{"id":377896,"date":"2026-08-21T22:52:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T22:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/377896\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T22:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T22:52:23","slug":"fire-make-magic-in-orlando-what-we-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/377896\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire make magic in Orlando: What We Learned"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fire’s first game of a lengthy stretch of road games in league play ended with victory, even if it took them a while to get there after a near two-hour delay due to thunderstorms in Orlando.<\/p>\n

Here’s what we learned about the Fire on a hot, muggy night in central Florida.<\/p>\n

Nothing is more beautiful than ugly<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get this out of the way first: The Fire\u2019s win against Orlando was not a thing of beauty. The Fire were outshot, and arguably outplayed, for a majority of the match. Orlando had almost three times the number of touches in front of Brady as the Fire got the other direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s not even mentioning the near two-hour weather delay. On a day that was hot and so humid that David Poreba (more on him in a bit, don\u2019t worry) said that it was \u201cinsane,\u201d \u201cit\u2019s like you\u2019re trapped in the air.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And despite all that, the Fire, in the words of Gregg Berhalter, \u201cbent but didn\u2019t break and got a solid road win” \u2013 the team\u2019s first since the 3-1 victory over D.C. United on May 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was an ugly win. And particularly for a road win, that can be a thing of beauty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bench is getting bigger at the right time\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2026, the Fire have played 1,710 minutes in league play. Nine players have played more than 60% of that total, with Anton Sal\u00e9tros (86.3%) leading the way amongst outfield players, and\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Elliot (86.3%) and Philip Zinckernagel (84.1%) not far behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout the spring, predicting the starting XI was about as difficult as predicting that it\u2019d be hot and humid in Orlando for this one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since then, though, schedule congestion, combined with injuries, the departure of Hugo Cuypers and Robert Lewandowski\u2019s arrival, have meant that more players have had to get minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019d be understandable \u2013 in fact, it\u2019d be expected \u2013 for the Fire\u2019s form to dip as those adjustments were made.<\/p>\n

Instead, the FIre have continued to get results, even as more and more players are getting serious minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PusoThe emergence of players like Puso Dithejane expands the Fire’s bench at exactly the right time. (Chicago Fire FC)<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen Robert Turden\u2019s debut start with the first team in Leagues Cup, and in this game, David Poreba\u2019s. We\u2019ve seen Puso Dithejane\u2019s emergence from an occasional bench option to a key part of the Fire\u2019s offensive production, and we\u2019ve seen Sam Rogers get his first first MLS start since February.<\/p>\n

And the Fire have been winning through all of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s key to what we\u2019re doing right now,\u201d Berhalter said after the win, \u201cOur solutions being able to come in and not drop the level. I think we’ve rotated a lot over these last games, four or five players each game, and you don’t see the level drop that dramatically. \u201cYou know, that is absolute key right now. It’s the full squad contributing. I think it’s a good feeling. But you know, like anything, we’re still hungry for more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering the schedule congestion going forward, that\u2019s exactly what you want to hear.<\/p>\n

The margins are tight<\/p>\n

Despite all that, the Fire haven\u2019t been steamrolling over opponents in every game they\u2019ve faced.<\/p>\n

Orlando could make a case that they played better and thus deserved to win, and it took strong goalkeeping from Brady, Jonathan Dean using his speed to harry Antoine Griezmann as he started to get a good look on goal, and any number of other individual moments going the Fire\u2019s way for them to get the victory over Orlando.<\/p>\n

Berhalter is right \u2013 the Fire should take pride in the fact that they overcame fatigue, a weather delay, and any number of other headwinds \u2013 and still came back with three points, but it\u2019s a reminder the margins are fine.<\/p>\n

\"JonathanIt took key plays from guys like Jonathan Dean to get the win for the Fire, but it was a close-run game. (Chicago Fire FC)<\/p>\n

The Fire\u2019s current winning streak took a late surge over Santos, Cruz Azul deciding to press rather than shake hands and settle for a draw, and Robert Lewandowski earning a PK against Orlando in a game where most of the action in the box was going the other way.<\/p>\n

You could argue that means that luck also plays a factor \u2013 and you might be right, but for years, it felt like the Fire\u2019d end up with snake eyes no matter how many times they rolled the dice \u2013 but the Fire are also a good enough team to make their own luck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sometimes, dreams come true<\/p>\n

David Poreba was set to make his MLS debut in 2025 after winning both the MLS Next Pro MVP and Golden Boot a year prior, but an ACL injury derailed those plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Orlando, Poreba finally got his MLS debut, 616 days after he signed his first team deal with the Fire.\u00a0 The journey spanned two continents, and was postponed \u2013 though not derailed \u2013 by injury. That alone would make it a dream night for most players \u2013 but there was an extra element to Poreba\u2019s debut.<\/p>\n

\"DavidMLS debut, first MLS assist, and starting next to Robert Lewandowski \u2013 multiple dreams came true for David Poreba in Orlando. (Chicago Fire FC)<\/p>\n

Asked if he thought in his \u201cwildest dreams\u201d that his first MLS start would come next to Robert Lewandowski, the Polish-American midfielder was blunt: \u201cI’ll be completely honest: No, I did not. Obviously he’s my favorite player growing up, being of Polish descent. Looked up to him my whole journey as an academy player. You know, watching him play for Poland, for Borussia [Dortmund], for Bayern [Munich] and Bar\u00e7a. Honestly, it’s surreal but it shows you that [life] can have surprises and at the end of the day, I’m just super grateful because after all I’ve been through, as well, it’s an amazing, amazing moment for me\u201d<\/p>\n

Poreba set up Puso Dithejane on the Fire\u2019s opening goal,with Lewandowski yards away from him.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, dreams come true.<\/p>\n

And on that note\u2026.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s back to the future for the Fire\u00a0<\/p>\n

Readers were the first to know that the Fire were nearing a modern record winning streak<\/a>: It wasn\u2019t on the team\u2019s radar, with Berhalter saying after the win in Portland that they\u2019d just been tracking MLS victories, but word, like it frequently did, spread, and now the Fire, for just the second time in their history, have won six games in a row.<\/p>\n

The last time, in 1998, was part of a 11 game winning streak, but there\u2019s an asterisk: MLS didn\u2019t have draws in that year, the seventh victory of that stretch came off of PKs following a draw. The Fire have had other undefeated streaks make it to stretch this long, but this is just the second time in the team\u2019s nearly 30-year history that they\u2019ve had 6 W\u2019s in a row.<\/p>\n

That means that every time the Fire have won this many games in a row, they\u2019ve ended the year as champions, and, combined with their five game winning streak in 2000, every time they\u2019ve won at least five straight, they\u2019ve made it to the final.<\/p>\n

The team is by no means a favorite to make it to the MLS Cup, let alone win it \u2013 but then again, if it wasn\u2019t for the 11 consecutive wins in the middle of the 1998 season, they wouldn\u2019t have been then, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t happened, and the Fire aren\u2019t there \u2013 yet. But it doesn\u2019t seem crazy anymore, does it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoThese guys won six in a row \u2013 can they win hardware? (Chicago Fire FC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fire’s first game of a lengthy stretch of road games in league play ended with victory, even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-377896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}