Chicago Fire 2 -Orlando City SC 1
ORLANDO, FL–Last year in Orlando, the question was, “How did the Fire not win against nine-man Orlando?”. This year, the question is, “How did the Fire win that one in Orlando?”.
Despite missing a host of players, subbing Nemanja Nikolic at halftime, starting a goalkeeper who had not started since October 2016, and going down to ten men late, the Fire pulled off a stunning 2-1 victory over Orlando City. The Fire win for the first time ever in Orlando and move within four points of the red line with New England drawing in Vancouver. Orlando drops their third successive 2-1 decision.
Both teams were missing key players such as Dom Dwyer for the Lions and Dax McCarty for the Fire. Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic made four changes to the lineup from last week against Houston, perhaps with an eye towards a Wednesday night match at Philadelphia. One of those changes was Patrick McLain in net for his first start in over 20 months.
All he did was stand on his head and made four saves on the evening where the Fire defense was stretched many times and were saved by Orlando’s wasteful finishing if not for McLain.
The Fire took the lead in the 13th minute on a wonder free kick by Aleksandar Katai for his third of the season. Orlando equalized in the 29th minute when Chris Mueller found an unmarked Cristian Higuita to beat McLain far post.
Orlando peppered the Fire net in the second half, but were unable to break through. For most of the second half, it was all-out defend, especially when Nemanja Nikolic subbed out at halftime for precautionary reasons in favor of Alan Gordon.
On a rare Fire counter, it was Gordon who scored from 30 yards out past Joe Bendik in the 82nd minute for the eventual match-winner.
The Fire then had to survive more Orlando pressure and were down to 10 men when Mo Adams was sent off after a confrontation with Sacha Kljestan. Orlando head coach Jason Kreis was livid that a penalty was not awarded on the play as it was thought that Adams’s retaliation occurred in the penalty area during play which would result in a spot kick.
Kljestan did earn a yellow card in the dustup and it was judged, either by the referee and/or VAR that he committed the initial foul and a free kick was awarded to the Fire even though Adams was shown his card first.
The Fire held on after that and leave Orlando with three points after arguable the gutsiest performance of the season.
The Fire head to Philadelphia on Wednesday night at 6:30pm CT on ESPN+. The Lions travel to NYCFC next Saturday.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Aleksandar Katai (unassisted) 13
ORL-Cristian Higuita (Mueller) 29
CHI-Alan Gordon (Schweinsteiger) 82
BOOKING SUMMARY:
ORL-Mohammed El-Munir (caution, tactical foul) 11
ORL-Chris Schuler (cautoin, reckless tackle) 40
CHI-Kevin Ellis (caution, reckless tackle) 45+1
ORL-Oriol Rosell (caution, tactical foul) 64
ORL-Chris Mueller (caution, dissent) 70
CHI-Mo Adams (sent off, violent conduct) 89
ORL-Sacha Kljestian (caution, unsporting behavior) 90
CHI-Johan Kappelhof (caution, time wasting) 90+6
ORLANDO CITY SC (4-2-3-1): #1-Joe Bendik; #27-RJ Allen, #28-Chris Schuler, #8-Tony Rocha, #13-Mohamed El-Munir; #20-Oriol Rosell, #7-Cristian Higuita (#6-Richie Laryea 84); #17-Chris Mueller (#29-Stefano Pinho 75), #16-Sacha Kljestan, #9-Justin Meram; #10-Josue Colman (#94-PC 82)
Subs not used: #36-Earl Edwards Jr., #99-Adam Grinwis, #25-Donny Toia, #5-Dillon Powers
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #32-Patrick McLain; #5-Kevin Ellis, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #16-Jonathan Campbell, #25-Jorge Corrales; #19-Mo Adams, #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger; #17-Diego Campos (#15-Grant Lillard 84), #20-Daniel Johnson (#13-Brandt Bronico 74), #10-Aleksandar Katai; #23-Nemanja Nikolic (#21-Alan Gordon 46)
Subs not used: #45-Richard Sanchez, #3-Brandon Vincent, #18-Drew Conner, #12-Tony Tchani
TOTAL SHOTS: ORL 20-10 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: ORL 5-4 CHI
FOULS: ORL 14-14 CHI
OFFSIDES: ORL 2-0 CHI
CORNER KICKS: ORL 8-3 CHI
SAVES: ORL 2-4 CHI
Referee: Nima Saghafi
Referee’s Assistants: Peter Manilkowski, Jose Da Silva
4th Official: Marcos De Oliveira
VAR: Kevin Terry Jr.
Weather: Light Rain and 77º
Attendance: 25,288
Man of the Match: Patrick McLain (CHI)
Chicago Fire
