Chicago Fire FC fell 3-1 against Orlando City SC on Sunday night at Soldier Field in their first MLS action following the Leagues Cup 2023 break.
With the result, Chicago remains above the playoff line in ninth place in the Eastern Conference with 32 points.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair with each side registering two shots on goal and the Fire recording five shots from inside the box. Chicago appeared to pull ahead in the 25th minute when Brian Gutiérrez ran onto a pass from Xherdan Shaqiri behind the Orlando backline and he and Georgios Koutsias raced toward goal. Gutiérrez waited until Orlando goalkeeper Pedro Gallese came off his line to pass the ball right to Koutsias, who sent it into the net. However, Koutsias was determined to be offside on the initial pass upon video review.
Orlando pushed forward as well, with Spencer Richey using every centimeter of his body to reach the top right corner in the 32nd minute to parry a shot from the Orlando offense over the goal.
Both teams started the second half firing on all cylinders. Homegrown defender/midfielder Mauricio Pineda opened the scoring in the 47th minute, slamming home his first goal of the season in his 99th career game. After Pineda had a shot saved by Gallese, the ball was cleared but then sent back up into space by Miguel Navarro. Pineda pounced and fired a shot that went past Gallese and into the net.
Orlando responded with goals in the 51st and 54th minutes from Wilder Cartagena and Iván Angulo, respectively. Koutsias then had a goal called offside in the 60th minute when the referee determined that he handled the ball before taking his shot. Orlando scored a third goal in the 68th when Dagur Thorhallsson was tackled just inside the box. Facundo Torres lined up and scored the ensuing penalty kick.
NEXT MATCH: Chicago will travel to the City of Angels to take on the LA Galaxy on Aug. 26 at Dignity Health Park at 9:30 p.m. CT. The match will be broadcast on Apple TV, transmitted locally on WLS-AM 890 in English and in Spanish on TUDN 1200 AM.
Social: Twitter - @chicagofire, @vamosfire (Hashtags: #CF97 #VamosFire) | Instagram - @chicagofire | Facebook
Notes:
- Chicago was led by acting head coach CJ Brown as head coach Frank Klopas was not in attendance due to testing positive for COVID-19.
- Kei Kamara came onto the match in the 63rd minute, putting him at 412 all-time regular-season appearances. He surpasses Drew Moor and is now alone in fifth place on the all-time regular season appearance list.
- With his fourth assist of the 2023 season, Miguel Navarro tied Xherdan Shaqiri and Maren Haile-Selassie for second most by a Fire player this season. His four assists are also a single season career high.
- Goalkeeper Spencer Richey started in goal for Chicago for the 10th time in 2023 across all competitions, including MLS regular season, U.S. Open Cup and Leagues Cup 2023 matches.
- Ivorian midfielder Ousmane Doumbia made his first MLS regular season start for the Chicago Fire after making his Club debut as a sub against Minnesota United and starting against Club Puebla and Club América in the Club’s three Leagues Cup 2023 matches.
- Defender Rafael Czichos (yellow card accumulation), midfielder Chris Mueller (right upper leg), forward Victor Bezerra (right lower leg), and goalkeeper Chris Brady (right lower leg) were not available for tonight’s match.
Box Score:
Chicago Fire FC 1:3 Orlando City SC
Goals:
CHI - Pineda (1) (M. Navarro, 4) (WATCH) 47’
ORL - Cartagena (1) (Torres, 4) (WATCH) 50’
ORL - Angulo (4) (Araujo, 5) (WATCH) 54’
ORL - Torres (8) (Penalty) (WATCH) 68’
Discipline:
ORL - Schlegel (Yellow Card) 33’
ORL - Torres (Yellow Card) 55’
CHI - Giménez (Yellow Card) 59’
CHI - Doumbia (Yellow Card) 71’
CHI - Shaqiri (Yellow Card) 74’
CHI - Pineda (Yellow Card) 77’
Chicago Fire FC: GK Richey, D Dean, D Pineda, D Terán, D M. Navarro, M Doubia (Torres, 90’), M Giménez (Przybyłko, 79’), M Haile-Selassie (Herbers, 62’), M Shaqiri (capt.), M Gutiérrez, F Koutsias (Kamara, 63’)
Subs not used: GK Gal, D Aceves, D Souquet, D Omsberg, M F. Navarro
Orlando City SC: GK Gallese, D Schlegel, D Jansson, D Santos, M Thorhallson (Smith, 71’), M Angulo (Urso, 79’), M Cartagena, M Araujo, M Pereyra (capt.) (Ojeda, 79’), F Torres (Halliday, 89’), F McGuire (Enrique, 71’)
Subs not used: GK Stajduhar, D Salim, M Martins, F Lynn
Stats Summary: CHI / ORL
Shots: 11 / 10
Shots on Goal: 4 / 5
Saves: 2 / 3
Passing Accuracy: 85.5% / 81.8%
Corners: 3 / 6
Fouls: 16 / 16
Offsides: 4 / 2
Possession: 53% / 47%
Attendance: 18,103
Referee: Lukasz Szpala
Assistant Referees: Adam Wienckowski, Jason White
Fourth Official: Jeremy Scheer
VAR: Daniel Radford
Assistant VAR: Tyler Wyrostek
Chicago Fire FC Quotes
Chicago Fire FC Acting Head Coach C.J. Brown
On Head Coach Frank Klopas' absence and the second half...
