Chicago Fire FC 3-3 Philadelphia Union
CHICAGO, IL—It was a much better performance by Chicago Fire FC as they scored more goals in these 90 minutes, than they had in their previous 779. However, it was not enough to net three points as own goals for each side bookended a 3-3 draw at Soldier Field.
The Fire took the lead on an own goal as Miguel Navarro’s cross was deflected by Jakob Glesnes and past a forlorn Andre Blake just 73 seconds into the match. However, the Union were not out of spectacular goals like Glesnes’s last week against Atlanta, Quinn Sullivan bicycled a shot off a corner into the upper 90 to level the score in the 28th minute.
Philadelphia would take the lead just before halftime as Glesnes found Cory Burke in the area and onside and Burke beat Bobby Shuttleworth far post to make it 2-1 to the visitors.
In the second half, the Fire would get two goals off set pieces and from defenders. First, Boris Sekulic would head in a free kick from Alvaro Medran on 56 minutes. Then in the 67th minute, Mauricio Pineda would score on the volley from a Medran corner.
The Fire have not won from a trailing position since October 6th, 2019 (also their last true road win), and that streak continued after Shuttleworth’s attempted clearance of a cross was accidentally knocked in by Sekulic.
Whether this result is a sign of encouragement that the team is playing better or one where the team is angry that they let a lead go is up for debate. According to Fire head coach Raphael Wicky, the answer is somewhere in the middle.
“Yeah, it’s always a little bit in between,” said Wicky. “I think we take the positive out of this. Against Philly, it’s a good point, coming back, coming back, fighting back. Yeah, we are disappointed about the last goal but at the end of the day, I think it’s a good point against them and we take the positives. I think the mood, the mood right now is okay, like I think in the beginning everyone is (down), but then after 10 minutes or so, you realize, okay, I think there was a lot of positives and we have to take that. That’s how it is now. Same with me as well.”
Next Saturday, the Fire will host Columbus Crew SC and the first without capacity restrictions at Soldier Field. Regardless, the play needs to be better if the Fire are going to draw more than the 7,308 (albeit there were storms earlier the day that could have scared off some fans) from Saturday.
“I’m from Europe. In Europe if you lose eight from 10 games it’s a little bit different,” said Fire defender Boris Sekulic when asked about feeling the fan’s support. “We feel [the fans’]support even when our results are bad in this moment. We cannot expect more people in the stadium until we start winning. That’s all I can say about this and thanks to all the people who came today in this weather to support us.”
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Jakob Glesnes (own goal) 2
PHI-Quinn Sullivan (unassisted) 28
PHI-Cory Burke (Glesnes) 45+2
CHI-Boris Sekulic (Medran) 56
CHI-Mauricio Pineda (Medran) 67
PHI-Boris Sekulic (own goal) 79
BOOKING SUMMARY:
PHI-Jack Elliott (caution, tactical foul) 10
PHI-Sergio Santos (caution, reckless foul) 34
CHI-Luka Stojanvic (caution, reckless foul) 44
PHI-Kai Wagner (caution, tactical foul) 53
PHI-Alvas Powell (caution, delaying a restart) 55
CHI-Miguel Navarro (caution, delaying a restart) 63
CHI-Fabian Herbers (caution, tactical foul) 81
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Bobby Shuttleworth; #2-Boris Sekulic,#22-Mauricio Pineda, #5-Francisco Calvo, #6-Miguel Navarro (#3-Jonathan Bornstein 84); #4-Johan Kappelhof, #8-Luka Stojanovic (#11-Przemyslaw Frankowski 63); #10-Alvaro Medran, #21-Fabian Herbers, #7-Ignacio Aliseda; #27-Robert Beric (#9-Chinoso Offor 63)
Subs not used: #32-Gabriel Slonina, #40-Brian Gutierrez, #37-Javier Casas, #14-Jhon Espinoza, #38-Alex Monis, #28-Eliott Collier
PHILADELPHIA UNION (4-1-2-1-2): #18-Andre Blake; #29-Alvas Powell (#15-Olivier Mbaizo 61), #5-Jakob Glesnes, #4-Stuart Findlay, #27-Kai Wagner; #3-Jack Elliottt, #33-Quinn Sullivan (#6-Daniel Gazdag 61), #31-Leon Flach (#2-Matt Real 90); #10-Jamiro Monteiro; #19-Cory Burke, #17-Sergio Santos (#23-Kacper Przybylko 61)
Subs not used: #1-Matt Freese, #30-Paxten Aaronson, #16-Jack McGlynn, #2-Matt Real, #78-Aurelien Collin, #13-Cole Turner
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 14-14 PHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 5-6 PHI
FOULS: CHI 11-9 PHI
OFFSIDES: CHI 3-4 PHI
CORNER KICKS: CHI 6-6 PHI
SAVES: CHI 3-2 PHI
Referee: Fotis Bazakos
Assistant Referees: Adam Wienckowski, Jeremy Kieso
4th Official: Lukasz Szpala
VAR: Alejandro Mariscal
Weather: Rain and 75º
Attendance: 7,308
Man of the Match: Alvaro Medran (CHI)
