How do the Chicago Fire respond after conceding the most goals in a match ever in the team’s 28-season-long history? There’s a phrase that all of us have heard at one point or another when confronted with a failure or setback, whether in professional careers or romantic relationships, after disappointment or failure.

“Get back on the horse.”

An idiom about dealing with failure so old that it uses a form of transportation that most people alive in the country today have never personally encountered.

The team now has a tremendous opportunity to do just that with three games – all at home (or thereabouts) – in the next week, starting off with facing Orlando City this Saturday at Soldier Field.

It won’t be an easy task – Orlando are currently on a seven game undefeated streak. They didn’t concede a goal in April, a streak that is currently at 436 minutes and counting. In the stretch, however, the team also hadn’t scored, settling for three goalless draws. They  put that to bed last week with a convincing 3-0 victory over Atlanta United in the Dirty South derby.

What do the Fire have going for them? Well, here’s one: The team was winless in February, losing their season opener, undefeated in March, going 3W-2D in that month, and winless in April. Will May be a month where the team again goes undefeated?

Series History

All time: 5W-7D-8LLast match: June 22, 2024: Orlando 4-2 Chicago at Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando, Fl.Last away match: May 29, 2024: Chicago 1-1 Orlando  at Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill.

What to Expect

Orlando City

Normally, this is the space where there’d be analysis that said that despite notable attacking talent, Orlando head coach Óscar Pareja’s side has gotten results by being defensively sound first and foremost.

Any chance that’d sound clever, however, is thoroughly dashed by the team’s seven-hour-plus-and-counting stretch without conceding a goal. Abstractly, that sounds great, but the other side of that ledger is the five-plus hours of competitive soccer that Orlando went without managing to score a goal themselves.

The 0-0 draws take some of the luster off the seven-game undefeated run, but overall, Orlando has been true to the form that they’ve been expected to have under Pareja: They’re a good team, and they play like one. They win most of the games they’re supposed to win: This year, they’ve got 4-2 and 4-1 victories at home over Toronto and D.C., a 2-1 win away over the listless Galaxy. And they typically show up – and sometimes get results – against other good teams. Two draws against the Red Bulls, a loss and a draw against a strong Philadelphia Union side.

Orlando does this by being strong in transition, something Fire coach Gregg Berhalter credited Pareja for when speaking to reporters earlier this week. “Typical Oscar teams are very good in defensive transition. I always remember about him, when you think about coaches that had an impact on the league, I think he certainly had an impact for how his teams transitioned both offensively and defensively. We all know how important those faces of the game are, but he really puts emphasis into that.”

Defensively solid; talented attackers that can turn a victory in transition into a goal. Seems like a good game plan. One change with how the attack looks since last year: Facundo Torres was sold for a transfer fee that could hit an eye-melting $14 million in the offseason. That’s a rich haul for a good-but-not great attacker in the league.

Torres was replaced in the lineup with Croatian Marco Pašalić. Coming into the season, the question was whether Pašalić could score goals at a rate that would be a real upgrade over Torres. He answered those questions fast, with a brace in Orlando’s season opener against Philadelphia. He’s added three goals since then, giving him five in just 700 on the year – that’s half his goals last season in Croatia in just a fifth of the minutes. So far, so good for Orlando.

Chicago Fire

Meanwhile, so far, not so good for Chicago, who looked listless in their defeat to Nashville. While the magnitude of the defeat is likely a one-off, the loss wasn’t. The issues – well, most of them anyways – that caused the Fire to cough up seven goals in Nashville weren’t new.

Injuries forced cascading changes to the back line: Carlos Terán’s long term injury put Sam Rogers, who is still adapting to the league, back into the lineup. With Leonardo Barroso out at left wingback, Berhalter had a choice and ultimately put Omari Glasgow, who is new to the position into the XI, over Jonathan Dean, who plays more as a defensively minded left-back. Dean is himself coming off a punctured lung, however, and may not have been ready to play 90 minutes. With the inexperienced Glasgow, who is in his first season as a full-time MLS player and played as a offense-focused winger previously, on the back line, Berhalter slid Jack Elliott into the right center-back role over his favored spot on the left.

All of those may have been factors contributing to the team’s defensive breakdowns. But don’t blame injuries for the loss. “I think with center back injuries and fullback injuries, you know, I think it adds up,” Berhalter told media on Thursday, “but again, I think it would be doing the guys who are playing a disservice but chalking it up to injuries. Guys have gotten opportunities, and I think we know that their performance can be improved.”

One guy that got an opportunity last week was 16-year-old Christopher Cupps, one of two teenage homegrowns signed to a first team deal in the offseason. Given the challenges at the position, does that mean that he’ll get his first start against Orlando? I wouldn’t count on it: Although he looked fine – more than fine – in his first minutes at the top level, when he came on the Fire were down by five goals with less than 15 minutes of regulation remaining. That is the definition of a low pressure situation. Cupps is remarkably mature – mentally and physically – for a 16-year-old, and he’s got a very high ceiling, but Berhalter likely won’t want to risk a setback by putting him into the deep end of the pool.

My bet is that Rogers will be given another start. Hopefully, that will be in front of Rominigue Kouamé, who has looked good on both sides of the ball but who has been limited to just 108 minutes so far this season. His presence in the midfield will help solidify both the defense and give players like Brian Gutiérrez more confidence in going forward on offense.

It seems like a long time ago, but this is a Fire team who have played very well and gotten plucky results, just not in front of a home crowd. “We are disappointed that we haven’t won at home yet,” Berhalter said when asked if the team felt added pressure to get results in front of home crowds, adding “We always want to put on an entertaining performance and we want to win at home and we haven't done that.. So for us, we’ve been frustrated, and we want to get that home win and get rolling again.”

Projected Starting XI

Panel Predictions

Alex Calabrese

Chicago Fire 1-0 Orlando City

DJ Hagenwald

Chicago Fire 4-0 Orlando City

Tim Hotze

Chicago Fire 1-0 Orlando City

Memo Pizano

Chicago Fire 3-2 Orlando City

Max Sánchez Josa

Chicago Fire 1-2 Orlando City

Matt Shabelman

Chicago Fire 2-1 Orlando City

Match Information and How to Watch

Date and Time: Saturday, May 3th 2025, 7:30 PM CTForecast: Cloudy with temperatures in mid-40sLocation: Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill.TV: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass