CHICAGO, IL—Chicago Fire FC looked close to winning their first game from a trailing position in 2020, but yet another stoppage time equalizer for the Red Bulls allowed the visitors to draw 2-2 and keep the Fire outside the playoff places heading into a three-match road trip.
The Fire are currently level on points with Inter Miami, but Miami have more wins which is the first tiebreaker in Major League Soccer, though the Fire have a match in hand.
The Fire had a couple opportunities in the first half to go ahead, but took neither one. The Red Bulls made the most of their only shot on target in the first half in the 39th minute as Jared Stroud found an unmarked Kyle Duncan who scored from inside the penalty area.
The Fire came out better in the second half and got an equalizer six minutes in as Boris Sekulic’s cross found Robert Beric for a tap-in and his ninth goal of the season.
Przemyslaw Frankwoski had two golden chances earlier in the match. The first went wide and the second was headed over the bar. It was third time lucky in the 72nd minute as he pounced on a rebound after Ryan Meara pushed Fabian Herbers’s attempt onto the bar.
The Fire looked heading for three points, but a deflection off Mauricio Pineda led to a scramble in front of Bobby Shuttleworth’s goal and ended with substitute Brian White poking in a rebound one minute into stoppage time.
Fire head coach Raphael Wicky felt this was two points lost, but will take the point given his team’s fightback.
“It feels like we lost two points but at the end of the day we take it,” said Wicky. “I’m proud of the performance of the guys, of coming back and then fighting so hard and really being in all those challenges and second balls and still trying to play football and creating chances.
“We’re in the race,” Wicky said. “It’s a difficult year, but I think next to the progress we have seen from this team, and we have clearly seen (that) progress over the last three months, the playoffs would be the result out of it. That would be great to make that.”
The Fire now face three away from home (where they have not won all season) starting with Wednesday night at Philadelphia. Kickoff is at 6:30pm on WGN-TV and ESPN+.
SCORING SUMMARY:
RBNY-Kyle Duncan (Stroud) 39
CHI-Rober Beric (Sekulic) 51
CHI-Przemyslaw Frankowski (unassisted) 72
RBNY-Brian White (unassisted) 90+1
BOOKING SUMMARY:
RBNY-Dru Yearwood (caution, reckless foul) 55
RBNY-Aaron Long (caution, tactical foul) 79
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Bobby Shuttleworth; #2-Boris Sekulic, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #5-Francisco Calvo, #3-Jonathan Bornstein; #14-Djordje Mihailovic, #10-Alvaro Medran; #11-Przemyslaw Frankowski, #21-Fabian Herbers (#6-Miguel Angel Navarro 79), #7-Ignacio Aliseda; #27-Robert Beric
Subs not used: #24-Connor Sparrow, #36-Andre Reynolds, #25-Nicolas Slonina, #23-Carlos Teran, #16-Micheal Azira, #37-Javier Casas, #40-Brian Gutierrez, #28-Elliot Collier
NEW YORK RED BULLS (4-2-3-1): #18-Ryan Meara; #6-Kyle Duncan, #26-Tim Parker, #33-Aaron Long, #24-Jason Pendant; #27-Sean Davis (#42-Brian White 78), #16-Dru Yearwood (#23-Cristian Casseres Jr 70); #11-Samuel Tetteh (#37-Caden Clark 56), #22-Florian Valot, #8-Jared Stroud (#90-Marc Rzatkowski 78); #74-Tom Barlow
Subs not used: #1-David Jensen, #39-Mandela Egbo, #3-Amro Tarek, #77-Daniel Royer, #21-Omir Fernandez
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 17-8 NY
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 6-4 NY
FOULS: CHI 18-21 NY
OFFSIDES: CHI 4-3 NY
CORNER KICKS: CHI 3-2 NY
SAVES: CHI 2-4 NY
Referee: Ismir Pekmic
Assistant Referees: Frank Anderson, Peter Manilkowski
Fourth Official: Ted Unkel
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
Weather: Cloudy and 43º
Man of the Match: Przemyslaw Frankwoski (CHI)