"First, before we get started, I'll get to your question. Listen, Frank wanted to be here. You know Frank, he's bouncing off walls right now wishing he could be here and his energy was missed. And we're trying to put a game together for him, because he's been really putting a good effort in building this culture of this Club. And we had great build-up to this week, especially with the Leagues Cup. And at the end of the day, we let ourselves down.
With your question; second half, listen, I think we were pushing it. We tried. We started off the half really well. Obviously, the calls didn't go our way and some of that, but the guys are playing and trying to build in all the phases of the game the way we're asking them to. And we're getting opportunities, we're getting chances, we're not finishing them. And then we have the lack of concentration, the lack of focus and to me, I think, a little bit is a lack of willing to suffer and put your body on the line. Orlando put their body on the line for those goals and it worked for them. So, we now need to figure out how to be that type of team. We can play soccer, we can move the ball to the lines, we can create opportunities and now we need to learn how to suffer and really put our bodies on the line to win games. And I think that's what you saw in the second half."
On the reward of Mauricio Pineda's hard work...
"You know, it's crazy because this group, especially these last few weeks, have been working extremely hard. If anybody were sitting out at our training, you'd think we were coming in this game and we're gonna be flying. I want to say it's been one of the best couple of weeks we've had since I've been here; like, the focus, the mentality, the determination, the drive. And yes, to see Pineda score a goal, that work he's been putting in the last three months, he's been awesome. He's been, he deserves it. He's been running that backline, whether whoever's next to him, and he's controlling it and for him to get a goal and be in that position. I mean, it's just kind of happening for him and I'm very, very happy for him. I know he, right now, doesn't care about scoring goals, he wants to win and he'd rather leave this game with zeros. But I am happy for him. He's putting in a great effort. He's been nothing but a professional for the club."
On Orlando City's qualities in two wins over Chicago...
"Before we played them these last few times, I would probably say they're just a better team; the way they move the ball, their transitions, their movement on the field. But looking at us this game, we shut everything down the way they wanted to play. They like to play through the lines and play into those 10s in between the backline and the midfield line and we shut it down every time. They tried to play over the top and we shut it down. The goals they scored weren't the type of goals that they were looking to play as you go through the week. That's not what they're building on.
But what separates them from a lot of teams in this league is how hard they work. That's a team that plays for 90 plus minutes. They're very savvy on plays when it comes to fouling and not getting fouled. Being around the box. They're savvy in knowing and managing games. And again, I said it, they're a team that puts their body on the line to win games. They will do whatever they can. And I think [Orlando City SC Head Coach] Oscar [Pareja] has them in a good way of just fighting. And that's what this league needs. We have, obviously, some special players on each team. And then, if you have the rest of the guys that are fighters, you're guaranteed to keep yourself in any game. And they showed that today because I don't think they got, they didn't accomplish the way they wanted to play. They accomplished the win, I can give it to them that way, but the way they like to play, I don't feel they accomplished it that way. We shut that part down."
On the opportunity to coach the Club...
