ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando City SC heads to the Chicago area on Wednesday to take on the Fire in an MLS Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Wild Card Game.
What You Need To Know
Orlando City and Chicago will meet in the MLS Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Wild Card Game
The winner will go on to a Round 1 best-of-3 series against the top-seeded Philadelphia Union
Chicago won the last match between the teams 3-1, and their other game this season was a 0-0 draw
The Lions are led in scoring by midfielder Martin Ojeda with 16 goals and 15 assists
The winner of the match, which kicks off at 8:30 p.m. at SeatGeek Stadium, will advance to the MLS Cup Round 1 best-of-3 series starting Sunday against the top-seeded Philadelphia Union.
“The playoffs have already started for us. We have been prepared for this,” Orlando City coach Oscar Pareja said. “Obviously, the players recognize how hard this year has been and have worked hard to put this team into this stage of the playoffs. Now we have to go into this one game, and it’s probably one more game than we wanted, but we’re good. The boys know about our responsibility to go to Chicago and try to advance to the next phase.”
The ninth-seeded Lions are making their first appearance in a wild-card game after advancing all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024. They have the longest active streak in postseason appearances at six and have advanced past the first-round series in each of the past two years.
It’s been a tough season for Orlando City (14-9-11, 53 points), but the Lions have a 6-4-7 record on the road. Although they finished the regular season with a club-record 63 goals, they limped into the postseason, losing their two final games of the regular season and recording draws in the two games before that.
The Fire (15-8-11), coached by former U.S. Men’s National Team coach Gregg Berhalter, are making their first postseason appearance since 2017. However, they have struggled at home, where they went 6-5-6, the worst of any Eastern Conference playoff team. They ended the regular season with two draws and two wins.
The game represents the third meeting of the season between Orlando City and Chicago. The Fire defeated the Lions 3-1 in their last matchup in Orlando on May 31, and the other match was a 0-0 draw in Chicago on May 3. The teams have never met in the postseason.
Orlando City has been led this season by designated player midfielder Martin Ojeda, who scored 16 goals and added 15 assists in the MLS regular season, with 20 goals and 19 assists across all competitions. He is one goal away from tying Cyle Larin for the club’s single-season scoring record. His next goal would break the club record across all competitions set by Facundo Torres last season.
Defender Robin Jansson is questionable for the match with a knee injury. Wilder Cartagena, Joran Gerbet, Shak Mohammed, Tahir Reid-Brown and Yutaro Isukada will miss the game with injuries.
Chicago ranked second in MLS regular-season scoring with 68 goals, led by designated player striker Hugo Cuypers, who had 17 goals and three assists, and MLS All-Star winger Philip Zinckernagel with 15 goals and 15 assists. The Fire also allowed 60 goals this season.