Josef Martinez added to his scoring ledger on Saturday with two goals against the Chicago Fire (Photo Credit: Atlanta United)
Atlanta United FC 4-0 Chicago Fire
ATLANTA, GA–Atlanta United proved they are for real while the Fire proved that they are still a project. Anything that could have gone wrong for the Fire did as they fell, 4-0, to the first-year MLS club.
Things started to go awry before the match when it was announced that Michael de Leeuw was out with a hamstring injury. Luis Solignac replaced him in the starting lineup. Atlanta took the lead after just four minutes when Julian Gressel’s pass was accidentally knocked into the net by Brandon Vincent. Seven minutes later, the Fire were down a man after Johan Kappelhof saw a straight red for taking down Josef Martinez during a goal scoring opportunity.
The Fire were vastly fortunate to only be down 1-0 at halftime, they would not be so fortunate from the hour mark afterwards. Martinez got his first goal at the hour mark after he got in behind the Fire defense and around Jorge Bava for an easy finish. Eight minutes later, a poor clearance by Jonathan Campbell went right to Hector Villalba for his first of the year.
Martinez would add a second from an acute angle after beating another offsides trap.
The Fire will have two weeks to recover from this when they host Montreal Impact on April 1st. Kickoff is at 2pm on CSN+ .
Hector Villalba had his hands full with Fire forward David Accam (photo credit: Atlanta United)
SCORING SUMMARY:
ATL-Brandon Vincent (own goal) 4
ATL-Josef Martinez (Alimiron) 60
ATL-Hector Villalba (unassisted) 68
ATL-Josef Martinez (Asad) 82
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Johan Kappelhof (sent off, denial of a goal scoring opportunity) 11
ATL-Julian Gressel (caution, tactical foul) 15
CHI-Jorge Bava (caution, delaying a restart) 18
ATL-Miguel Almiron (caution, tactical foul) 45
ATLANTA UNITED FC (4-2-3-1): #25-Alec Kann; #2-Tyrone Mears, #3-Michael Parkhurst (C), #5-Leandro Gonzalez-Pires, #4-Greg Garza; #14-Carlos Carmona, #24-Julian Gressel (#16-Chris McCann 71); #15-Hector Villalba (#29-Jacob Peterson 69), #10-Miguel Almiron3) (#18-Jeff Larentowicz 8, #11-Amil Asad; #7-Josef Martinez
Subs not used: #23-Alexander Tambakis, #6-Miles Robinson, #21-Mark Bloom, #18-Jeff Larentowicz, #9-Kenwye Jones
CHICAGO FIRE (4-4-2): #1-Jorge Bava; #5-Michael Harrington, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #66-Joao Meira, #3-Brandon Vincent; #12-Arturo Alvarez (#16-Jonathan Campbell 15), #6-Dax McCarty, #19-Juninho, #11-David Accam; #23-Nemanja Nikolic (#18-Drew Conner 79), #9-Luis Solignac (#13-Brandt Bronico 66)
Subs not used: #28-Matt Lampson, #22-Patrick Doody, #20-Daniel Johnson, #14-Djordje Mihailovic
TOTAL SHOTS: ATL 14-6 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: ATL 6-3 CHI
FOULS: ATL 6-7 CHI
OFFSIDES: ATL 2-0 CHI
CORNER KICKS: ATL 12-1 CHI
SAVES: ATL 3-2 CHI
Referee: Jose Carlos Rivero
Referee’s Assistants: Corey Rockwell, Eric Boria
Fourth Official: Marcos DeOliveira
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 66º
Attendance: 45,922
Man of the Match: Josef Martinez (ATL)
Chicago Fire
Atlanta United FC
