Chicago Fire 4-0 Orlando City SC
by Dan Gaichas
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—Last season, the Chicago Fire amassed just 31 points. At halfway this season, the Fire have exceeded that as they ran rampant on Orlando City SC on Saturday night in a 4-0 romp before a sell-out crowd at Toyota Park. The Fire’s unbeaten streak is now ten in all competitions and have an seven-match win streak at home.
The Fire wasted little time in going ahead. Bastian Schweinsteiger found Matt Polster making a run down the right side and Polster found David Accam unmarked in front of the box. Accam backheeled the ball past Joe Bendik after just three minutes of play.
Five minutes later, Schweinsteiger found Accam and the latter beat the offside trap, rounded Bendik and tapped in to double the Fire’s advantage.
Accam turned provided in the 52nd minute when he fed Nemanja Nikolic for his league-leading 14th of the season. Nikolic allowed Accam to complete his hat trick from the penalty spot in the 63rd minute after being taken down in the area.
“There wasn’t an argument, to be fair,” said Accam. “He took the ball and just came to me, ‘David, just take it.’ We share responsibilities with penalties every time, and I know he wants to score every game. I try to help him score goals, and I’m happy I did today.”
It was the first career hat trick for Accam and the first time since 2003 (Ante Razov and Damani Ralph) that the Fire have had two 10-goal scorers in the same season. Nikolic and Accam have combined for 24 of the club’s 31 goals so far this season.
Orlando looked a tired team (their fourth match in 11 days), clearly missed Cyle Larin (suspended after a DUI arrest), and had clearly no answer for Accam. The Lions could not even muster a shot on goal. Their best chance was in minute 75 when Carlos Rivas was in on a breakaway only to be denied by Matt Lampson. Referee Jorge Gonzalez deemed nothing was wrong though replays suggest Lampson could have been sent off for the challenge while Orlando finished with ten men as Rivas left injured and the Lions were out of substitutions.
While this might arguably have been the Fire’s best performance of the year. Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic knows that the season is still just half done.
“I think the progress is fantastic,” said Paunovic. “We are keeping a good pace with good results and wins and it’s important because other teams also won this weekend and for us we need to understand now that we have to play every game to get points and to get wins and it’s not going to be easy. At this point nothing is done, we still have to keep the good streak, the good mood and the confidence we have and we have to understand that in order to earn these kind of situations and confidence that we have now, it took long and it took a lot. We have to appreciate it, we have to know that it isn’t always going to be like that and when these moments are here, we have to enjoy them but also, we have to use these moments to get better and improve, to work with more joy and more confidence. Right now, we aren’t thinking about where we are, right at this point but we are thinking about where we want to be. The first station is the playoffs, we need to keep working for that and keep playing as a team and keep playing like a team that has confidence and give our best in every game like today.”
For David Accam, the improvement from last season is evident in what he is now able to do with the likes of Nikolic and Luis Solignac, et al alongside him.
“I think this year we are more dynamic,” said Accam. “I can go on the right, middle, out front, everywhere. For me, it’s working really hard. We have players that can play out front or in the middle, so we keep changing to get in good positions. We have players who work for each other and also want to help the team win.”
Next up for the Fire is a tricky US Open Cup Round of 16 match against FC Cincinnati. The match kicks off at 7pm on ESPN2 in front of what’s expected to be a crowd in excess of 30,000.
There won’t be too many night like this one for the Fire, but the way they have been playing as of yet, they are coming fast and furious.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-David Accam (Polster) 3
CHI-David Accam (Schweinsteiger) 8
CHI-Nemanja Nikolic (Accam) 52
CHI-David Accam (penalty kick) 63
BOOKING SUMMARY:
ORL-Will Johnson (caution, tactical foul) 22
ORL-Cristian Higuita (caution, persistent infringement) 33
CHI-Bastian Schweinsteiger (caution, tactical foul) 53
CHI-Michael de Leeuw (caution, tactical foul) 56
ORL-Kaka (caution, tactical foul) 58
CHI-Nemanja Nikolic (caution, delaying a restart) 69
ORL-Victor Pagliari Giro (caution, tactical foul) 84
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #28-Matt Lampson; #2-Matt Polster, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #66-Joao Meira, #3-Brandon Vincent; #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger (#14-Djordje Mihailovic 73), #6-Dax McCarty; #9-Luis Solignac, #8-Michael de Leeuw (#19-Juninho 59), #11-David Accam (#12-Arturo Alvarez 80); #23-Nemanja Nikolic
Subs not used: #30-Stefan Cleveland, #16-Jonathan Campbell, #18-Drew Conner, #20-Daniel Johnson
ORLANDO CITY SC (4-4-2): #1-Joe Bendik; #21-Scott Sutter, #29-Tommy Redding, #2-Jonathan Spector, #94-Victor Pagliari Giro; #8-Will Johnson, #7-Cristian Higuita (#32-Matias Perez Garcia 57), #23-Antonio Nocerino, #17-Luis Gil (#14-Giles Barnes 57); #11-Carlos Rivas, #10-Kaka (#6-Richie Laryea 64)
Subs not used: #28-Josh Saunders, #25-Donny Toja, #4-Jose Aja, #5-Servando Carrasco
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 17-3 ORL
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 7-0 ORL
FOULS: CHI 22-15 ORL
OFFSIDES: CHI 5-1 ORL
CORNER KICKS: CHI 1-1 ORL
SAVES: CHI 0-3 ORL
Referee: Jorge Gonzalez
Referee’s Assistants: Eric Weisbrod, Eric Boria
4th Official: Juan Guzman Jr.
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 72º
Attendance: 20,000
Man of the Match: David Accam (CHI)
Chicago Fire
Orlando City
