Connect with us

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Final Score 3-1 as Lions Lose Second Straight Game

Lions were wasteful in front of goal and two defensive lapses and a late transition goal undo what could have been a solid road performance.

Published

4 years ago

on

Orlando City scored first but conceded once in first-half stoppage time and twice in the second half to fall 3-1 at Soldier Field. The Lions (6-3-3, 21 points) will rue missing on the scoring chances they created, which should have been sufficient to build a good lead on the road, but instead they’ll come home with no points as Chicago (3-7-2, 11 points) won consecutive matches for the first time this season.

Andres Perea opened the scoring to put the Lions on the front foot, but poor marking let Boris Sekulic tie it at the death of the first half. A bad defensive lapse allowed Robert Beric to put Chicago ahead in the second half, and Chinonso Offor scored an insurance tally late in stoppage time.

“Sad at the result, but happy to see all the good things that the boys did in the game,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the game. “I have to say that the boys fought for the game all the time and we couldn’t just put the ball in the back of the net today.”

Pareja rotated his lineup heavily in the midfield and forward lines but couldn’t do much at the back. Brandon Austin started again in place of Pedro Gallese behind a back line of the only four healthy defenders on the team: Kyle Smith, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Michael Halliday. Uri Rosell got his first start in central midfield, alongside Junior Urso, with Perea and Silvester van der Water shuttling the ball forward into the attack, featuring Tesho Akindele and Benji Michel up top.

The first good look of the match went to Chicago out of nowhere. Przemyslaw Frankowski got his head onto a long ball in the box and headed just over the bar and onto the roof of the net in the fifth minute.

The Lions got their first shot on a Michel header off a free kick service from van der Water, but his effort was hit weakly into the turf in front of Bobby Shuttleworth for an easy save. In the 17th minute, Urso headed on goal off a corner kick but Shuttleworth fought it off. Michel followed and saw his shot cleared off the line. Perea sent van der Water into the area in the 21st minute but the Dutchman hit his right-footed effort at Shuttleworth.

The Lions did a good job deflecting Chicago shots, including a potentially dangerous one by Beric in the 28th minute.

Orlando got forward off a cleared corner kick in the 30th minute and Michel ended up with the ball, making a nice move around a defender, but another deflected his shot out for a corner. On the ensuing set piece, Schlegel nodded it weakly at Shuttleworth.

The breakthrough came in the 34th minute when Halliday got down the right flank and sent a cross into the area. A defender got a touch on it but couldn’t prevent it from reaching Perea, who smashed it up under the bar for his first MLS goal to make it 1-0.

“I’m really happy for my first goal with Orlando City,” Perea said, but added that the result kind of took the shine off of it. “Everybody’s sad because we had the chances to score in the first half, and maybe in the beginning of the second half.”

Most of the remainder of the half was played in the middle of the pitch until Chicago earned a couple of late corners. Orlando dealt with them but then switched off at the worst possible moment.

At the death of the first half, Smith strayed too far from Sekulic and Alvaro Medran made him pay for it. Urso was a step slow in closing down Chicago’s playmaker, who sent an inch-perfect cross over Smith that Sekulic nodded back across goal over Austin and in to tie the match in stoppage time. It was essentially the last action of the half and the teams went to the locker room even at 1-1.

“It was tough to struggle for sure, because you have the game in control at that point and the half was about to end,” Pareja said about the late first-half goal. “And the lack of concentration that we had in that moment cost us the equalizer. So we just come into the half with that frustration. Obviously it was difficult. We have to be better.”

Orlando out-shot Chicago 8-7 in the first half (6-1 on target). Chicago led in corners (5-2), possession (52.4%-47.6%), and passing accuracy (79.5%-73.8%).

Michel should have restored the Orlando lead in the 47th minute. A nice passing play led to van der Water finding him on the left. Benji was alone against the goalkeeper but fired his shot right at Shuttleworth.

Chicago nearly took the lead in the 55th minute when Halliday blocked a pass but it bounced right back to a Fire player who then fed it across the goal for Beric to finish, but the flag was rightfully up. The Chicago striker was a step offside.

Van der Water got his head to a backside cross in the 58th and headed it softly back across goal where it bounced twice in lots of space before Chicago recovered it. No Lions were crashing that side of the goal and the Dutchman was visibly upset when he saw that. Three minutes later, van der Water got to the end line first and kicked a high ball back into the area. Akindele got to it but headed it right at the goalkeeper on another wasted chance.

