Chicago Fire FC 1-0 DC United
CHICAGO, IL—For the first time since March 19th, Chicago Fire FC tasted victory as they defeated DC United, 1-0, ending a ten-match winless streak before 17,650 at Soldier Field.
Despite not having Xherdan Shaqiri (hamstring) or Jairo Torres (hip), Brian Gutierrez stepped up to be the creative force for the Fire in the first half generating several chances, including some for himself. It remained goalless in the first half largely thanks to Rafael Romo who made six saves on the night.
DC had eleven shots on the night, but none on target. Its two closest chances were a pair of headers. First, Steve Birnbaum headed over the bar from a Julian Gressel free kick, and then Taxi Fountas headed over from point blank range in the 71st minute.
The breakthrough for the Fire came in the 78th minute when Fabian Herbers deflected a shot from Kacper Przybylko past Romo for the game’s only score.
“This week, especially, the boys really, put it in, and we give them a challenge tonight that you know, we need to have a mentality when we step on the pitch,” said Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson. “And an attitude that, you know, we don’t just want to dominate games, you know, we don’t want to just play better than teams we want to beat teams. And they went out today from the start and really showed that mentality, showed that attitude, every man to a tee.”
The Fire travel to Houston next Saturday to take on the Dynamo. Kickoff is at 7pm CT on UniMas.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Fabian Herbers (Przybylko) 78
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Federico Navarro (caution, reckless foul) 30
DC-Donovan Pines (caution, delaying a restart) 33
DC-Andy Najar (caution, reckless tackle) 72
CHI-Fabian Herbers (caution, time wasting) 87
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Gaga Slonina; #2-Boris Sekulic, #20-Wyatt Omsberg (#23-Carlos Teran 90+5), #5-Rafael Czichos, #3-Jonathan Bornstein; #30-Gaston Gimenez (#22-Mauricio Pineda 90+5), #31-Federico Navarro; #99-Stanislav Ivanov (#21-Fabian Herbers 65), #40-Brian Gutierrez (#14-Jhon Espinoza 75), #8-Chris Mueller; #11-Kacper Przybylko
Subs not used: #18-Spencer Richey, #23-Carlos Teran, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #26-Jhon Duran, #37-Javier Casas, #9-Chinoso Offor, #36-Andre Reynolds
DC UNITED (3-4-3): #1-Rafael Romo; #23-Donovan Pines, #15-Steve Birnbaum, #14-Andy Najar (#93-Antonio Alfaro 73); #31-Julian Gressel, #8-Chris Durkin, #13-Sofiane Djeffal (#7-Michael Estrada 84), #5-Brad Smith (#17-Kimani Smith 84); #11-Taxi Fountas, #9-Ola Kamara (#19-Nigel Robertha 73), #12-Drew Skundrich (#6-Russell Canouse 73)
Subs not used: #21-Jon Kempin, #25-Jackson Hopkins, #77-Ryan Hope-Gund
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 14-11 DC
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 7-0 DC
FOULS: CHI 17-16 DC
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-1 DC
CORNER KICKS: CHI 3-2 DC
SAVES: CHI 0-6 DC
Referee: Nima Saghafi
Assistant Referees: Brian Poeschel, Diego Blas
4th Official: Calin Radosav
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
Attendance: 17,650
Weather: Clear and 63º
Man of the Match: Fabian Herbers (CHI)
