Montreal Impact 2-2 Chicago Fire FC
HARRISON, NJ—Chicago Fire FC continued their unbeaten streak as they played Montreal Impact to a 2-2 draw at Red Bull Arena—Montreal’s “home” for the rest of the regular season. The result does leave the Fire back below the red line, one point behind the Impact, Atlanta United, and Nashville SC with results elsewhere.
The Fire opened the scoring in the 15th minute after Impact keeper Clement Diop’s distribution was intercepted by Djordje Mihailovic who fed Robert Beric for his fifth goal in as many matches.
The lead lasted all of seven minutes, though, as Bojan made a run into the box and his shot was saved by Bobby Shutttleworth, but Lassi Lappalainen was their to toe poke the rebound for the equalizer.
The Fire were the more dominant side in the second half, but the Impact would get a lucky bounce against the run of play in the 67th minute. Zachary Brault-Guillard’s cross took a deflection and Maxi Urruti got a touch that would wind up in far post.
The Fire did respond a few minutes later as Alvaro Medran’s cross was met by Francisco Calvo for his first goal of the season. This capped off a good week for Calvo as the club picked up his option for 2021 on Friday.
“Well, to start with the option that they give me for one more year, I’m just really happy, really happy, really excited to be back next year with the team,” said Calvo. “The Chicago Fire, since I came here, they opened the doors like I’m part of the family. So this club shows that it’s family, just like everything is together, everything is getting better and better. I’m really happy to be part of this amazing club.”
The Fire would hold on for a point on the road.
“It’s never easy on the road,” said Fire head coach Raphael Wicky. “You all know that. It’s never easy when you get, out of nothing, get a goal like this and then there was a really good reaction of the team. I think in general they pushed well. We pushed, could have gone both sides, but at the end of the day we take the point. But it was a good reaction, which is important.”
The Fire next play Sporting Kansas City on Tuesday night at 7:30pm. The match will be exclusively on ESPN+.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Robert Beric (Mihailovic) 15
MTL-Lassi Lappalainen (unassisted) 22
MTL-Maxi Urruti (Brault-Guillard) 67
CHI-Francisco Calvo (Medran) 73
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-CJ Sapong (caution, reckless foul) 76
MTL-Samuel Piette (caution, reckless tackle) 79
MONTREAL IMPACT (5-3-2): #23-Clement Diop; #15-Zachary Brault-Guillard, #7-Rod Fanni, #22-Jukka Raitala, #4-Rudy Camacho, #21-Lassi Lappalainen; #6-Samuel Piette, #2-Victor Wanyama, #28-Shamit Stone (#27-Clement Bayiha 78); #37-Maxi Urruti (#14-Amar Sejdic 87), #9-Bojan
Subs not used: #41-James Pantemis, #40-Jonathan Sirois, #16-Joel Waterman, #24-Karifa Yao, #14-Amar Sejdic, #34-Tomas Giraldo
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Bobby Shuttleworth; #2-Boris Sekulic (#4-Johan Kappelhof 87), #22-Mauricio Pineda, #5-Francisco Calvo, #6-Miguel Angel Navarro (#3-Jonathan Bornstein 72); #30-Gaston Gimenez, #10-Alvaro Medran; #14-Djordje Mihailovic (#28-Elliot Coller 72), #21-Fabian Herbers (#9-CJ Sapong 72), #7-Ignacio Aliseda; #27-Robert Beric (#13-Brandt Bronico 87)
Subs not used: #24-Connor Sparrow, #36-Andre Reynolds, #20-Wyatt Omsberg, #16-Micheal Azira
TOTAL SHOTS: MTL 12-11 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: MTL 8-3 CHI
FOULS: MTL 7-10 CHI
OFFSIDES: MTL 1-3 CHI
CORNER KICKS: MTL 6-7 CHI
SAVES: MTL 1-6 CHI
Referee: Guido Gonzales Jr.
Assistant Referees: Adam Garner, Adam Wienckowski
4th Official: Kevin Broadley
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero
Weather: Clear and 61º
Man of the Match: Francisco Calvo (CHI)