Michel freed himself for a shot in the 63rd minute and looked as if he’d finally score, but his shot hit the heel of a lunging Fire defender and deflected just over the bar. The Orlando Homegrown showed his frustration after the shot went harmlessly out of play.

At this point in the game, van der Water and Rosell especially looked winded and in need of a sub, but Pareja held his changes. That turned out to be costly.

Beric fired over the bar in the 71st after two Lion defenders prevented each other from clearing a corner kick delivery. The Fire forward got his goal a minute later, though. Medran fed a simple ball straight up the middle that hit him in stride. Smith kept Beric onside on the run and Jansson couldn’t get a foot on the ball to redirect the pass. Beric finished past Austin and gave Chicago a 2-1 lead in the 72nd minute.

Pareja brought on Nani, Mauricio Pereyra, and Sebas Mendez in the 76th minute, but at that point the Lions were chasing the game. Pareja waited three additional minutes to send Chris Mueller — the team’s hottest player entering the match — into the game.

Urso went for the spectacular in the 86th and damn near got it. The Bear went up and smashed a bicycle kick on target but Shuttleworth was there to make the save. Two minutes later, Mueller sent a dangerous cross through the six-yard box but none of the three Lions crashing could give it the touch it needed to get in.

Smith had a good look in the 94th minute but his shot sailed over the bar. Two minutes later, the Fire put it away. Smith’s cross into the box was too low and easily cut out and the Fire countered. Mendez was unable to commit the necessary professional foul to prevent the break, and the hosts headed down field with numbers in behind the Orlando defense, which was pushed up to chase the tying goal. Offor finished the play and made it 3-1.

“You know, I think we had a lot of opportunities and then just maybe lost focus a couple times in the back,” Smith said. “And at the end of the game we were pushing forward. They got another goal, a little disappointed. But yeah, we just have to move on to the next game and get a good week of training in and get back on the winning streak.”

Orlando City finished with more shots (19-13), more shots on goal (9-4), more possession (53.1%-46.9%), and greater passing accuracy (79.1%-79%). Chicago held a slight edge in corners won (9-8).

“We have to keep going because there’s more than 20 games left,” Pareja said. “Our objectives (don’t) change and our vision and desire is going to be the same.”

“It’s a game that, it’s just gonna make us better,” Perea said. “We’re gonna keep our feet on the ground, keep developing the team, (and) keep learning from this.”

The Lions now get a bit of time to rest and heal up with the next game set for July 17 against Toronto. At this point in time, that’s another “road match” at Exploria Stadium.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Opinion

Orlando City’s Start to the Season a Pleasant Surprise So Far

The Lions have started the new season well enough, but we shouldn’t get too carried away just yet.

Published

9 hours ago

on

April 18, 2025

By

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

While Orlando City didn’t have a ton of roster turnover to deal with during the off-season, it was really anybody’s guess as to what sort of start the Lions would make to the 2025 Major League Soccer season. There was obviously the loss of all-time leading goal scorer Facundo Torres to deal with, then Wilder Cartagena was lost for the year in preseason, although the club did a great job in landing Eduard Atuesta to replace him. There were also questions about depth at left back, center back, and central midfield. It was anyone’s guess on how Marco Pasalic would adjust to life in MLS, and there were serious questions about whether the Lions had enough firepower up front with Duncan McGuire unavailable to start the season while he recovered from shoulder surgery.

While the club returned the vast majority of the guys who played key roles in helping reach the Eastern Conference final, on paper, the roster didn’t improve and arguably got weaker, so was it truly realistic to expect the team to go a step farther and make the final this year?

Despite all of those concerns, and despite a confidence-shaking 4-2 opening game loss to the Philadelphia Union, Orlando has largely made a good start to the campaign. The Lions have compiled a respectable 3-2-3 record and have 12 points to show for it, currently sitting in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, six points behind the first-place Columbus Crew.

Even in the two losses, it’s hard to make the argument that OCSC played truly bad games on the whole. Rather, the Lions were undone by moments of bad defending and losses of concentration that led to silly mistakes, particularly against the Union. The shaky defending has certainly been one of the bigger concerns, especially on an Oscar Pareja-coached team, but things have begun to look better after keeping two straight clean sheets.