"One hundred percent. I think Frank says it, Frank shows it every day. Being back with this Club means everything to me. Actually being on the field, leading the Club, means everything to me. It's obviously a great feeling to do it; it's not a good feeling with the result. But yeah, I will do anything for this Club and I said it when I retired and I've been around. I'm always wanting the best for this Club and I wish that I would have been able to inspire these guys more today because they deserve it and they've been working hard for it. But we let ourselves down and that falls back on me. I'm leading the team today and maybe my energy or something about me wasn't sharp enough to keep them going and I will go back, as any coach does, and reflect on it and figure it out. But yeah, it means a lot to stand in front of the team and lead them. But you've got to lead them when they win and you've got to lead them when they lose and I'm here, so I'll stand in front of it and take the blame."
On how much the team focuses on outside results...
"Obviously, as a staff, we're always looking at other games. But that's not the focus for the players. The players have to take it game by game. We need to focus on ourselves because we're in every game. We create opportunities for every game, we can create opportunities to win games for ourselves. So, we can't get caught up in trying to figure out if this team or that team wins or loses to keep us above the line. We're a team right now that's trying to build a culture of winning mentality, focus, discipline. So, we have to continue just focusing on ourselves and the coaching staff will worry about what other teams are doing. Because if we get caught up hoping another team helps us get into the playoffs, then you don't earn it. We need to earn it and we will.
We will put the effort in every day, we'll keep charging and we'll keep fighting and training. They'll focus on ourselves. We'll let the coaching staff figure it out, what's going on with the other teams. The guys are all watching, obviously, but we need to keep them focused on ourselves because in order for this team to get back where it is, it's the culture and then we got to start building that culture stronger."
Chicago Fire FC Goalkeeper Spencer Richey
On his thoughts on the team having moments of control and then a turn of losing control…
“Yeah, I don't know. It's a little bit of a weird phase that we're in now, never really before, maybe some huge international tournaments aside that we had this month, a five week break in kind of the middle of the season and if there's any team in the league that probably didn't want that it was us given the form that we were in there in the early part of the summer. I think tonight, the first half we showed, well, second half, we were just a little bit flat. And once they scored the second it kind of felt like it was tough for us to get up and going again. But, it's been a resilient team in the last three, four months here. So, I don't think we're looking too much into the results and I will obviously, take a peek, analyze it and then move on to LA.”
On if he thinks this is a short term blip getting back into league play…
“Yeah, I think even you know, as recently as the Minnesota game. I mean, that's not an easy place to play, go down one-zero, equalize, go down two-one, equalize and then find a winner. I think that's more the style of team that we are. I think we've shown that over the last few months. It's a long season, you know, you're gonna have bad games, and just hope that they aren't at home and hope you can find ways to tie but we couldn't do that tonight.”
On the only two recent losses coming against Orlando City SC….
“I'm sure you guys saw some of it as well but offensively they're a super, super unique team and how they play. They pull one fullback in and push one high, they kind of overload and play kind of an overloaded type build-up style. They drop a lot of balls in, in front of the backline. So it's definitely a different style. I thought we handled it well. In the first half, they had a bit of possession, but I thought guys dealt with it. And then for whatever reason, we weren't able to cope with it as much in the second half and whether that was them being more direct after we went up. Or what it may be, I would say, it's probably from them and their unique style. And Oscar Pareja, I’ve played for him in the past when I was a youth player. He's an intense guy, and his team's always ready to go.”
On whether there’s anything that can change in the preparation for games as the team looks at the upcoming schedule…
“I think one thing that’s been nice recently is to be able to have some time to train and also some time to recover. We had a crazy stretch there in May and June, going into the Leagues Cup break. Unfortunately we wish we could have gotten farther in the Leagues Cup but if you’re looking on the bright side it, obviously, gave us an opportunity to get some guys healthy, to get some guys back. Obviously, we missed Rafa (Czichos) tonight with the suspension but for the most part, the team has been training really well the last couple weeks. The training has been awesome, the team is pretty healthy so we’ll look to get back on the winning sheet next Saturday.”
On what it’s like mentally preparing not knowing if he will play or not…
“Yeah, I think it's the cliché, you always want to be ready. You're always prepared to play, it's obviously a little bit different. I had a bit of a heads up earlier in the week that it was a possibility. Chris (Brady), and I get along well, so we're chatting every day about how he's doing. He's giving me updates. 50/50 75/25 kind of thing so I knew it was a possibility. He hadn't been training earlier in the week. So it is what it is, I'm an experienced goalkeeper. I've been in these positions before where sometimes you’ve got to step in and play one game and then, hopefully Chris will be back healthy soon. But, I'm just trying to play well for the team and help us pick up points when I do start.”