Pre-match: Fire v. Ron DeSantis' Team Orlando "City" FC 6.22.24 6:30

With the Fire avoiding a loss in the midweek fixtures (by cleverly NOT playing!!) the Fire go into this game well rested and on a FOUR match unbeaten streak with two actual wins.

Last Saturday's destruction of Toronto FC was the best Fire performance in years, a well-planned and well-executed game, with Toronto playing a "Chicago Fire-esque" level of defending helped quite a bit.

This week, our team continues the road trip heading to Orlando (yeah, what a great idea to Orlando in late June, after playing in Philadelphia in friggin' February and two home matches in early March. The first five matches of the season (all in February and March) were against Phil. (A), Cincinnati (H), Columbus (A), Montreal (H) and New England (A). In June, we have played LAG (H), Toronto (A), Orlando (A) and then Seattle (A).

Only the Toronto and Seattle matches make any sense at all.

Orlando are just terrible this season.
They are an awful:
4 wins, 6 draws and 8 defeats with 19 goals scored and 29 conceded (-10)

The Fire, on the other hand are an amazing
4 wins, 6 draws and 8 defeats with 21 goals scored and 30 conceded (-9)

It is clear that the Fire are FAR SUPERIOR to the purple team from Central FloRida.
I mean, really can you imagine even considering supporting a team with just four wins so far?

Really, Orlando are terrible at home.
1 win, 3 draws and 5 defeats. 6 points out of a total of 27. That is some dreadful "home field advantage." They are 3-3-3 away.
Orlando are so bad at home. Their home record is WORSE than the Fire's away record. The Fire have 7 points (1-4-3) from 8 matches.
By the way, Miami has more away wins that either the Fire or Orlando have wins total.

This is the second meeting in the past three weeks with Orlando.
Orlando have three South America DPs, Colombian International Luis Muriel, Argentine nobody Martín Ojeda, and Uruguayan international Facundo Torres.
Their leading goal scorer is young American and faux-Scot Duncan McGuire, with 6 goals far this season.
Their best player and assist leader (with 6) is over the hill loser Nicolás Lodeiro.

Orlando do have two players on Copa America squads. MF Wilder Caragena and Keeper (vote for) Pedro Gallese, both of Peru. As such, both should be back as soon as soon as the group stages are over.
20 MLS Teams have players in Copa America (Minnesota leads the pack with 4), of course Fire are not of them. In total, there are 50 MLS players in the Copa.

Orlando also have one representative in the Euro, defender David Brekaro for Slovenia, a recent signing from Viking Stavanger in the Norwegian league.

The Fire are missing their defensive trio of Gaspars, Salquist and Gutman, plus Navarro.
Oh, and Fire DP Shaqiri is in the Euros, in case anyone didn't remember.

The Fire have been in decent form, as stated above and, in particular, Cuypers seems to be finding his footing in MLS. It must be difficult, since he played a lot of football over the past 12 months. That said, he is playing great and I expect that to continue this weekend.

Fortunately, he is not quite good enough for the Belgium National Team (which just sucked out loud in their first game, losing to Slovakia), so we get to see him play for the Fire instead of at the Euros.

Last week, I was perfect when I said it would be
2-1 with Cuypers and MHS scoring...and then the Fire had to go and ruin it by scoring two more goals!

This week, against even worse opposition, I am going to say it will be
3-1, with Cuypers, Gutierrez and "a defender" scoring for the Fire.

I can't watch the match, as we have a "farm to table" dinner with the owner of own of the local food trucks. I think the farm is owned by her in-law's or something.
However, severe storms are predicted, so we may be staying home and dry.

She also owns a weird little bar, that only sells beer in cans. It is a store front in a strip mall, next to a massage place and a local pharmacy. The actual bar seats 5. They usually have about 200 beers available.
Fun place!

 

The Fire are missing their defensive trio of Gaspars, Salquist and Gutman, plus Navarro.
Oh, and Fire DP Shaqiri is in the Euros, in case anyone didn't remember.

 

True, I meant Fire fans. Sorry for the confusion.

 

From the Orlando "City" FC website*, so reverse the stats:

Series History
All-time vs. Chicago - 7-6-7, -5 GD (3-4-4, -8 GD away)

MLS only vs. Chicago - 7-5-7, -3 GD (3-3-4, -6 GD away)

2015 - W 2-3 (A), 5-L 3-1 (A/USOC), D 1-1 (H), W 0-1 (A)

2016 - D 1-1 (H), D 2-2 (A)

2017 - D 0-0 (H), L 4-0 (A)

2018 - L 1-2 (H), L 4-0 (A)

2019 - D 1-1 (A), L 2-5 (H)

2020 - W 4-1 (H)

2021 - L 3-1 (A), W 1-0 (H)

2022 - D 0-0 (A), W 1-0 (H)

2023 - W 3-1 (H), W 1-3 (A)

2024 - D 1-1 (A)


*Of course, I had to take this from the Orlando website, as the Chicago Fire's website does not give two craps about any match, other than the Messi and friends tilt in July.

There is not a single mention of the match tonight on the Fire's website.

The articles are:
Navarro receiving a green card
Messi coming to town
Czichos receiving a green card
Klopas and Herbers being named to "Man of the Matchday" (what a stupid phrase)
Fire beat Toronto

Then the "Latest News" kicks off with a review of the Chicago Fire II match, then the Academy doing something, then repeating some of the stories above.

Just f'n pathetic.

 

My farm dinner has been moved to tomorrow, due to the storms that have been lashing us up here for the past two days. The rain has stopped for now, but will be back.

I get to watch the match live.

 

3-4-2-1...allegedly

Player to watch for the Fire is Hugo Cuypers.
I would hope so.

At least they did not choose "German playmaker" Fabian Herbers.

 

That Audi headlight commercial is the absolute height of advertising.
They should show during MLS matches more often.

 

Sparse crowd in the township of Orlando.

 

Jonathon Dean almost committed a dumb penalty.
Stupid

We get a loud "You suck, asshole" for Chris Brady!