Drawing 0-0 at Seattle Sounders on a long-haul cross-country road trip, Oscar Pareja‘s Orlando City SC now return to Central Florida to contest two consecutive home fixtures at Exploria Stadium – starting with Chicago Fire.
The Lions are currently seventh in the Eastern Conference on 28 points. They sit two points above both the red and Wild Card match lines, and look much steadier, if not spectacular, in pursuit of clinching a place in the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs.
Of course, each Major League Soccer regular season is a marathon, not a sprint.
Reassuringly, Orlando City SC have now only lost ONE of their last NINE league fixtures.
A more positive streak compared to our early season struggles, City’s gap to fourth-placed Philadelphia Union is currently six points.
In our 15 regular season fixtures remaining, Orlando City SC‘s aim is a top four finish.
Why? Because of the revamped 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs format.
In the new Round One Best-of-3 series, City get two home fixtures if they finish in the top four.
These matches will be hosted in a home-away-home format. Higher seeds (the teams finishing first through fourth) will host games one and three.
Teams finishing fifth through ninth will only host one Round One Best-of-3 fixture.
Round One Best-of-3 fixtures must be settled in 90 minutes, otherwise there’s penalty kicks.
Ultimately the first team to win two matches will advance.
Elsewhere, the Eastern Conference sides finishing eighth and ninth will face each other in a single-elimination Wild Card match.
The winner of this Wild Card match will then face the Eastern Conference’s number one seed in the Round One Best-of-3 series.
Now that’s explained, you can now appreciate how important a coveted top four finish is.
Reflecting on Sounders away, Orlando City SC may regret not stealing away all three points from Lumen Field.
City bossed possession 56% to Sounders’ 44% and had two huge chances to win the game late in the second-half.
On 76 minutes, Mauricio Pereyra skied a golden chance into the North End with Stefan Frei’s open goal at his mercy.
Then, on 89 minutes, Facundo Torres narrowly struck a delightful defence-splitting Pereyra pass wide of Frei’s far post.
Visiting Seattle Sounders is always tough given travel fatigue and the home’s side’s talent, but City fans were relatively happy with a point at full-time.
That said, our next two consecutive home games represent a huge chance to step on the gas.
Poor at Exploria Stadium so far this season, two home victories over Chicago Fire and Toronto FC are what we really need.
Fire won’t be as easy as first imagined however.
Sacking Ezra Hendrickson earlier this season, Frank Klopas’ Fire side have just won their last two road fixtures.
Defeating Portland Timbers 1-2 and Sporting Kansas City 0-1, Chicago Fire will be more confident than their current 12th place standing suggests.
Orlando City SC vs Chicago Fire
Last 3 head-to-heads
- August 21, 2021: Orlando City SC 1 Orlando City SC 0 (MLS)
- March 5, 2022: Chicago Fire 0 Orlando City SC 0 (MLS)
- April 9, 2022: Orlando City SC 1 Chicago Fire 0 (MLS)
2015/22 head-to-head stats
- It was 1-0 to Orlando the last time the sides met (April 2022)
- Played Fire 16 times in MLS – Orlando 5, Draws 6, Fire 5
- In each of Orlando’s last 2 MLS home fixtures against Fire, City won 1-0
- Orlando are unbeaten in their last four home fixtures in MLS
- Fabian Herbers has scored in each of Fire’s last 2 MLS fixtures
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Watching the game
Orlando City SC vs Chicago Fire will be shown live on Apple TV at 00:30 (GMT) on Sunday, July 2.
Remember, UK supporters can watch all of Orlando City SC‘s 2023 MLS regular season fixtures by subscribing to Apple TV’s “MLS Season Pass”.
Subscribe now by clicking here.
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