CHICAGO, IL—Chicago Fire FC’s first US Open Cup game at Soldier Field in 22 years ended in heartbreak as they fell to USL League One side Union Omaha 5-4 in a penalty shootout after it ended 2-2 after 120 minutes. It is the eighth time in club history that the Fire have been eliminated in their opening Cup match by lower division opposition.
Wholesale changes were made to the Fire squad to give younger players some important minutes. But another change had to be made to insert regular Rafael Czichos into the lineup in the last minute after Carlos Teran had pain in his left leg that precluded him from player.
Czichos would end up playing 120 minutes and scored twice from the penalty spot. The first came in the 53rd minute after Eddie Gordon knocked over Jhon Duran in the area.
Fifteen minutes later, Omaha would equalize after the Fire failed to clear the ball and substitute Noe Meza would curl one in past Spencer Richey—one of just two players in the squad who had played in the Open Cup previously with Kacper Przybylko.
The match went into extra time and more of the regulars for the Fire came on in order to finish the job. It looked like they would when Czichos converted his second spot kick of the night in the 115th minute after Brian Gutierrez was tripped in the box by Emir Alihodzic. But two minutes into stoppage time, Alex Touche scored from close range to send the tie to penalty kicks.
Kacper Przybylko would open the shootout by hitting his kick off the bar. Spencer Richey would save Meza’s spot kick in round 3. However, the fatal round was the sixth when Miguel Navarro saw his spot kick stopped by Rashid Nuhu and Dion Acoff scored the deciding spot kick to put Union Omaha in the hat for Friday’s Fourth Round draw.
Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson was upset with how his team seemed to lack a killer instinct.
“Well, it’s very hard, it’s very difficult,” said Hendrickson. “Frankly, I’m pissed off because the team that we’re trying to build here – and it doesn’t matter who’s on the pitch – I don’t think tonight we displayed Chicago Fire soccer. It was just not intense enough. We didn’t play fast enough and I felt like we were too casual on the night. We warned these guys that, when you play a team like this from a lower division, they feel like they have a lot to prove. They’re gonna come, they’re gonna bring intensity, they’re gonna bring the effort and we have to match that. And I don’t think that we did that tonight.
“Sometimes, we talk about killer instinct. Killer instinct is not just about making a tackle or about kicking a guy hard. Sometimes it’s about being one-v-one with the keeper and putting that ball in the back of the net and sticking that goal away. We created so many chances, especially in the first half, to put this team away and we didn’t. It took us two penalty kicks in the run of play to stay in the game with this team, which it shouldn’t have been like that. So, I’m very disappointed with the way we showed up tonight and how we performed and that will not happen again.”
Now the hard part is putting this behind them and getting ready to face Minnesota United in St. Paul on Saturday at 4pm on ESPN.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Rafael Czichos (penalty kick) 53
OMA-Noe Meza (unassisted) 68
CHI-Rafael Czichos (penalty kick) 115
OMA-Alex Touche (Acoff) 120+2
PENALTY SUMMARY:
CHI-Kacper Przybylko (miss)
OMA-Hugo Kametani (goal)
CHI-Rafael Czichos (goal)
OMA-Emir Alihodzic (goal)
CHI-Jhon Espinoza (goal)
OMA-Noe Meza (saved)
CHI-Stanislav Ivanov (goal)
OMA-Daltyn Knutson (goal)
CHI-Victor Bezerra (goal)
OMA-Giovanni Montesdeoca (goal)
CHI-Miguel Navarro (saved)
OMA-Dion Acoff (goal)
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Sergio Oregel (caution, reckless tackle) 7
CHI-Jhon Duran (caution, reckless foul) 42
OMA-Ricardo Rivera (caution, tactical foul) 56
OMA-Gabriel Claudio (caution, tactical foul) 61
OMA-Emir Alihodzic (caution, reckless tackle) 77
CHI-Jhon Espinoza (caution, reckless foul) 97
CHI-Javier Casas (caution, tactical foul) 110
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #18-Spencer Richey; #14-Jhon Espinoza, #5-Rafael Czichos, #27-Kendall Burks, #36-Andre Reynolds II (#6-Miguel Navarro 105); #37-Javier Casas Jr., #35-Sergio Oregel (#31-Federico Navarro 90+1); #9-Chinoso Offor (#11-Kacper Przybylko 90+1), #40-Brian Gutierrez, #32-Missael Rodriguez (#99-Stanislav Ivanov 90+1); #26-Jhon Duran (#33-Victor Bezerra 78)
Subs not used: #34-Chris Brady
UNION OMAHA (4-4-2): #24-Rashid Nuhu; #27-Ryen Jiba, #13-Daltyn Knutson, #5-Gabriel Claudio (#4-Alex Touche 109), #2-Emir Alihodzic; #16-Alex Bruce (#10-Hugo Kametani 46), #22-Conor Doyle, #6-Chavany Willis (#12-Eddie Gordon 46), #8-Joseph Brito (#23-Giovanni Montesdeoca 90); #19-Ricardo Rivera (#26-Dion Acoff 62), #11-Kemal Malcolm (#7-Noe Meza 62)
Subs not used: #33-Kevin Piedrahita
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 19-18 OMA
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 6-6 OMA
FOULS: CHI 14-18 OMA
OFFSIDES: CHI 5-0 OMA
CORNER KICKS: CHI 8-3 OMA
SAVES: CHI 4-4 OMA
Referee: Calin Radosav
Assistant Referees: Art Arustamyan, Ethan Buege
Fourth Official: Greg Dopka
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 43º
Man of the Match: Rashid Nuhu (OMA)
