ORLANDO, Fla. (June 2, 2017) - Four days after earning a clean sheet victory, Orlando City SC (7-5-2, 23 points) will host the Chicago Fire (7-3-3, 24 points) on Sunday, June 4. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at Orlando City Stadium. It will be City’s third match in nine days.
The match between the No. 2 and 3 teams in the Eastern Conference will be nationally televised on FOX Sports 1. It will also be transmitted locally on Real Radio 104.1 FM and La Nueva 990 AM.
“They’re in really good form at the moment, feeling good about themselves. A couple really strong results in the past couple games,” Lions Head Coach Jason Kreis said. “[Bastian] Schweinsteiger in the midfield, probably Juninho as well with [Dax] McCarty with the national team so strength in the center of the midfield and guys that can score goals and make plays up top. Really dangerous opponent and a difficult situation for us having played a midweek game and them not.”
Orlando City is coming off a 2-0 victory over D.C. United on Wednesday. Cyle Larin scored his team-leading eighth goal of the season while Giles Barnes blasted home his first as a Lion. Jonathan Spector and Joe Bendik combined for two unbelievable goal-line saves to preserve City’s second-half lead.
Larin leads Major League Soccer (MLS) with five game-winning goals while Will Johnson, who set up Larin’s tally off a free kick on Wednesday, is tied for the league lead with three game-winning assists.
Chicago enters the match riding a four-game winning streak, most recently topping FC Dallas, 2-1, in Illinois. Nemanja Nikolic scored in the third minute but Dallas’ Roland Lamah equalized three minutes after that. The Fire regained their lead for good in the ninth minute when David Accam’s shot from distance snuck by Chris Seitz.
Nikolic leads MLS with 11 goals. Accam is second on the team with seven goals and leads the Fire with four assists. Chicago’s 4-0-1 record in May was its best single-month record since June 1998.
This is the sixth all-time MLS match between these two teams. City went 2-0-1 against the Fire in 2015, with two wins in Chicago. The teams split last year’s season series 0-0-2. The clubs also met in the U.S. Open Cup in 2013 and 2015.
