CHICAGO, IL—What started brightly as the Fire began a three-match homestand ended in of the most demoralizing defeats over the past five seasons—and that bar was higher than you think given the numerous demoralizing defeats this team has suffered. After going up 2-0 at halftime, Columbus Crew stormed back to win 3-2 at Soldier Field and once again the Fire are at the bottom of the very league.
As mentioned, the Fire got off to a brilliant start and played one of their best first halves of the season. Chris Mueller sent a cross that was headed in by Rafael Czichos for his first league goal of season in the 29th minute. Twelve minutes laters, Mueller turned goalscorer after a cross from Jhon Duran found him unmarked and scoring from close range.
Crew head coach Caleb Porter brought in Derrick Etienne and Luis Diaz as halftime subs and they would have a massive impact. Etienne would score twice in 12 minutes. First, by getting in behind the defense to pull one back in the 63rd minute after receiving a pass from Lucas Zelarayan. Then, on another counter combinig with Zelarayan and Diaz before finishing off the combination play with the equalizer.
Two more subs would make an impact for the Crew in their record signing Cucho Hernandez and James Igbekeme. After Federico Navarro failed to connect with a pass, Igbekeme sent a long ball to Hernandez who got in alone on Gaga Slonina and chipped it far post for his maiden goal in MLS.
The Fire’s misery was compounded in the 88th minute when Miguel Navarro was sent off for an apparent elbow to the face of Luis Diaz. It would’ve been a sending off anyway as he was initially awarded a second yellow before VAR determined the foul was worthy of a straight red card.
A visibly upset Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson felt the team lacked the fight they had in the first half.
“Well, it just shows that, you know, what we’ve been seeing recently is not being able to finish games, not being able to be consistent throughout a game for 90 minutes,” said Hendrickson. “Such a good first half and then to come out, they get a little bit of the play and you know, everything they put to us, we didn’t fight back, right? We didn’t fight in the second half at all, you know, we just laid down and let them pass right through us, run by us, don’t run at them with our guys. And when you do that, teams punish you. But, absolutely no excuse to lose again at home like that, up 2-0 at halftime and all you have to do now is just manage the game; make sure the team doesn’t score and you win the game. But they came at us, punched and we didn’t punch back and, you know, they got the victory.”
Some view that fight as an intangible that the Fire may be missing in order to win games. Not so much in the eyes of Chris Mueller.
“I feel like when you look across the league at the teams we played against so far, we’ve competed,” said Mueller. “When you look back, at least since I’ve gotten here, we should have won without a doubt in my mind. We’ve played better football than 90% of the teams we’ve played and sometimes it is a mentality thing, where something slips. Today, we just lacked fight. It wasn’t a lack of quality. I don’t lack belief in this group at all. Now, it’s just about us coming together as a team when times are hard and trying to pick each other up and move on.
“You can control your fight. It definitely sucks to be losing games in areas you can control and the goals we let up have often been soft and it’s costing us crucial points.”
The Fire will look for a quick turnaround on Wednesday at home against Toronto FC with kickoff at 7pm on WGN-TV.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Rafael Czichos (Mueller) 29
CHI-Chris Mueller (Duran) 41
CLB-Derrick Etienne (Zelarayan) 63
CLB-Derrick Etienne (Diaz, Zelarayan) 75
CLB-Cucho Hernandez (Igbekeme) 83
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CLB-Steven Moreira (caution, tactical foul) 8
CHI-Gaston Gimenez (caution, reckless foul) 14
CHI-Rafael Czichos (caution, tactical foul) 43
CHI-Miguel Navarro (caution, reckless foul) 50
CHI-Brian Gutierrez (caution, tactical foul) 54
CHI-Jhon Duran (caution, reckless foul) 60
CLB-Jonathan Mensah (caution, reckless tackle) 71
CLB-Cucho Hernandez (caution, excessive celebration) 83
CHI-Miguel Navarro (sent off, serious foul play) 88
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Gaga Slonina; #14-Jhon Espinoza, #23-Carlos Teran, #5-Rafael Czichos, #6-Miguel Navarro; #31-Federico Navarro, #30-Gaston Gimenez; #40-Brian Gutierrez (#7-Jairo Torree 63), #10-Xherdan Shaqiri (#21-Fabian Herbers 80), #8-Chris Mueller; #26-Jhon Duran (#11-Kacper Przybylko 76)
Subs not used: #18-Spencer Richey, #3-Jonathan Bornstein, #21-Fabian Herbers, #99-Stanislav Ivanov, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #11-Kacper Przybylko, #36-Andre Reynolds II, #2-Boris Sekulic, #7-Jairo Torres
COLUMBUS CREW (3-5-2): #1-Eloy Room; #4-Jonathan Mensah, #3-Josh Williams, #23-Jalil Anibaba (#22-Derrick Etienne 46); #31-Steven Moreira, #6-Darlington Nagbe, #21-Aidan Morris, #25-Sean Zawadzki (#12-Luis Diaz 46), #7-Pedro Santos; #39-Jacen Russell-Rowe (#9-Cucho Hernandez 62), #10-Lucas Zelarayan (#26-James Igbekeme 81)
Subs not used: #24-Evan Bush, #27-Miguel Berry, #19-Erik Hurtado, #13-Kevin Molino, #30-William Sands
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 13-9 CLB
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 5-4 CLB
FOULS: CHI 19-16 CLB
OFFSIDES: CHI 3-1 CLB
CORNER KICKS: CHI 2-1 CLB
SAVES: CHI 2-2 CLB
Referee: Ramy Touchan
Assistant Referees: Chris Elliott, Ben Pilgrim
4th Official: Alyssa Nichols
VAR: Kevin Terry Jr.
Weather: Sunny and 73º
Attendance: 15,157
Man of the Match: Derrick Etienne (CLB)
