Preview:Chicago Fire vs Orlando City - prediction, team news, lineups

After a thrilling end to the MLS regular season, the Wild Card matches take centre stage, with the Chicago Fire welcoming Orlando City to Soldier Field on Wednesday, October 22.

Representing the Western Conference, only one of these two sides will make it to the playoffs in this one-off, winner-takes-all fixture.

Match preview

Dropped points against two teams that finished far below them in the regular season is the main reason why Chicago find themselves in the Wild Card match.

The hosts would have been comfortably in the playoffs had they beaten the New England Revolution on decision day, especially after Nashville were swatted aside by Inter Miami.

However, Gregg Berhalter’s men must now face a tricky test to continue their season beyond this week.

While they could not get the three points on the final day, the Fire are still heavy favourites to reach the first round of the best-of-three series.

Berhalter’s troops are now on a five-game unbeaten run, and they won the most recent meeting with Orlando City.

The visitors are slightly worse off after they were beaten 4-2 by 12th-placed Toronto FC in their final regular-season match.

One win across their last nine outings is cause for concern, which head coach Oscar Pareja will hope his side can block out in this knockout fixture.

The Colombian has been in charge of the Lions since 2019, and he has seen better campaigns, but he will remind his charges of their solitary US Open Cup win back in 2022.

The Lions did fare decently in this season’s Leagues Cup, where they finished fourth, after losing to LAFC in the third-place playoff.

History is also encouraging for the visitors, as they have won eight of the 23 head-to-heads with Chicago (7), two of those triumphs arrived between 2023 and now.

Chicago Fire MLS form:

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Orlando City MLS form:

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Team News

The home side still have absentees due to injury, including Leonardo Barroso, Andre Franco, Omar Gonzalez and Viktor Radojevic.

Meanwhile, Newcomer of the Year candidate Philip Zinckernagel should be the danger man for Berhalter, after registering 15 goals and 15 assists during the regular season.

Wilder Cartagena and Yutaro Tsukada have long-term injuries for the visitors, while Joran Gerbet, Cesar Araujo and Robin Jansson are doubtful for the upcoming fixture.

Marco Pasalic is a huge player for Orlando - the Croatian scored 12 goals in MLS this term and is on a run of two consecutive assists for club and country.

The other talisman for Pareja is Martin Ojeda, as the Argentine was productive this year with 16 goals in MLS.

Chicago Fire possible starting lineup:

Brady; Waterman, Elliott, Rogers; Zinckernagel, D’Avilla, Kouame, Bamba; Dean, Gutman, Cuypers

Orlando City possible starting lineup:

Gallese; Freeman, Schlegel, Brekalo, Marin; Pasalic, Smith, Atuesta, Cortes; McGuire, Ojeda