Gregg Berhalter conceded that the Chicago Fire would learn a lot about themselves after they were thrashed 7-2 by Nashville SC in their last MLS encounter.

Berhalter watched on as Sam Surridge's four goals helped Nashville to a resounding victory, leaving the Fire down in 11th in the Eastern Conference standings. 

Chicago return to league action this weekend, welcoming Orlando City SC to Soldier Field, with Berhalter looking for a response from his players. 

"The first thing is to apologise," Berhalter said in his post-game press conference. "Apologising to the fans that took the time out of their day to watch the game.

"Some of them perhaps travelled to the game. Apology to the owner for putting up a performance like this.

"It doesn't represent who we are, it was a very very poor performance and we deserved to lose the way we did.

"The way I'm looking at this is we're going to learn a lot about ourselves this week and part of it is going to be processing through the game, not just flushing it away.

"Taking accountability for it as coaches, as players, and plotting how we move forward. But today was an absolute disaster and a very, very poor performance."

Orlando, meanwhile, rediscovered that winning feeling with a 3-0 victory over Atlanta United last time out, extending their unbeaten league run to seven matches. 

They also found their shooting boots, having endured three goalless draws in their last three MLS games, results that dropped them down to seventh in the Eastern Conference.

And Orlando head coach Oscar Pareja believes his team have found their "winning mode", and said their attacking improvement must continue in the coming matches. 

"Well, first, getting back to the winning mode is healthy for us. We tied three games that were quite difficult, just playing away in Philadelphia and Montreal," Pareja said. 

"But also, the draw here against the New York Red Bulls, where we thought we played a good game. Against Atlanta United, the need exclusively was to win.

"We needed to add three points and escalate, or at least keep the team in that spot, and we did that job. But now, how we did it is what makes me feel like we keep progressing.

"We did it in a very solid way. We played well with the ball, and I thought we were patient with the way we were sequencing.

"We found our spaces very well, and we also advanced with dangerous plays, and we were just better. We saw what we wanted today, and that was that we scored.

"This has happened before, but we didn't score, and now we score. Also, as I said earlier, we looked very solid defensively. That will make us coaches sleep quieter."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Chicago Fire – Hugo Cuypers

Cuypers scored one of Chicago's two goals on Saturday, his seventh of the season.

He is the third player in Fire history to score seven times in the team's first 10 matches of a season (Nemanja Nikolic in 2017, Ante Razov in 2000, 2002 and 2003).

Orlando City – Marco Pasalic

Orlando have been in fine form this season, with only the Philadelphia Union and Nashville (both 19) scoring more goals than the Lions (18) in the Eastern Conference this term.

Pasalic leads the way for Orlando with five goals, though he has been backed up by fellow strikers Luis Muriel and Martin Ojeda.

In Pasalic (five), Muriel and Ojeda (both four), they are one of two trios of team-mates with four goals apiece this MLS season.

MATCH PREDICTION: ORLANDO CITY WIN

Orlando are unbeaten in seven straight matches against Chicago dating back to 2021, winning five of those (D2). Only one of those wins came in Chicago, however, as the Fire have lost only one of their last eight home matches against the Lions (W3 D4) dating back to 2016.

Pareja's team have also kept four straight clean sheets for the first time in club history following their win over Atlanta on Saturday. They had not kept a shutout in their previous 11 regular-season matches prior to this run.

Chicago, meanwhile, conceded a club-record seven goals in their defeat to Nashville last time out. The five-goal margin of defeat was also the largest in the Fire's history.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Chicago Fire – 27.5%

Draw – 24%

Orlando City – 48.5%