BRIDGEVIEW, IL–Five times the Fire and Crew have met in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup and five times the Fire came out winners including the 1998 Final. Make that six out of six as the Fire held on for a 2-1 win to advance into the quarterfinals. They will host either Orlando City SC or Fort Lauderdale Strikers on July 20th.
Seven players who started the Philadelphia match last week started this Tuesday night. John Goossens was one of the four who didn’t, but he made an impact early as he took on two defenders to get the ball to David Accam who blasted one from an angle to beat Brad Stuver far post in the 7th minute to give the Fire the lead.
“We missed him, he’s one of our creative players, and I’m really happy we have him back on the pitch,” said Accam. “We need the midfielders to feed us good balls, and today, Goossens did that. Hopefully, he continues it.”
Accam doubled his total and the Fire’s lead at the half hour after collecting a cross from Rodrigo Ramos. It was the first time this year that the Fire had a two-goal lead and only the third time they scored multiple goals.
“It’s really easy to play with him,” said John Goossens of Accam. “If you have somebody with speed like that, and he’s playing really well, every time you have the ball, you just have to look for those guys, and they will take care of it.”
They turned out to be necessary as the Crew went on the attack for most of the second half and put the Fire on the back foot. The Crew were finally rewarded in the 79th minute after a shot went off a Fire hand in the box and Ethan Finlay converted the spot kick.
However, the defensive subs and defensive posture for the Fire remained sound to see out the match and move on to the quarterfinals.
“I think we were able to be aware that we had a very good result at halftime and I think that the lesson we got in the game against Philly, I would say that we learned a lot so we were able to use that experience in order to perform better today defensively and have a result in our favor,” said Fire head coach Veljko Paunoivc “These things are always helpful. I’m very happy and very proud of our guys. I thought they fought very, very hard. It was a difficult game for us. We had some guys who were coming out of injury, some guys who were just recovered, or guys that need some rest too and the we have the next game on Friday so at this moment now it’s very important for us to recover well, prepare for the next game, and of course we have to know that today’s win was very important as a step forward in our quest for the Open Cup and we believe we are on a good track for that.”
The Fire now host San Jose in league play on Friday night at 7pm on UniMas. Hopefully, we will see a lot more of Goossens, Accam, and Kennedy Igboananike on the same pitch this season after the first half of Tuesday night.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-David Accam (Goossens) 7
CHI-David Accam (Ramos) 30
CLB-Ethan Finlay (penalty kick) 79
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Nick LaBrocca (caution, tactical foul) 53
CHI-Rodrigo Ramos (caution, reckless foul) 66
CLB-Tyson Wahl (caution, reckless foul) 90
CHICAGO FIRE (4-4-2): #28-Matt Lampson; #13-Rodrigo Ramos, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #16-Jonathan Campbell, #3-Brandon Vincent; #21-Nick LaBrocca, #30-Razvan Cocis (C), #26-Michael Stephens, #7-John Goossens (#6-Eric Gehrig 60); #77-Kennedy Igboananike (#15-Joey Calistri 80), #11-David Accam (#66-Joao Meira 69)
Subs not used: #23-Patrick McLain, #5-Michael Harrington, #12-Arturo Alvarez, #15-Joey Calistri, #29-Alex Morrell
COLUMBUS CREW (3-4-2-1): #41-Brad Stuver; #21-Chad Barson, #4-Michael Parkhurst (C), #2-Tyson Wahl; #16-Hector Jimenez, #6-Tony Tchani (#20-Wil Trapp 46), #19-Rodrgio Sarvia, #14-Waylon Francis; #9-Justin Meram (#7-Emil Larsen 67), #18-Cristian Martinez; #17-Ola Kamara (#13-Ethan Finlay 46)
Subs not used: #1-Steve Clark, #3-Corey Ashe, #8-Mohammed Saeid, #29-Marshall Hollingsworth
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 11-16 CLB
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 3-2 CLB
FOULS: CHI 12-7 CLB
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-1 CLB
CORNER KICKS: CHI 6-7 CLB
SAVES: CHI 1-1 CLB
Referee: Nima Saghafi
Referee’s Assistants: Art Arustamyan
4th Official: Cory Richardson
Weather: Sunny and 65º
Attendance: N/A
Man of the Match: David Accam (CHI)
Chicago Fire
US Open Cup
