Real Salt Lake 2-1 Chicago Fire
SANDY, UT–The Fire slumped to a club-record sixth straight loss in the league after falling 2-1 to Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium.
The Fire are now closer to bottom of the East DC United (who have five matches in hand on the Fire) than they are the red line. RSL go four points clear of seventh-place Vancouver who drew at NYCFC.
With an Open Cup semifinal coming up on Wednesday, Veljko Paunovic made six changes to the lineup including a maiden start for Stefan Cleveland. Cleveland would make eight saves in the loss.
The Fire has some good individual efforts, but it was a couple of moments that sandwiched a wonder strike from Bastian Schweinsteiger in the 48th minute that caused this loss.
Damir Kreilach headed in a cross from Jefferson Savarino from point blank range just before halftime and then a cheap giveaway by Aleksandar Katai in the 75th minute followed by poor defense led to Kreilach’s second of the night. RSL could have had more but for Cleveland.
Schweinsteiger ended the match very frustrated and received a post-match yellow for dissent from referee Kevin Stott. In the 53rd minute, Schweinsteiger received what looked like an elbow to the face from Kyle Beckerman that went unpunished and not reviewed by VAR.
In any case, this was yet another match where the Fire were trying to be competitive more than they were trying to win. They need to win on Wednesday (6pm CT) or next Saturday’s match against Red Bulls (7:30pm ESPN+) will not be for the faint of heart.
SCORING SUMMARY:
RSL-Damir Kreilach (Savarino) 45+3
CHI-Bastian Schweinsteiger (Conner) 48
RSL-Damir Kreilach (Plata) 75
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Drew Conner (caution, reckless foul) 55
RSL-Marcelo Silva (caution, reckless foul) 90
CHI-Bastian Schweinsteiger (caution, dissent) 90+6
REAL SALT LAKE (4-2-3-1): #18-Nick Rimando; #12-Brooks Lennon, #30-Marcelo Silva, #15-Justen Glad, #22-Aaron Herrera; #6-Damir Kreilach, #5-Kyle Beckerman; #7-Jefferson Savarino (#23-Sebastian Saucedo 90+2), #11-Albert Rusnak (#13-Nick Besler 90+5), #10-Joao Plata; #27-Corey Baird (#8-Sunny 86)
Subs not used: #51-Andrew Putna, #26-Shawn Barry, #25-Danilo Acosta, #31-Pablo Ruiz
CHICAGO FIRE (5-4-1): #30-Stefan Cleveland; #17-Diego Campos (#22-Nicolas Hasler 32), #5-Kevin Ellis, #16-Jonathan Campbell, #3-Brandon Vincent, #25-Jorge Corrales (#31-Bastian Schweinsteiger 46); #7-Raheem Edwards (#10-Aleksandar Katai 69), #18-Drew Conner, #12-Tony Tchani, #9-Luis Solignac; #21-Alan Gordon
Subs not used: #45-Richard Sanchez, #19-Mo Adams, #13-Brandt Bronico, #23-Nemanja Nikolic
TOTAL SHOTS: RSL 15-11 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: RSL 10-4 CHI
FOULS: RSL 4-14 CHI
OFFSIDES: RSL 7-2 CHI
CORNER KICKS: RSL 18-17 CHI
SAVES: RSL 8-3 CHI
Referee: Kevin Stott
Assistant Referees: Jeffrey Greeson, Gjovalin Bori
Fourth Official: Malik Badawi
VAR: Kevin Terry Jr.
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 85º
Attendance: 19,817
Man of the Match: Damir Kreilach (RSL)
Chicago Fire
