewest goals in the conference.

To get a result tonight, Orlando City will have to continue finding the net and get at least a semi-competent defensive effort in front of goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau, who has almost singlehandedly kept his team in contention for points with vital saves since the restart after the World Cup break.

The Lions will be without Eduard Atuesta (suspension), Jansson (foot), Griffin Dorsey (back), and Spicer (foot). Chicago will be without André Franco (lower body), Mbekezeli Mbokazi (suspension), Dje D’Avila (suspension), Robin Lod (lower body), and Sam Rogers (lower body).

Match Content

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

Projected Lineups

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Maxime Crepeau.

Defenders: Vinicius Nogueira, Iago, David Brekalo, Ivan Angulo.

Midfielders: Joran Gerbet, Luis Otavio, Wilder Cartagena, Justin Ellis.

Forwards: Martin Ojeda, Antoine Griezmann.

Chicago Fire (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Chris Brady.

Defenders: Andrew Gutman, Jack Elliott, Andreas Hanche-Olsen, Jonathan Dean.

Midfielders: David Poreba, Maren Haile-Selassie, Anton Saletros.

Forwards: Jonathan Bamba, Robert Lewandowski, Philip Zinckernagel.

Referees

Ref: Marcos DeOliveira.
AR1: Nick Uranga.
AR2: Jose Da Silva.
4th: Lukasz Szpala.
VAR: Timothy Ford.
AVAR: Craig Lowry.

How to Watch

Match Time: 8:30 p.m.

Venue: Soldier Field — Chicago.

TV/Streaming: Apple TV.

Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish), Nossa Rádio 1160 AM-WRLZ (Portuguese).

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!