Ironically, even though the offense seemed to be most people’s biggest concern before the season started, it’s been the part of the team that has consistently functioned at the highest level. Before the two 0-0 draws, Orlando had scored the most goals in the league, and despite being held scoreless twice in a row, they still have the third-most goals scored. Out of OCSC’s six games played with a first choice XI, the Lions have scored more than one goal four times. Even in the games when they haven’t been as prolific, or have largely been on the back foot, the Lions have still managed to carve out a healthy number of chances. While their finishing has let them down at times, they’ve still managed to get several good looks at goal in every game, and that’s half the battle.

All in all, it’s been a perfectly respectable start to the season, and the team honestly has performed higher than my (probably slightly pessimistic) expectations. While the start hasn’t been white hot, it’s been nice to not see the sort of slow start that so often has seemed to plague this club during Pareja’s tenure at the helm.

That being said, I think it’s important to place the beginning of the year in the proper context. It’s worth noting that of the teams that Orlando has played to this point, Philadelphia is the only one currently above the playoff line (although the New York Red Bulls occupy the last play-in spot). The Lions have beaten an LA Galaxy team that is the worst in the West; Toronto FC, which is second from the bottom in the East; and D.C. United, which is third from the bottom in the East. They drew the fifth-place Union on the road, and lost to NYCFC at the baseball stadium. But it has to be said that Orlando has faced a noticeable lack of top shelf opponents so far.

Essentially, Orlando has played three bad teams, two decent ones, and one that started very well but has cooled off in recent weeks (twice). Of course, OCSC can’t do anything about that, but it’s worth asking if the solid start to the season is due to the Lions legitimately being a good team, or if it’s more of a paper tiger situation where they just haven’t had to play many tough opponents yet.

There isn’t really any way of knowing for sure, and there won’t be any hints for awhile. With the way the standings currently look, Orlando won’t face a team above the playoff line until they go up against Charlotte FC on the road on May 14. I don’t bring all of this up to try to dampen the mood, but I just don’t think we have a truly accurate idea of this team’s level yet. Which is fair and totally fine, after all we’re only eight games into the season.

That doesn’t mean that we can’t give OCSC its due for a solid start to the year. It hasn’t been perfect by any means, but the team has done more good than bad, and the Lions’ current place in the standings reflects that. We should still keep things in perspective and resist the urge to dole out too much praise just yet, but we can be happy with what we’ve seen so far.

Continue Reading

Lion Links

Lion Links: 4/18/25

Orlando City set to play the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Lions reach Generation Adidas Cup semifinals, Angel City hires Alexander Straus, and more.

Published

13 hours ago

on

April 18, 2025

By

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Happy Friday! I hope today finds you well as we gear up for another Saturday filled with soccer to enjoy. I don’t have many plans this Easter weekend beyond working, catching soccer when I can, and playing Baldur’s Gate 3 for the first time if I find some spare hours. Let’s dive right into today’s links from around the soccer world!

Orlando City Learns U.S. Open Cup Opponents

Orlando City’s 2025 U.S. Open Cup campaign will begin on the road against the Tampa Bay Rowdies on May 7 at 7:30 p.m. in what will be the latest edition of the I-4 Derby. It will be Orlando’s first game of this year’s tournament, while the Rowdies joined in the previous round and got past FC Naples in penalties. The Rowdies have lost four of their five games so far this season in the USL Championship and fired Robbie Neilson as head coach earlier this month. The Lions also notably would have hosting priority if they reach the round of 16, where they will play either Nashville SC or the Chattanooga Red Wolves.

Here’s the full schedule for the round of 32, which includes some interesting matchups across the country. The Tacoma Defiance are the only MLS NEXT Pro side left and will face the Portland Timbers, while the New York Red Bulls will have a long road trip to take on the Colorado Springs Switchbacks.

Lions Advance to Generation Adidas Cup Semifinals

Orlando City’s U-18 team beat Real Salt Lake 1-0 in the Generation Adidas Cup to secure a spot in the semifinals. The Young Lions have won four of their five games of the tournament and will take on Santos Laguna in the semifinal on Saturday. The winner of that match will face whichever team becomes victorious in the other semifinal between Atlanta United and the Colorado Rapids.

The U-16 team’s run in the Premier bracket is also going strong after a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich, and Orlando will take on the New England Revolution in the semifinals on Saturday.

