CHICAGO, IL—One way to look at things is that Chicago Fire FC are on a five-match unbeaten streak. Another way to look at it is that the Fire arguably could have and likely should have a five-match winning streak. For the third time in five matches and the second time at home, the Fire had a 2-0 lead and it later became 2-2 which would be the result against Philadelphia Union on a warm Saturday night at Soldier Field.
The Fire opened the scoring in the 19th minute when a Miguel Navarro cross was dummied by Kei Kamara and then tapped in by Maren Haile-Selassie albeit with not the cleanest of touches. The lead doubled in the 47th minute after Jacob Glesnes’s attempted clearance deflected off Nathan Harriel and into the Union net for an own goal.
The Fire were in control until the hour mark when Navarro needlessly bundled Mikael Uhre in the area for a penalty kick which Daniel Gazdag to make it 2-1. Whether or not there was a sense of inevitability to it, the equalizer came three minutes later when Quinn Sullivan’s cross was met by Gazdag who set up Julian Carranza for an easy finish.
The next 20 minutes saw the Union more likely to net a third. The closest they would get would be in the 79th minute when Jose Martinez blasted one off the post. Georgios Koutsias of the Fire had two chances in two minutes to net a winner, but hit side netting on the first and the crossbar on the second after a looping ball from Xherdan Shaqiri.
Photo: Amanda Cortese
The Fire did have to make three injury subs as Gaston Gimenez went off with a hamstring issue at halftime, Carlos Teran a knee problem, and Fabian Herbers picked up a knock late. Regardless of that and the fact that they are playing the defending Eastern Conference champions, according to Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson, it comes down to finishing chances at one end and keeping the ball out of the net at the other.
“Again, at home, up 2-0. We just have to, one, finish our chances when we do get them because there’s an opportunity to go up three, maybe even 4-0 and really put the game out and we don’t do that,” said Hendrickson.
“And then secondly, it’s the second time now, late in the game, that we’ve had the ball in a box to clear. We don’t clear it, we try to play out when we’re under pressure and tonight, it led to a PK, because we missed that pass. And then I don’t know what the foul was all about. There was no need to foul there. We just made a very, very poor decision on that foul. Once they got that PK, they kind of got some momentum, kind of had us back on our heels a little bit. And you know, we had some moments after that, with (Georgios) Koutsias in the box getting some balls from (Shaqiri) and stuff. But after that, I think (the Union) had the better of the game.
“But at the end of the day, like I told them, at home, you have to have the mentality of, even though it’s not a loss tonight, again, it felt like a loss. And so, our mentality in games, late in games, we’re not going to have 90 minutes of the ball, we’re not going to be on top of a team 90 minutes; rarely does that happen in this game. The key is, when you haven’t had the better part of the game, can you keep the ball out of the back of the net? And right now, we’re not able to do that. When we’re under pressure, we’re kind of breaking.”
While this is still a five-match unbeaten streak, the Fire have not cleared the thin margins that could have made this a five-match winning streak (as well as being 4-0-1 at home instead of 1-0-4).
“I mean, we’re not out there on the pitch by ourselves, but we’ve shown that we’ve put ourselves in these games to win these games,” said Hendrickson. “Against D.C., it was not finishing, it was a big save by the keeper in the 90th minute. Against Cincy, it’s not clearing a ball in the corner. You know, it’s us not executing in both ends of the field. And I told them that tonight, ‘guys, in the boxes, late in the game, we have to become better.’ So we’re going to finish the chances that we’re still creating and then we also got to keep the ball out of the back of the net on the other end.
“So yeah, there was an opportunity there to have a five-game unbeaten streak or a winning streak. But teams are fighting and we just have to learn, especially at home, how to fight back and how not to break; we can bend but not break.”
The Fire will go back on the road and take on Atlanta United next Sunday at 3:30pm CT on both Apple TV and FS1.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Maren Haile-Selassie (Navarro) 19
CHI-Nathan Harriel (own goal) 47
PHI-Daniel Gazdag (penalty kick) 62
PHI-Julian Carranaz (Gazdag, Sullivan) 65
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Fabian Herbers (caution, tactical foul) 66
PHI-Daniel Gazdag (caution, delaying a restart) 90+2
PHI-Jim Curtin (caution, unsporting behavior) 90+4
CHI-Gaston Gimenez (caution, unsporting behavior) 90+5
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #34-Chris Brady; #2-Arnaud Souquet, #4-Carlos Teran (#27-Kendall Burks 58), #5-Rafael Czichos, #6-Miguel Navarro; #21-Fabian Herbers (#37-Javier Casas Jr. 79), #30-Gaston Gimenez (#22-Mauricio Pineda 46); #7-Maren Haile-Selassie, #17-Brian Gutierrez (#10-Xherdan Shaqiri 65), #8-Chris Mueller; #23-Kei Kamara (#19-Georgios Koutsias 65)
Subs not used: #25-Jeffrey Gal, #16-Wyatt Omsberg, #11-Kacper Przybylko, #24-Jonathan Dean
PHILADELPHIA UNION (4-1-2-1-2): #18-Andre Blake; #15-Oliver Mbazzo (#2-Matt Real 64), #5-Jakob Glesnes, #3-Jack Elliott, #26-Nathan Harriel; #8-Jose Andres Martinez; #11-Alejandro Bedoya, #16-Jack McGlynn (#20-Jesus Bueno 90); #10-Daniel Gazdag; #9-Julian Carranza, #7-Mikael Uhre (#33-Quinn Sullivan 64)
Subs not used: #12-Joe Bendik, #34-Brandan Craig, #6-Andres Perea, #19-Joaquin Torres, #17-Damian Lowe, #25-Chris Donovan
EXPECTED GOALS: CHI 1.96-2.29 PHI
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 12-16 PHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 2-4 PHI
FOULS: CHI 8-12 PHI
OFFSIDES: CHI 0-2 PHI
CORNER KICKS: CHI 4-2 PHI
SAVES: CHI 2-0 PHI
Referee: Ismail Elfath
Assistant Referees: Logan Brown, Adam Garner
4th Official: Walter Heatherly
VAR: Alejandro Mariscal
AVAR: Michael Kampmeinert
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 72º
Attendance: 12,811
Man of the Match: Daniel Gazdag (PHI)
(Editor’s Note: For more of Amanda Cortese’s photos, please click on the link.)
