Facundo Torres had two goals and Ramiro Enrique added a late second-half tally to cement the win as homestanding Orlando City SC defeated the short-handed Chicago Fire 3-1 on Saturday.
Orlando City (8-5-7, 31 points) is unbeaten in its past six home contests (three wins, three draws) and has dropped just one of its past 10 overall matches.
The Fire (5-7-8, 23 points) had a two-match road winning streak snapped. Chicago is 2-2-2 over its past six matches away from home after winning just once on the road in its first eight matches in 2023.
Two spectacular saves by Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady on shots by the Lions’ Rodrigo Schlegel and Martin Ojeda in the 32nd and 36th minutes, respectively, kept the match scoreless.
But Orlando broke through in the 38th minute as Torres jumped to head Kyle Smith’s crossing assist and beat Brady into the bottom-right corner.
The Fire pressed for the equalizer as Kei Kamara’s header was saved in the bottom-right corner by Orlando keeper Pedro Gallese and then cleared off the line at the final instant by midfielder Wilder Cartagena.
Orlando added to its lead in the 55th minute on a penalty kick by Torres after a handball in the area by the Fire’s Fabian Herbers.
Chicago got back into the match 10 minutes later when the Lions’ Smith tackled Brian Gutierrez during a parry into the box and conceded a shot from the spot. Chicago’s Xherdan Shaqiri converted the penalty with a shot to the bottom-right corner past Gallese, who was in search of his fourth straight clean sheet.
The Lions built their advantage to two goals on Ramiro Enrique’s tally from outside the box to the bottom-right corner in the 75th minute after a nifty give-and-go pass from Ivan Angulo.
Any chance the Fire could rally was hampered when Arnaud Souquet was sent off for yellow card accumulation in the 84th minute, forcing Chicago to play with 10 men for the rest of the match.
–Field Level Media
