FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Chicago Fire’s first playoff opponent since 2017 is now set: Orlando City.
Because of Decision Day results around the league, including their own 2-2 draw to the New England Revolution in Foxborough, the Fire will start their playoff journey in the same place that their last one ended: at SeatGeek stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois.
The game will be the first postseason meeting between the two sides since Orlando City entered the league in 2015.
Due to Orlando City’s shock 4-2 loss to an already-eliminated Toronto FC and Nashville’s 5-2 loss to Inter Miami, the Fire had the opportunity to jump to 6th in the standings and bypass the Wild Card game, but their failure to get a win against New England team that had nothing to play for means they’ll have to endure the play-in.
The opponent, however, is a favorable one for the Fire: Chicago won the most recent matchup between the two teams, a convincing 3-1 victory at Inter&Co Stadium. In the team’s first meeting of the 2025 regular season, the Fire held on for a 0-0 draw despite playing down by a man for nearly an hour after Chris Brady received a straight red card in the 36th minute.
Orlando are also backing their way into the postseason: The team has just one win in their past 10 games across all competitions, a 3-2 victory over Nashville SC where Duncan McGuire scored the game winner deep into second-half stoppage time. That game, along with Decision Day’s loss, were the only times in that stretch that Orlando has scored multiple goals in a match.
Saturday’s loss to Toronto was the the Canadian team’s their first victory since July 16th, and arguably the worst performance from goalkeeper Pedro Gallese this season. The game was also the first time that Toronto had scored more than three goals since June.
The Wild Card game at SeatGeek Stadium this Wednesday’s kickoff time is set to be announced soon.
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