Minnesota United 3-0 Chicago Fire FC
ST. PAUL, MN—One of the main supporters’ groups for Minnesota United is named, The Dark Cloud. There are several of them surrounding Chicago Fire FC these days after a total capitulation in the last 25 minutes of the match that led to a 3-0 defeat to the Loons at Allianz Arena.
The Fire have now gone 368 league minutes without a goal and 488 competitive minutes without a goal in open play. After allowing just two goals in seven league matches, they gave up three in 16 minutes.
Things went downhill for the Fire in the 65th minutes after the Loons began to dominate play. That dominance was ultimately rewards in the 72nd after a Wyatt Omsberg giveaway led to Bongi Hlongwane setting up Emmanuel Reynoso to beat Gaga Slonina far post to give the Loons the lead.
Five minutes later, the Fire were also down a man after Federico Navarro picked up his second yellow of the match for dangerous play towards Robin Lod in a desperate attempt to prevent a goal scoring opportunity.
The second goal the Fire allowed in league play was off a set piece, so was the second in this match as Reynoso’s corner was headed in by Kervin Arriage on 84 minutes. The demolition was complete in minute 89 after Robin Lod sidestepped Omsberg for an easy finish.
Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson said that the Fire could make better decisions on the pitch in terms of attacking and be more technical.
“I don’t think there’s a lack of communication [between attacking players],” said Hendrickson. “I thought maybe we just made some bad decisions tonight, especially in the first half. You know, we have opportunities, like you said, to play a guy who may be in a better position and we chose to do otherwise with the ball. So these are things that we have to look at this game again and talk about it and discuss it with the team because we need to improve going forward.
“I thought, especially in the first half, when we defended and we won the ball, we just gave it away too easily, sometimes not even under pressure. So we weren’t very clinical. We weren’t very technical on the night. But these are things we can improve and we just have to keep working.”
Hendrickson also said that Xherdan Shaqiri was subbed in the 82nd minute as the original play was to play him 65 minutes at most.
“We have to be careful [with Shaqiri]. He’s just coming back from injury. He’s been out two, three weeks now. We knew coming into the game, he couldn’t play 90. We were expecting maybe 60, 65 but once they scored, we tried to keep him on the field, because he’s a guy who is possibly going to get us a goal. But after a while, it’s the risk versus reward: Do we keep him out there and risk him re-injuring that calf or do we just try to go to someone else?”
The Fire will look to recover—and hopefully at least score some goals—next Saturday against New York Red Bulls at Soldier Field. Kickoff is at 7pm on WGN-TV. The sun shone at the end of the match in St. Paul, but things could hardly be gloomier right now if you’re a Fire fan.
SCORING SUMMARY:
MIN-Emmanuel Reynoso (Hlongwane) 72
MIN-Kervin Arriaga (Reynoso) 84
MIN-Robin Lod (Hlongwane) 88
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Miguel Navarro (caution, reckless tackle) 35
MIN-Wil Trapp (caution, tactical foul) 36
CHI-Gaston Gimenez (caution, unsporting behavior) 41
CHI-Federico Navarro (caution, reckless foul) 52
CHI-Federico Navarro (sent off, second bookable offense) 77
MINNESOTA UNITED FC (4-2-3-1): #97-Dayne St. Clair; #91-Oniel Fisher, #15-Michael Boxall, #12-Bakaye Dibassy, #92-Kemar Lawrence; #20-Wil Trapp, #33-Kervin Arriaga; #17-Robin Lod (#23-Adrien Hunou 89), #10-Emmanuel Reynoso, #7-Franco Fragapane (#18-Abu Danladi 62); #9-Luis Amarilla (#21-Bongokuhle Hlongwane 62)
Subs not used: #1-Tyler Miller, #5-Jacori Hayes, #8-Joseph Rosales, #11-Niko Hansen, #14-Brent Kallman, #27-DJ Taylor
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Gaga Slonina; #2-Boris Sekulic, #20-Wyatt Omsberg, #5-Rafael Czichos, #6-Miguel Navarro; #31-Federico Navarro, #30-Gaston Gimenez; #99-Stanislav Ivanov, #10-Xherdan Shaqiri (#22-Mauricio Pineda 82), #40-Brian Gutierrez (#3-Jonathan Bornstein 63); #11-Kacper Przybylko (#26-Jhon Duran 82)
Subs not used: #18-Spencer Richey, #9-Chinoso Offor, #14-Jhon Espinoza, #23-Carlos Teran, #33-Victor Bezerra, #36-Andre Reynolds
TOTAL SHOTS: MIN 11-12 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: MIN 3-4 CHI
FOULS: MIN 15-12 CHI
OFFSIDES: MIN 2-3 CHI
CORNER KICKS: MIN 8-3 CHI
SAVES: MIN 4-0 CHI
Referee: Silviu Petrescu
Assistant Referees: Adam Wienckowski, Lyes Arfa
4th Official: Joe Dickerson
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero
Weather: Cloudy and 69º
Attendance: 19,658
Man of the Match: Emmanuel Reynoso (MIN)
