ORLANDO, FL—Chicago Fire FC suffered their first defeat of the season as they fell to Orlando City SC, 1-0, at Explorian Field. The Fire were missing four starters due to injuries (Xherdan Shaqiri, Fabian Herbers, and Miguel Navarro) and health and safety protocols (Rafael Czichos).
They would later be down a man during the match after Brian Gutierrez picked up his second yellow of the afternoon in the 43rd minute. The first was for free kick encroachment and the second for taking down Cesar Araujo from behind.
“A big learning moment [for Gutierrez]” said Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson. “And what I told the guys after is, yes, it might have been a difficult call on the second yellow. But that first yellow is something that he has to learn from, and all the other players have to learn from. You know, that’s a really poor yellow to get, you know, standing in front of the ball, trying to block the free kick like that. You know, that’s inexcusable. So hoping he learns from that, you know, because that’s what really did him in.”
Orlando would take advantage in the 59th minute on a Facundo Torres free kick which was set up by Alexandre Pato and then headed in by Ercan Kara. The Lions had chances to add to their lead, but spurned all of them to keep the Fire in the match.
The Fire did reasonably well despite being a man down and a goal down, but it was too much to overcome to get at least a point on this Saturday.
“Yeah, you know, it’s not the way we wanted to lose our first game. But you know, it happens. It’s part of the game. I thought the boys still fought, even for a long time, being down a man, I thought they still fought, you know what I mean. Ended up giving one away on a set piece.
So I just want to say that, you know, I told the guys, listen, that was a good fight, but the circumstances being, it was difficult. But they gave it their all and so I’m proud of that.”
The Fire will look to get back on track next Saturday at home against LA Galaxy. Kickoff is at 7pm on WGN-TV.
SCORING SUMMARY:
ORL-Ercan Kara (Pato, Torres) 59
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Brian Gutierrez (caution, free kick encroachment) 5
CHI-Brian Gutierrez (sent off, second bookable offense) 43
CHI-Jhon Espinoza (caution, reckless tackle) 54
ORL-Robin Jansson (caution, tactical foul) 81
ORL-Sebas Mendes (caution, tactical foul) 85
ORLANDO CITY SC (4-2-3-1): #1-Perdo Gallese; #2-Ruan (#24-Kyle Smith 74), #6-Robin Jansson, #15-Rodrigo Schlegel, #4-Joao Moutinho; #5-Cesar Araujo (#11-Junior Urso 46), #8-Sebas Mendez; #9-Ercan Kara (#13-Tesho Akindele 75), #10-Maruicio Pereyra (#21-Andres Perea 86), #17-Facundo Torres (#19-Benji Michel 75); #7-Alexandre Pato
Subs not used: #31-Mason Stajuhar, #27-Jack Lynn, #34-Joey DeZart, #68-Thomas Williams
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Gabriel Slonina; #2-Boris Sekulic, #20-Wyatt Omsberg, #22-Maurico Pineda, #14-Jhon Espinoza; #3-Jonathan Bornstein (#36-Andre Reynolds 60), #30-Gaston Gimenez (#26-Jhon Duran 75); #99-Stanislav Ivanov (#9-Chinoso Offor 60), #31-Federico Navarro, #40-Brian Gutierrez; #11-Kacper Przybylko (#37-Javier Casas Jr. 84)
Subs not used: #18-Spencer Richey, #33-Victor Bezerra, #27-Kendall Burks, #35-Sergio Oregel
TOTAL SHOTS: ORL 21-7 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: ORL 6-2 CHI
FOULS: ORL 6-15 CHI
OFFSIDES: ORL 0-0 CHI
CORNER KICKS: ORL 6-2 CHI
SAVES: ORL 2-5 CHI
Referee: Victor Rivas
Assistant Referees: Jeffrey Swartzel, Matthew Nelson
4th Official: Elvis Osmanovic
VAR: Jorge Gonzalez
AVAR: Craig Lowry
Weather: Sunny and 72º
Attendance: 16,051
Man of the Match: Alexandre Pato (ORL)
