Chicago Fire FC 0-0 FC Dallas
CHICAGO, IL—For the third time in five matches, Chicago Fire FC played to a 0-0 draw—this time against FC Dallas at a rainy Soldier Field on Saturday afternoon. The Fire retained the Brimstone Cup with the result as well as their unbeaten run to start the season (2-0-3).
There was an enforced change to Ezra Hendrickson’s lineup as Rafael Czichos entered Health and Safety Protocols on Friday meaning that Federico Navarro entered the starting lineup for the first time. Nineteen minutes into the match, there would be an enforced sub as Xherdan Shaqiri pulled due to calf tightness and was replaced by Brian Gutierrez. Shaqiri had played two friendlies for Switzerland over the past week.
“He felt some tightness in his calf,” said Hendrickson. “He felt like he needed to come out before he did something serious to it. Hopefully, it’s just a little bit of tightness and we get him ready for next weekend. But nothing serious as of now.
“We thought about it as a staff. We discussed it a length. We decided if anything, we needed him to play today. Maybe not the full 90 minutes, but at least start off with him on the pitch because he makes that much of a difference for us. He trained without issue, yesterday. We didn’t foreseeIt’s one of those things you can’t really predict, but he’s a smart guy. He’s an experienced guy, so he felt like he had to come out.”
Despite all of that, the Fire didn’t miss a beat defensively as Mauricio Pineda worked well in central defense with Wyatt Omsberg. However, the attack did suffer a bit without Shaqiri and with the weather. There were shots for both teams, but there was just one on target—for each team. Boris Sekulic had the best chance for the Fire coming down the right flank, but pushed his shot wide of target.
Hendrickson took the good and not-as-good about the match on Saturday.
“It wasn’t our best performance today,” said Hendrickson. “It wasn’t one of our most fluid games, especially on the ball I thought it was a little slow… But also, I told them it’s a sign of a team that’s gelling together, that’s getting better when even on your worst night, a night when you don’t play your best football, you still find a way to get something out of the game, and not lose the game.”
The Fire will travel to Orlando City SC next Saturday for a noon CT kickoff on Univision in Spanish and Twitter in English.
SCORING SUMMARY:
None
BOOKING SUMMARY:
DAL-Facundo Quignon (caution, reckless tackle) 17
CHI-Wyatt Omsberg (caution, reckless foul) 39
DAL-Marco Farfan (caution, tactical foul) 47
CHI-Jhon Espinoza (caution, tactical foul) 62
CHI-Kacper Przybylko (caution, tactical foul) 69
CHI-Javier Casas Jr. (caution, tactical foul) 89
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Gaga Slonina; #6-Miguel Navarro, #20-Wyatt Omsberg, #31-Federico Navarro, #2-Boris Sekulic (#14-Jhon Espinoza 61); #30-Gaston Gimenez, #22-Mauricio Pindea; #21-Fabian Herbers (#3-Jonathan Bornstein 60), #10-Xherdan Shaqiri (#40-Brian Gutierrez 19), #99-Stanislav Ivanov (#37-Javier Casas Jr. 84); #11-Kacper Przybylko
Subs not used: #18-Spencer Richey, #27-Kendall Burks, #33-Victor Bezerra, #9-Chinoso Offor, #23-Carlos Teran
FC DALLAS (4-3-3): #30-Maarten Paes; #31-Nanu, #24-Matt Hedges, #3-Jose Martinez, #4-Marco Farfan; #18-Brandon Servania, #5-Facundo Quignon (#6-Edwin Cerillo 62), #19-Paxton Pomykal (#16-Tskik Ntsabeleng 84); #8-Jader Obrian, #29-Franco Jara (#10-Jesus Ferreira 62), #20-Alan Velasco (#21-Kalil ElMedkhar 90+1)
Subs not used: #1-Jimmy Maurer, #21-Kalil ElMedkhar, #2-Eddie Munjoma, #11-Szabolcs Schon, #17-Nkosi Tafari, #22-Ema Twumasi
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 9-5 DAL
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 1-1 DAL
FOULS: CHI 15-18 DAL
OFFSIDES: CHI 4-4 DAL
CORNER KICKS: CHI 2-1 DAL
SAVES: CHI 1-1 DAL
Referee: Pierre-Luc Lauziere
Assistant Referees: Logan Brown, Jose Da Silva
Fourth Official: Calin Radosav
VAR: Geoff Gamble
Weather: Rain and 39º
Attendance: 11,411
Man of the Match: Gaston Gimenez (CHI)
