After a heart-breaking, last-minute defeat to Inter Miami in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday night, the Chicago Fire will try to bounce back as they head to the destination of their last road win, Exploria Stadium, to take on Orlando City SC.
Here’s what to look out for on Saturday night as the Fire head up the Florida Turnpike…
A LITTLE BANGED UP
Orlando have been missing some big pieces for the last few weeks (or longer), and these names are expected to be missing against the Fire again on Saturday night…
- GK Pedro Gallese
- M Sebas Méndez
- F Alexandre Pato
- M Uri Rosell
You could even add a couple more names to this list – playes like like F Daryl Dike, M Andrés Perea and F Nani - who didn’t travel to Orlando’s 1-1 draw against Nashville Wednesday night.
Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see the full injury report, but Oscar Pareja’s group have been missing some key pieces/starters over the past several games.
LAST TIME OUT
These two sides last met on July 7 at Soldier Field when the Fire came from behind and beat the Lions by a score of 3-1. Andrés Perea got the scoring started in the 34th minute, but Boris Sekulić responded 10 minutes later with a beautiful header off an assist from Álvaro Medrán. The Fire then got goals from Robert Berić and Chinonso Offor to secure the come-from-behind win at home.
Orlando had a ton of rotation in their lineup and didn’t bring on the likes of Chris Mueller, Nani, Mauricio Pereyra and Méndez until late in the second half, but the Fire did enough to get the result, which - at the time - was a second straight win. This is to say nothing of the fact that Dike, Gallese and Antonio Carlos all did not play on the night due to injury or international duty.
Those substitutes, that are typically starters, made a big impact and put the Fire under pressure. A few big saves from Bobby Shuttleworth and some emergency defending secured the three points for the Fire on a bit of a sloppy night at Soldier Field.
I expect this game to be much different at its core from a personnel standpoint, and on top of that, Exploria is one of the tougher places to play in the Eastern Conference.
FORM
As mentioned, the Lions battled to a 1-1 draw in Nashville on Wednesday night. Nashville jumped all over Orlando from the opening whistle and probably should’ve scored more than just the one goal in the first half, which came courtesy of CJ Sapong’s eighth of the season.
Orlando didn’t create too much until their equalizer, which came from centerback Antonio Carlos off a curled-in set piece from Pereyra. Orlando started to settle in after that equalizer, and were a bit more dangerous as they struck woodwork by way of Tesho Akindele.
At the end of the day, given the missing pieces for Orlando and their performance up until the 60th minute, it was a good point against a strong Nashville side.
The Lions haven’t been world beaters recently, having dropped some points in a 1-1 draw to Miami, a 1-0 loss to Santos Laguna in Leagues Cup and a 1-1 draw at TQL Stadium against FC Cincinnati.
Orlando will be in their traditional 4-2-3-1 and rely on the midfield play of Pereyra as the No. 10 and Junior Urso as an 8.
Antonio Carlos and Robin Jansson are tough, physical centerbacks and the leftback João Moutinho loves to get forward, combine, and whips in a great ball.
If Nani plays, you can only hope to contain him. Not much more you can say about the former Manchester United and Portuguese great.
The Fire will need a near-complete performance to earn a result on the road in a place like Exploria.
Make sure you tune in to WGN at 6:30 CT for a CFFC Midseason Special that will feature profiles on Luka Stojanović and Mauricio Pineda, interviews, and oh so much more. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. CT on WGN and CFFC Live.
