Orlando City’s Pedro Gallese made eight saves on Saturday night as his team settled for a 0-0 draw at the 10-man Chicago Fire.
Gallese’s strong performance, particularly during the first half when the teams had even numbers, helped Orlando (4-2-5, 17 points) extend a shutout stretch to five matches (1-0-4).
But the Lions’ inability to take advantage of Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady’s 36th-minute dismissal meant Orlando had to settle for a fifth draw during their eight-match unbeaten run.
Chicago (3-4-4, 13 points) extended its winless start at home to five matches (0-1-4), and has now gone six matches (0-3-3) without a victory.
Even so, this was a major improvement from last weekend’s 7-2 loss at Nashville, in which the Fire set a club record for most goals allowed in an MLS match.
Referee Victor Rivas sent Brady off after the goalkeeper made a decision to come off his line for a 50-50 ball and clattered into Duncan McGuire to deny an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.
Rivas also originally pointed to the penalty spot, but revised that portion of the decision to a direct free kick from just outside the area.
Orlando eventually gained control of the match — despite some promising stretches from Chicago — but put only two of its 23 shot attempts on target.
The Lions came closest to scoring when Martin Ojeda struck the near post from the left side of the penalty area in the 75th minute, and two minutes later Marco Pasalic’s long-range effort drew the crossbar.
Chicago was the more threatening side before going down a man, with Gallese intervening to keep Orlando on several times.
His best sequence was a strong double save in the 10th minute, first diving to deny Philip Zinckernagel’s low shot from the edge of the penalty area, then getting to his feet in time to thwart Hugo Cuypers’ rebound attempt.
Then Cuypers had another chance to add to his team-leading total of seven goals, but saw Gallese positioned well to deny his goal-bound header in the 28th minute.
–Field Level Media
