Pedro Gallis of Orlando City made eight savings on Saturday night as his team settled 0–0 in 10-Man Chicago Fire.
Gallis’s strong performance, especially during the first half when the teams also had number, Orlando (4–2–5, 17 points) expanded a shutout stretch for five matches (1-0-4).
But Lions’ inability to take advantage of Chicago goalkeeper Chris Braddy’s 35th minute dismissal meant that Orlando had to settle for the fifth draw during an unbeaten run of eight matches.
Chicago (3-4-4, 13 points) extended its winning beginning at home for five matches (0–1-4), and now moved six matches (0-3-3) without winning.
Nevertheless, it was a major improvement of the last weekend 7–2 defeat in Nashville, in which the fire set a club record for most goals allowed in the MLS match.
After the goalkeeper decided to come out of his line for 50–50 balls, referee Victor Riviva sent Braddy to Brady and joined Duncan McGir to deny a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
Rivas also originally pointed to the penalty spot, but amended that part of the decision directly to the free kick from outside the area.
Orlando finally gained control of the match – despite some promising stretch from Chicago – but only two of their 22 shot attempts on the target placed only two.
Lions came closest to Scoring when Martin Ojeda hit a nearby post from the left side of the penalty region in the 75th minute, and two minutes later Marco Pasalik’s long distance effort attracted the crossbar.
Chicago was more at risk before going down a man, Gallis intervened to keep Orlando several times.
His best sequence was a strong double sev in the 10th minute, diving to deny Philip Zencurnegel’s low shot from the edge of the penalty region, then reached his feet on time to thwart the rebound attempt of Hugo Cupers.
Then Cuypers had another chance to add their team-Agni to a total of seven goals, but saw Gallice deployed well to reject his target-bound header in the 28th minute.
-Bield level media
