The Chicago Fire will try to rebound from a historically lopsided defeat on Saturday night when they host an Orlando City SC side coming off a decisive victory against their archrival.
Chicago (3-4-3, 12 points) sank to a 7-2 defeat at Nashville SC last weekend, marking the most goals the Fire have ever conceded and the most Nashville had ever scored.
It was only the 13th time an MLS team has allowed seven goals in one match in league history. Chicago actually trailed 7-0 before late consolation tallies from Philip Zinckernagel and Hugo Cuypers.
“The way I’m looking at this is we’re going to learn a lot about ourselves this week,” Fire coach Gregg Berhalter said afterward. “And part of it is going to be processing through the game, not just flushing it away. And taking accountability for it as coaches, as players, and plotting how we move forward.”
The Fire are now winless in their last five matches (0-3-2) and have yet to earn a victory in four games (0-1-3) in front of their home supporters. Chicago is tied with D.C. United for most goals allowed in the league this season with 22.
Cuypers’ seventh goal tied him for the league lead.
In Orlando City (4-2-4, 16 points), Chicago will be facing a team that finally found some attacking verve in a 3-0 home victory over Atlanta United last Saturday.
Luis Muriel’s 42nd-minute penalty kick halted a scoreless run of 312 minutes for the Lions, after Orlando City originally burst out of the gate by scoring 15 times in their first six games.
Marco Pasalic added his team-leading fifth goal of the season later on against Atlanta, pushing him ahead of Muriel and Martin Ojeda (four apiece).
Orlando was finally able to offer an attacking threat while also maintaining defensive shape. The Lions kept a fourth consecutive clean sheet.
For head coach Oscar Pareja, the continuing objective is pretty simple.
“First, maintain that balance that we have been searching for or trying to achieve with the team,” he said. “And it seems like we found it against Atlanta, which is, keep the solidness in the defensive phase and get back to scoring more, especially with the guys that have more influence with our team up front.”
–Field Level Media
