photo credit: Jeff Vorva, Southwest Regional Publishing
Chicago Fire 3-0 Fort Lauderdale Strikers
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—For once, a more comfortable evening for the Chicago Fire. Goals by David Accam, Michael de Leeuw, and Khaly Thiam gave the Fire a 3-0 win over the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup quarterfinal. The Fire now face the New England Revolution in the semfinals on Tuesday, August 9th, the host to be determined tomorrow morning at 10am.
It is the 12th time in team history that the Fire have made at least the semifinals in the Cup and the fourth straight year.
The Fire got an early penalty after Diego Restrepo took down David Accam in the box and Accam would cooly covert the penalty in the fifth minute. Accam has now scored in each round this year for the Fire.
Accam’s speed proved trouble for the Strikers and they were burned once again as he whisked by two defenders before feeding to Michael de Leeuw for a tap-in on 35 minutes.
“For me, [de Leeuw]is a good striker,” said Accam of de Leeuw’s goal. “He was in a good place. Most people would not be in there. For him, it paid off because he was in a good position.”
The Fire would get an early second half goal as well. Six minutes into the second half off a corner, Nick LaBrocca’s header was stopped by Restrepo, but Khaly Thiam was there to put in the rebound.
The Strikers’ misery was complete in the 70th minute when Gabe Agboussoumonde was sent off for a second bookable offense.
Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic was glad to finally have a more comfortable night in the technical area.
“Obviously very happy and very excited when you have a good game,” said Paunovic. “I think how we managed the game was very important. Very happy how we started. We started with a goal. We scored that very important opening goal. Then, we moved forward and a second goal. We went even in the first half to score the third goal so we can manage substitutions and rest some of our guys.
“But then, in the second half we opened with a third goal and that was the trigger to go to Plan B which was to rest guys and prepare for the next game.”
The Fire’s next match is Saturday at New England. Kickoff is at 6:30pm on CSN Chicago Plus.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-David Accam (penalty kick) 5
CHI-Michael de Leeuw (Accam) 35
CHI-Khaly Thiam (unassisted) 51
BOOKING SUMMARY:
FTL-Gabe Agboussoumonde (caution, tactical foul) 30
FTL-Julius James (caution, dissent) 48
FTL-Gabe Agboussoumonde (caution, reckless foul) 70
FTL-Gabe Agboussoumonde (sent off, second bookable offense) 70
CHICAGO FIRE (4-3-3): #28-Matt Lampson; #13-Rodrigo Ramos, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #16-Jonathan Campbell, #3-Brandon Vincent; #19-Khaly Thiam, #2-Matt Polster; #12-Arturo Alvarez, #30-Razvan Cocis (C) (#21-Nick LaBrocca 48+), #11-David Accam (#26-Michael Stephens 72); #8-Michael de Leeuw (#77-Kennedy Igboananike 51)
Subs not used: #23-Patrick McLain, #5-Michael Harrington, #6-Eric Gehrig, #29-Alex Morrell
FORT LAUDERDALE STRIKERS (4-2-3-1): #12-Diego Restrepo; #5-Nana Attakora (#7-Geison Moura 28, #44-Gale Agboussoumonde, #14-Julius James, #13-Jorge Luis Corrales; #18-Jean-Marc Alexandre (C), #16-Luis Felipe Fernandes; #77-Gabriel (#27-Victor Pineda 71), #9-Ramon Nuñez (#11-Paulo Jr. 59), #6-Victor Giro; #19-Jose Angulo
Subs not used: #1-Bruno Cardoso, #17-Bryan Arguez, #23-Manny Gonzalez, #27-Victor Pineda
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 13-13 FTL
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 7-5 FTL
FOULS: CHI 16-13 FTL
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-1 FTL
CORNER KICKS: CHI 6-3 FTL
SAVES: CHI 5-4 FTL
Referee: Fotis Bazakos
Referee’s Assistants: James Conlee, Jeffrey Skinker
Fourth Official: Brandon Artis
Weather: Mostly Sunny and 86º
Attendance: N/A
Man of the Match: David Accam (CHI)
Chicago Fire
US Open Cup
