Chicago Fire vs Orlando City: Take All You Can Carry

When you aren’t a very good team, you take every single advantage that you can get. And at some point, if you take advantage enough times, you don’t just look like a good team, you are a good team. The Chicago Fire have been given chances and opportunities all season, but since their loss to FC Cincinnati, they’ve stopped taking those opportunities for granted. Now, they’ve scored three goals in each of their last three games, including this one: a 3-1 win over Orlando City. Let’s check what happened.

The game itself felt a bit more tilted towards Orlando City than the Chicago Fire, but the Fire got the first real chance with a 9th minute shot from Przemyslaw Frankowski that clanged off the crossbar. But Orlando took over with a 16th minute corner that Bobby Shuttleworth struggled to control, only to be saved by a goalline clearance from Alvaro Medran. This was followed in the 21st minute by a chance from Silverster Van der Water and finally in the 34th minute, Andres Perea stumbled onto a goal after a failed clearance from Jonathan Bornstein. You could tell that there was just not enough pressure from the Fire during this time, but things started to change in the second half after another stoppage time goal ended the first half. This time, Alvaro Medran picked out a cross to Boris Sekulic, who was waiting at the back post for his shot. They’d go into the half with things tied.

It seemed like the Fire were ready to get another one in the 55th minute when a quick turnover for Ignacio Aliseda led to the ball in the back of the net for Robert Beric, but that was offside. It wouldn’t be until the 72nd minute when Beric got another chance with a through ball, staying onside this time for the finish. Between those two chances, Orlando continued to bombard Shuttleworth, but not even a point blank bicycle kick from Junior Urso couldn’t get past him. And in the 96th minute, with most of their team up in the attack, Orlando left their half wide open for Chinonso Offor and Frankowski to work their way to Offor’s first MLS goal. The game ended 3-1.

Here are three things to take away from the latest win.

The B-Team

Something that surprised me looking at the lineups was that Orlando City wasn’t exactly sending out their best possible lineup. Which is something I found strange when comparing it to the Fire, who did send out pretty much the same lineup that has earned them their last four points. After taking a loss to the New York Red Bulls, maybe they just wanted to see what would work; but the players they took off, Nani and Chris Mueller, were two key players for their side.

This sort of continues the trend that we really can’t tell if the Chicago Fire have truly improved recently. The teams they’re going up against haven’t been sending out their first choice squad. The Fire are up against their B-Teams. And maybe that’s why the Fire performing at this level right now. Not only are they up against slightly lesser competition than expected, they also take it personally when a team says that they are not worth the effort of their best players.

Eventually, the Fire will run into a team that views them as a game they need to win and that’s when we’ll see what this team can really do.

Get on Comms

One of the major things that’s been mentioned in the press conferences by coach Raphael Wicky and the players is the improved communication. After the Chicago Fire loss to CF Montreal back in May, the team took inventory and stopped being nice to eachother. And it’s something that’s visible in the way that players are not only more comfortable shouting out and giving criticism to teammates, but those teammates are also much more willing to receive that criticism and use it.

After the loss to the Philadelphia Union earlier in the season, I mentioned how silent everyone on the pitch was. It’s something that was incredibly noticeable in a silent stadium, but it’s now just as noticeable that players like Jonathan Bornstein and Alvaro Medran are directing their nearby teammates on where people need to be. As it turns out, all the team needed to finally do was talk and be open with eachother.

Starting to Believe

I can talk about the same great tactical changes from the last game and I can talk about where there are some problem areas, but the biggest takeaway for the Chicago Fire is that they’re getting confidence. Like I said in the preview, Wicky’s Fire team is really streak-y and when they lose, they lose a lot. But when they win, they can carry that momentum. Last season, they were only able to string together two wins once. So that makes this next game especially crucial. But there’s something different about the two situations.

Last season, there were no fans, players were still generally uncomfortable with an unfamiliar team, and the Fire weren’t really winning in unexpected ways. The two wins in a row from last season was a 4-0 win over the Houston Dynamo and a 2-0 win over Atlanta United. That looks like a lot, but considering how the Fire scored 6 goals on an xG of 5, it’s not as impressive to me because that means they simply did what they were supposed to. But this time, over the course of the last three games, the Fire have scored 9 goals on an xG of 4.8. In outscoring their xG, the Fire are proving that they’re starting to take advantage of their chances and by converting on those chances, they’re going to gain even further confidence to start taking those chances more often.

Confidence comes and goes very quickly, so when a team has an opportunity to build confidence, you’ve gotta take all you can carry.