Angel City FC Hires Alexander Straus

Bayern Munich’s Alexander Straus was named Angel City FC’s next head coach and will officially join the club on June 1. The Norwegian coach has won back-to-back Bundesliga titles and has Bayern positioned well to make it three straight this season. He’ll join an Angel City team that’s unbeaten in its first four games of the season under interim head coach Sam Laity, who will stay on as an assistant coach once Straus joins.

Europa League Quarterfinals End In Dramatic Fashion

Old Trafford hosted one of the wildest games in Europa League history, with Manchester United and Lyon battling for a spot in the quarterfinals. United scored twice in the first half, then conceded twice in the second, sending the game to extra time. Lyon took the lead despite being a man down and then the teams traded penalty kicks as the madness continued. Casemiro orchestrated Manchester’s victory in the end, assisting on two late goals within a minute of each other to beat Lyon 5-4 and advance. This United fan pretty much sums up just how much of a rollercoaster this match was.

There was also drama in Italy, as Lazio came back in the second leg to force extra time against Bodo/Glimt. The match went to penalties and Bodo/Glimt goalkeeper Nikitka Haikin denied former New York City FC player Taty Castellanos from the spot to book his team’s place in the semifinals. Although Tottenham was without Son Heung-Min, it got the job done in a 1-0 road win against Eintracht Frankfurt, while Athletic Club beat Rangers 2-0 in Spain to advance as well. In the semifinals, Tottenham will face Bodo/Glimt and Manchester United will take on Athletic Club.

Free Kicks

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend!

Continue Reading

Orlando City

Orlando City at CF Montreal: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Lions need to do to earn all three points on the road against Montreal?

Published

1 day ago

on

April 17, 2025

By

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City heads to the Great White North to take on CF Montreal. The Canadian squad sits in last place in not just the Eastern Conference but also the entire MLS, with only two points from a pair of draws. To say it’s not been a good start to the season is an understatement. Of course, it’s exactly that type of situation that makes it feel like a trap. What does Orlando City need to do to take all three points against CF Montreal?

Designated Goal Scorers

What do you do if you haven’t scored a goal in the last two matches? You play a team that has given up 13 goals in eight matches with a -9 goal differential. Montreal doesn’t have the worst defense in the league — I’m looking at you, D.C. United — but it’s not far off. That presents an opportunity for Orlando City to get back on track when it comes to scoring goals.

Through the first six matches of the season, Orlando City was leading the league in scoring with 15 goals. Over the last two matches, the spigot has dried up. The Lions must seize on this opportunity to create and finish their chances. Much like earlier in the season, I want to see Luis Muriel, Martin Ojeda, and Marco Pasalic lead the way. If anyone can get the first goal, then I’m hopeful the dam will break and the scoring drought will be over.

Keep it Clean

There is some good news of late when it comes to the Orlando City defense. The club has two clean sheets over the last two matches, and that is without Cesar Araujo. There is also some bad news, given Rodrigo Schlegel will be serving his red card suspension this match. That means David Brekalo will move back to center back with Robin Jansson, and Oscar Pareja will have to employ either Rafael Santos or Kyle Smith at left back. Santos has been less than good so far this season.

Montreal has scored a paltry four goals so far in 2025, but two of them have come from striker Prince Owusu. The defense will also need to deal with Caden Clark facilitating in the midfield. I get that this isn’t a prolific attack. Montreal has not looked very good this season and is looking for both its first win and its first points of any sort at home. That means the hosts may be desperate for a result, and desperate is often dangerous. How well the defense does — in particular, how well Santos does if he plays — may determine if Montreal is able to break out of its slump. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

Give the Midfield Time

Before the last match, I was a little worried about the midfield. Having both Araujo and Eduard Atuesta out at the same time seemed to be a concern. Now, after seeing how well Joran Gerbet and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson worked together against the New York Red Bulls, I’m way less worried. If Araujo and Atuesta need a little more time to get fully healthy, then let them. The Franco/Icelandic combo seems to be a potent one.

Of course, if the normal starters are ready, then by all means bring them back, but maybe not until the 60th minute. Perhaps Pareja could even mix and match. One never knows how yellow card suspensions or minor injuries will affect player availability. This is a good match for Gerbet and Thorhallsson to work their magic.

That is what I will be looking for Saturday night. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

Continue Reading

Trending