Photo: Gerrit te Hennepere
Vancouver Whitecaps 1-3 Chicago Fire FC
VANCOUVER, BC—It took 18 tries, but Chicago Fire FC finally got their first win in Cascadia with a 3-1 win over Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place. It is also the first three-match win streak for the Fire in five years and propels them to ninth in the Eastern Conference—just two points out of a playoff spot with 12 matches to go.
Xherdan Shaqiri got the scoring going in the 13th minute scoring from distance after Federico Navarro intercepted a Whitecaps throw-in. The Fire had multiple opportunities to add to the lead in the first half, but could not take advantage against a Whitecaps side in squad rotation with a Canadian Championship Final on Tuesday against Toronto.
The Whitecaps made three subs at halftime and it made an impact nine minutes in as substitute Ryan Gauld was tac in a tic-tac-toe goal between Marcus Godinho and Lucas Cavallini as they pulled level.
However, it would be the Fire that called checkmate on this night. Rafael Czichos headed in a cross from Chris Mueller in the 76th minute to put the Fire up 2-1. It was Czichos’s third goal in league play and he has now scored in back-to-back matches. Mueller would then turn goal-scorer in the 90th minute after Shaqiri led a counter and Mueller would hit the upper 90 to ice the match and win their first ever match in Vancouver.
It is the first three-match winning streak for the Fire in five years, and an important win at that, but Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson viewed the first of the three wins in this streak as the most important.
“Probably the Toronto one,” said Hendrickson. “Because what happened in the game prior to that could have been devastating to us for the rest of the season.
“But the boys dug deep. We met together as a team the next day in practice and we just talked about what’s going on, what are we doing wrong, how are we not able to close out games. There was a coming together. A lot of guys spoke up and we went out against that Toronto team and scored early, fourth minute.
“Yeah, we made some changes in the lineup but I think the team as a whole, coming together like that, after such a devastating loss at home against Columbus was big for us, and I think that gave us renewed belief that we are doing the right things, and if we continue to play the way we’ve been playing, we’ll win more games than we lose. And that’s what it’s about right now for us.”
The loss to Columbus could well have been the death knell for the season, but now the Fire stand just two points out of the playoff places after three straight wins to produce quite the turnaround.
“It’s all about belief in yourself and every player belief has to stay confident and to try to work hard, first of all in, training, and to learn from mistakes, the most what I want from these guys because they are still young, and they need to learn from mistakes,” said Fire midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri. “Yeah, they get more mature in the game and yeah, we also like the game, how we played. The players, their understanding is much better than before.
“So we have a game plan, and everybody stick to it more. So yeah, this is I think the key at the moment because everybody knows what is his work, and everybody has to do that good to bring that into this team.”
The Fire return home to play Atlanta United in the first half of a doubleheader of soccer at Soldier Field at 4pm (WGN-TV), followed by the Red Stars hosting San Diego Wave at 7pm (Twitch).
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Xherdan Shaqiri (F. Navarro) 13
VAN-Lucas Cavallini (Gauld, Godinho) 54
CHI-Rafael Czichos (Mueller) 76
CHI-Chris Mueller (Shaqiri, Herbers) 90
BOOKING SUMMARY:
VAN-Cristian Dajome (caution, tactical foul) 65
VAN-Florian Jungwirth (caution, tactical foul) 82
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC (3-4-2-1): #60-Issac Boehmer; #23-Javian Brown (#6-Tristan Blackmon 46), #26-Florian Jungwirth, #28-Jake Nerwinski; #19-Julian Gressel (#25-Ryan Gauld 46), #20-Andres Cubas (#31-Russell Teibert 46), #17-Leonard Owusu, #2-Marcus Godinho (#27-Ryan Raposo 73); #11-Cristian Dajome, #45-Perdo Vite; #9-Lucas Cavallini (#24-Brian White 67)
Subs not used: #55-Cody Cropper, #87-Tosaint Ricketts, #4-Ranko Veselinovic, #8-Caio Alexandre
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Gaga Slonina; #2-Boris Sekulic, #23-Carlos Teran, #5-Rafael Czichos, #6-Miguel Navarro; #22-Mauricio Pineda (#21-Fabian Herbers 85), #31-Federico Navarro; #8-Chris Mueller (#3-Jonathan Bornstein 90+4), #10-Xherdan Shaqiri, #40-Brian Gutierrez (#7-Jairo Torres 60); #26-Jhon Duran (#9-Chinoso Offor 90+4)
Subs not used: #18-Spencer Richey, #32-Missael Rodriguez, #33-Victor Bezerra, #36-Andre Reynolds II, #37-Javier Casas
TOTAL SHOTS: VAN 8-16 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: VAN 3-4 CHI
FOULS: VAN 13-9 CHI
OFFSIDES: VAN 3-2 CHI
CORNER KICKS: VAN 3-4 CHI
SAVES: VAN 1-2 CHI
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Referee’s Assistants: Chantal Boudreau, Jeffrey Swartzel
4th Official: Alain Ruch
Weather: Mostly Sunny and 73º
Attendance: 14,984
Man of the Match: Xherdan Shaqiri (CHI)
