Fire rally from two down to draw Orlando

Chicago Fire FC 2-2 Orlando City SC

CHICAGO, IL—Wednesday night at Soldier Field was a tale of two halves. It was the worst of times for the Fire in the first half, but the best of times in the second and things evened out to a 2-2 draw in the end.

The Fire remain fourth in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of Charlotte FC with two matches to play in the regular season.

It was Orlando who got off to a flying start as Ivan Angulo came down the left flank and beat Chris Brady far post. The Fire pressed for an equalizer getting chances, but nothing for the moment was going in. Robert Lewandowski came closest with a bicycle kick that went off the goal post.

Orlando would double their lead in the 35th minute as Antoine Griezmann would blast one from 25 yards out that just curled inside the post.

At halftime, Jonathan Bamab would enter the match for the Fire and he would eventually make the desired impact. In the 57th minute, he would head in Leonardo Barroso’s cross from point blank range to pull one back for the Fire. Twelve minutes later, he would feed Maren Haile-Selassie for his 12th goal of the season.

The Fire came close a couple times from snatching a winner, including Bamba with a shot in front of goal, but that shot was too casual and easily saved, and the Fire had to settle for a point in their final regular season match at Soldier Field for this season.

For Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter, this was a match he felt his team should have won.

We’ve had a stretch lately where we’re not giving a ton up. We’re giving very little up, but we’re getting scored on. And it’s frustrating,” said Berhalter. “If you carry that as a playoffs, we’re not going to go far.

“It’s going to be difficult to advance. And disappointed that you’re down 2-0 halftime. Again, I agree with you about the chances, I love the effort in the second half to get back into game, the mentality was really strong, But when I look at it on a whole, disappointed with the fact that we go down to nothing in this game.”

Andre Franco made the bench for the first time in over 13 months recovering from a torn ACL and there might be a chance he will play next Saturday at Colorado (8:30pm CT, Apple TV).

“We were gonna put him in [at halftime before ultimately deciding to insert Bamba]. It’s a tough one. It really is. You know he’s got to get game time. We know that. And we just gotta find the right moment.”

Photos by Len Cederholm

SCORING SUMMARY:
ORL-Ivan Angulo (Griezmann, B. Ojeda) 6
ORL-Antoine Griezmann (V. Nogueira, Otavio) 35
CHI-Jonathan Bamba (Barroso) 57
CHI-Maren Haile-Selassie (Bamba) 69

BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Sergio Oregel Jr. (caution, tactical foul) 30
CHI-Jack Elliott (caution, tactical foul) 45
ORL-Justin Ellis (caution, unsporting behavior) 45+2
ORL-David Brekalo (caution, tactical foul) 76

CHICAGO FIRE (4-3-3): #1-Chris Brady; #15-Andrew Gutman (#32-Noah Allen 83), #3-Jack Elliott, #21-Andreas Hanche-Olsen, #2-Leonardo Barroso (#24-Jonathan Dean 83); #6-Anton Saletros, #23-Anzor Mekvabishvili, #35-Sergio Oregel Jr (#19-Jonathan Bamba 46); #7-Maren Haile-Selassie, #9-Robert Lewandowski, #11-Philip Zinckernagel (#12-Puso Dithejane 90)

Subs not used: #44-Josh Cohen, #10-Andre Franco, #18-Johan Gomez, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #29-David Poreba

ORLANDO CITY SC (4-4-2): #71-Maxime Crepeau; #27-Vinicius Nogueira (#3-Adrian Marin 83), #97-Iago da Silva, #4-David Brekalo, #19-Zakaria Talfi; #77-Ivan Angulo, #8-Braian Ojeda (#16-Wilder Cartagena 90+3), #5-Luis Otavio, #22-Justin Ellis (#9-Daryl Dike 83); #10-Martin Ojeda (#87-Marco Pasaic ), #7-Antoine Griezmann

Subs not used: #12-Javier Otoro, #11-Tiago, #21-Nolan Miller, #35-Joran Gerbet, #44-Bernardo Rhein

EXPECTED GOALS: CHI 1.6-0.7 ORL
TOTAL SHOTS:  CHI 21-9 ORL
SHOTS ON GOAL:  CHI 6-6 ORL
FOULS: CHI 14-9 ORL
OFFSIDES:  CHI 2-5 ORL
CORNER KICKS:  CHI 8-3 ORL
SAVES:  CHI 4-4 ORL

Referee: Marcos DeOliveira II
Assistant Referees: Nick Uranda, Jose Da Silva
4th Official: Lukasz Szpala
VAR: Timothy Ford
AVAR: David Lowry
Weather: Clear and 69º
Attendance: 25,841
Man of the Match: Jonathan Bamba (CHI)