Last Sunday against Orlando City, the Fire didn’t look like a team that won five of six league matches and surged up the Eastern Conference standings. Instead, they resembled the group that got Ezra Hendrickson dismissed earlier this year.
After Mauricio Pineda opened the scoring in the 47th minute, the Fire didn’t do much right the rest of the evening. Orlando connected twice in the next seven minutes to take the lead, then clinched the 3-1 victory by converting on a 68th-minute penalty.
