Chicago Fire 0-1 New York Red Bulls
BRIDGEVIEW, IL–The announced attendance might have been 18,064, but the atmosphere at Toyota Park was sorely lacking as was the attack for the Fire as they slumped to their seventh straight defeat in the league and eighth straight in all competitions.
The Fire just had one shot on target when Nemanja Niklic tried to chip Luis Robles in the 71st minute, but Luis Robles made the save.
The match’s only goal came once again off a cheap giveaway but the Fire—this time by Dax McCarty albeit forced by Tyler Adams. Daniel Royer made the interception and fed to Bradley Wright-Phillips for his 15th goal of the season and become the first player in league history to score at least 15 goals in five consecutive seasons.
The Red Bulls never really got out of first gear and never had to on this night. Meanwhile, the Fire had a team meeting on Friday and head coach Veljko Paunovic said that the team will remain committed for the final nine matches of the season.
“We had a meeting where we all committed that we will play all the games until the end and play our best. No matter what happens, we will give our best.
“We opened (the door) before the meeting and said whoever is not committed to this cause, to this club and the goal and the commitment, the attitude, he is free to go,” said Paunovic. “Obviously nobody left and that was I think a very important moment where the guys understood, the guys here, this is who you can rely on. Everyone has to give his best. That’s what I saw today. It’s not that in the past we didn’t give our best, but it’s different.”
Both Aleksandar Katai and Nemanja Nikolic started on the bench in this match because they were “emotionally drained” after the Open Cup loss to Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the Fire are still seven points adrift of the red line with nine matches to play—the least of any Eastern Conference team outside the playoffs.
“This year it seems like everything that can go wrong for us, will go wrong,” said Fire captain Dax McCarty. “We have to take responsibility as players. I think we’ve underperformed all season. Every guy in the locker room hasn’t performed up to a level required to just win numerous games in MLS. That’s on myself, as a captain of the club I need to be better, I need to play better and I need to keep myself on the field. We’re not going to give up.”
The Fire next play next Saturday at Montreal at 6:30pm CT. Not only will the Fire need to give their best the rest of the way, they need to some how be the best over the last nine match to make the playoffs at this point.
SCORING SUMMARY:
NY-Bradley Wright-Phillips (Royer) 55
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Brandt Bronico (caution, reckless foul) 11
CHI-Dax McCarty (caution, reckless foul) 42
NY-Marc Rzatkowski (caution, tactical foul) 67
NY-Daniel Royer (caution, tactical foul) 74
NY-Michael Murillo (caution, tactical foul) 89
CHICAGO FIRE (3-4-2-1): #45-Richard Sanchez; #4-Johan Kappelhof, #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger, #3-Brandon Vincent; #22-Nicolas Hasler, #6-Dax McCarty, #18-Drew Conner, #25-Jorge Corrales; #13-Brandt Bronico (#10-Aleksandar Katai 58), #7-Raheem Edwards (#23-Nemanja Nikolic 61); #9-Luis Solignac (#8-Michael de Leeuw 73)
Subs not used: #30-Stefan Cleveland, #26-Christian Dean, #14-Djordje Mihailovic, #21-Alan Gordon
NEW YORK RED BULLS (4-2-3-1): #31-Luis Robles; #62-Michael Murillo, #26-Tim Parker, #33-Aaron Long, #92-Kemar Lawrence; #27-Sean David, #4-Tyler Adams; #90-Marc Rzatkowski (#9-Andreas Ivan 85), #10-Alejandro Romero (#19-Alex Muyl 70), #77-Daniel Royer (#5-Connor Lade 76); #99-Bradley Wright-Phillips
Subs not used: #18-Ryan Meara, #29-Fidel Escobar, #7-Derrick Etienne, #42-Brian White
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 6-7 NY
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 1-3 NY
FOULS: CHI 18-9 NY
OFFSIDES: CHI 7-5 NY
CORNER KICKS: CHI 5-2 NY
SAVES: CHI 2-1 NY
Referee: Nima Saghafi
Assistant Referees: Corey Parker, Gianni Facchini
Fourth Official: Robert Sibiga
Video Assistant Referee: Matt Franz
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 84º
Attendance: 18,064
Man of the Match: Tyler Adams (NY)
