CHICAGO, IL—Much was made last season about “expected goals” and how the Fire were unable to convert those into actual goals. The same should honestly be said about opportunities to climb above the red line and the inability to actually do so. That happened again on Saturday at Soldier Field.
The Fire went up 2-0 in by the 14th minute, but then Columbus showed why they are the best team in Major League Soccer right now and rallied to draw 2-2. The Fire entered this match with the worst record in MLS and might remain there pending results later in the night.
It all started promising for the Fire. In the 11th minute, Alvaro Medran sent a ball to Robert Beric who made his return to the starting lineup and fed Djordje Mihailovic, also back in the lineup, for an easy finish to put the Fire ahead. Mihailovic would leave the match in the 22nd minute with an ankle injury.
Three minutes later, Beric would get a fine cross from Fabian Herbers and double the Fire’s advantage—his first goal in eight matches.
It looked for a while that the Fire might be able to get the three points and at least for a few hours be in a playoff position after Bobby Shuttleworth made three great saves, including two on Gyasi Zardes. However, Columbus pulled one back off a corned in which Zardes’s header glanced of Fatai Alashe and into the net in the 68th minute.
Przemyslaw Frankowski should have put things away in the 86th minute, but shot it right where Eloy Room was when he had more of the goal to shoot at. He has yet to score a goal, or register an assist in 900 minutes of play this season.
Two minutes later, Youness Mokthar’s shot deflected off Jonathan Bornstein, but right to Zardes who got in behind and salvaged a point for Columbus and keep their Supporters Shield hopes intact.
“We are not happy,” said Fire forward Robert Berić said after the match. “We had the lead, 2-0, we had the game under control, and yeah, I don’t know, we don’t have this luck, I don’t know what is happening. These last couple of games, we can’t manage to win a game.”
You might say Bunbury’s second goal last Sunday and Zardes’s equalizer on Saturday could be bad luck, but it really comes down to making your own luck and the Fire have not done much on that end in 2020. Saturday, it was a two-goal lead that dropped, which led to two points dropped, and leaves Fire fans forever wondering if and when the team will turn a corner and keeping going straight forward afterwards.
The Fire return to play next Saturday at Orlando City SC—this time at Exploria Field. Kickoff is at 6:30pm CT on WGN-TV
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Djordje Mihailovic (Beric, Medran) 11
CHI-Robert Beric (Herbers) 14
CLB-Fatai Alashe (Zardes, Santos) 68
CLB-Gyasi Zardes (Mokthar) 88
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Alvaro Medran (caution, time wasting) 27
CHI-Miguel Angel Navarro (caution, reckless foul) 35
CLB-Jonathan Mensah (caution, tactical foul) 37
CHI-Fabian Herbers (caution, tactical foul) 56
CLB-Harrison Afful (caution, tactical foul) 71
CHI-Francisco Calvo (caution, time wasting) 71
CHI-Jonathan Bornstein (caution, dissent) 73
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Bobby Shuttleworth; #2-Boris Sekulic, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #5-Francisco Calvo, #6-Miguel Angel Navarro (#3-Jonathan Bornstein 46); #10-Alvaro Medran, #30-Gaston Gimenez; #14-Djordje Mihailovic (#28-Elliot Collier 21), #7-Ignacio Aliseda, #21-Fabian Herbers (#11-Prezmyslaw Frankowski 62); #27-Robert Beric (#9-CJ Sapong 78)
Subs not used: #24-Connor Sparrow, #20-Wyatt Omsberg, #16-Micheal Azira, #13-Brandt Bronico, #40-Brian Gutierrez
COLUMBUS CREW (4-2-3-1): #1-Eloy Room; #25-Harrison Afful, #4-Jonathan Mensah, #3-Josh Williams, #19-Milton Valenzuela; #26-Fatai Alashe, #8-Artur; #7-Pedro Santos (#9-Fanendo Adi 81), #22-Derrick Etienne (#34-Youness Mokthar 75), #12-Luis Diaz (#20-Emmanuel Boateng 64); #11-Gyasi Zardes
Subs not used: #13-Andrew Tarbell, #2-Chris Cadden, #30-Aboubacar Keita, #16-Hector Jimenez, #18-Sebastien Berhalter, #21-Aidan Morris
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 15-20 CLB
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 6-6 CLB
FOULS: CHI 19-14 CLB
OFFSIDES: CHI 1-0 CLB
CORNER KICKS: CHI 2-12 CLB
SAVES: CHI 4-4 CLB
Referee: Jon Freemon
Assistant Referees: Peter Manilkowski, Ian McKay
4th Official: Fotis Bazakos
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
Weather: Rain and 67º
Man of the Match: Gyasi Zardes (CLB)
