CHICAGO, IL—For the first time in 565 days, fans got to see Chicago Fire FC at home and for the first time since they returned to Soldier Field. What did not return was the thrill of a win in the opening match which has not happened since 2009 (0-7-5 since). It looked like it was going to happen, but New England pegged back a 2-0 deficit and the match finish 2-2.
Like last year’s first match at Soldier Field, the Fire got off to a fast start. Luka Stojanovic sent a cross that found Boris Sekulic who fed Robert Beric for a tap-in for the opening score after just five minutes. Six minutes later, Przemyslaw Frankowski sent a cross to Beric who headed it in the direction of Stojanovic to make it 2-0. This was Stojanovic’s first competitive match with the Fire in over nine months.
“Today I played my first game after almost a year without a game,” said Stojanovic. “It was almost nine months for me without any official games and I feel so happy, especially because I came out with a goal, and that’s so important for myself because playing as a number 10 in this league, you need to also improve the statistics. And I think this is the best way for me to help the team.”
If the 2-0 start was atypical, how that lead evaporated has become all too typical. Off a corner kick in the 14th minute, Adam Buksa headed in to pull one back for the Revolution. Then off a throw-in in the 27th minute, Tajon Buchanan found Gustavo Bou who got between two defenders and beat Bobby Shuttleworth near post for the equalizer.
There would be little drama after that, though Edward Kizza would head off the cross bar in the 87th minute and then the Revs’ DeJuan Jones would see red in stoppage time for taking down Frankowski on a breakaway just outside the box.
Fire head coach Raphael Wicky was disappointed that the same thing keeps happening when it comes to mistakes leading to dropped points.
“Yeah, look, it’s repeating, it’s repeating that we give out of hand a very good game,” said Wicky. “I think it was a very intense game overall, a very good game to watch, as well, from two good sides. But yeah, I am frustrated and we are all frustrated and not happy with the way we give the goals away. I know that mistakes happen, but as a team on the field in these moments, players need to step up, players need to do better, need to take the responsibility. This is too easy. Both goals come out of a throw-in. I think the set piece on the first one, the set piece actually also comes out of a throw-in. So those are moments where just, players have to be more awake, more switched on.
“That’s frustrating that we give two goals like that away. Other than that, I think it was a really good game from both sides, very intense, that’s what we felt. We played some really good football and we spoke about that a lot and we (spoke) about that with the team, we need to stop giving up these easy mistakes.”
As mentioned before, this was the first game with fans included at Soldier Field after all of last season at home was played with no fans in the stands. At least that part was enjoyable.
Photo: Amanda Cortese
“Yeah I mean, that was beautiful,” said Wicky. “I was waiting a long time for that, was very excited last year and then it didn’t happen. Like I told you guys last year already, the stadium is amazing but now having fans in there, playing in front of our supporters was really, really, really nice. They did a great job and I can only imagine how it is when it is actually even more full, so hopefully in the future we can have that. I’m sure we will give our best always to make them happy, but I know that they will push us.”
Next up for the Fire is an away match to Atlanta United next Saturday at 7pm CT on WGN-TV.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Robert Beric (Sekulic, Stojanovic) 5
CHI-Luka Stojanovic (Beric, Frankowski) 11
NE-Adam Buksa (Gil) 14
NE-Gustavo Bou (Buchanan) 27
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Johan Kappelhof (caution, reckless tackle) 79
NE-DeJuan Jones (sent off, denial of goal scoring opportunity) 90+5
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Bobby Shuttleworth; #2-Boris Sekulic, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #5-Francisco Calvo, #3-Jonathan Bornstein; #8-Luka Stojanovic (#7-Ignacio Aliseda 65), #10-Alvaro Medran; #11-Przemyslaw Frankowski, #30-Gaston Gimenez, #9-Chinoso Offor (#6-Miguel Navarro 75); #27-Robert Beric
Subs not used: #32-Gabriel Slonina, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #36-Andre Reynolds, #40-Brian Gutierrez, #14-Jhon Espinoza, #37-Javier Casas, #20-Wyatt Omsberg
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION (4-2-3-1): #30-Matt Turner; #15-Brandon Bye, #2-Andrew Farrell, #4-Henry Kessler, #24-DeJuan Jones; #8-Matt Polster, #22-Carles Gil; #17-Tajon Buchanan (#10-Teal Bunbury 61), #7-Gustavo Bou, #26-Tommy McNamara (#5-Wilfred Kaptoum 82); #9-Adam Buksa (#19-Edward Kizza 82)
Subs not used: #18-Brad Knighton, #23-Jonathan Bell, #11-Emmanuel Boateng, #28-AJ DeLaGarza, #6-Scott Caldwell
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 20-13 NE
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 7-5 NE
FOULS: CHI 15-9 NE
OFFSIDES: CHI 0-0 NE
CORNER KICKS: CHI 7-10 NE
SAVES: CHI 3-5 NE
Referee: Fotis Bazakos
Assistant Referees: Brian Poeschel, Peter Manilkowski
4th Official: Lukasz Szpala
Video Assistant Referee: Malik Badawi
Attendance: 8,102
Weather: Sunny and 48º
Man of the Match: Luka Stojanovic (CHI)
