ORLANDO, FL – Orlando City SC (3-2-2, 11 points) defeated the Chicago Fire (2-1-3, 9 points) 1-0, bringing home a 2022 win after two consecutive home losses.
The 16,000+ Orlando fans showed full support for there newly revamped squad as they dominate the first half of the match, shooting 10 total shots, including sic from inside the box, though only four were on target.
Chicago,comin in giving up only one goal all season, wound up giving up their second against Orlando.
Ercan Kara got the Lions on the board in the 59th minute, with Alexandre Pato and Facundo Torres each recording an assist on the finish, the second of the year for both players.
It was Kara’s first goal as an Orlando City Lion.
The win gave Lions goalkeeper Pedro Gallese his 25th win, which matches the record held by former goalkeeper Joe Bendik and extends his clean sheet mark to 14. He had two saves and kept the Fire scoreless.
“Good day to walk out with three points in a game where the red card changed a lot for the rival.” said Orlando Head Coach Oscar Pareja ” We may think that winning just 1-0 wasn’t enough, but I said to the players that we can choose between being negative about the things that didn’t go the way we wanted or enjoy the victory.”
In the 59th minute, Gaston Gutierrez was issued his second Yellow card, ejecting him to the game, leaving Chicago to play a man down for the rest of the match.
Orlando had numerous scoring chances during the game that they failed to take advantage of.
In the 88th minute, substitute Tesh Akindele fed a ball to Amexandre Pato, leaving him one on one with goalkeeper Gabriel Slonia, but Pat’s shot was high and hit the crossbar.
Orlando City was lucky not to fall behind in the 24th minute after a Sebas Mendez turnover ended up giving Kacper Przybylko an open look from the right. He blasted his shot just off target.
Orlando next faces the Columbus Crew, heading on the road to Lower.com field on Saturday April, 16th
