Benny Feilhaber of Sporting Kansas City gave his side the lead just before halftime against the Chicago Fire (photo credit: Sporting Kansas City).
Sporting Kansas City 3-2 Chicago Fire
KANSAS CITY, KS—While the Chicago Fire have improved in virtually every area this season, one thing that has not improved nearly as much has been their away form and once again the Fire were jarringly inconsistent in their intensity in a 3-2 loss to Sporting Kansas City. Sporting KC extends their unbeaten run to eight and remain unbeaten at home while the Fire could drop to third in the East should New York City FC get a win in Toronto on Sunday.
This Fire three-match away trip ends the same way as the first one in April with the Fire getting just one point out of a possible nine.
Dax McCarty was back in the Fire’s starting lineup, but it was an errant header from him in the 23rd minute that allowed Daniel Salloi to go on a counter attack and his shot would deflect off Joao Meira and past Matt Lampson for the opening score.
The Fire did get a lucky break five minutes later as Matt Besler deflected in Matt Polster’s cross to level matters. However, things would not stay level at halftime as Benny Feilhaber scored on a bicycle kick from close range after Lampson had initially made the save on Latif Blessing to give the hosts the lead.
Six minutes into the second half, Sporting KC doubled their advantage as Blessing beat Lampson far post after being given too much space in the box.
David Accam entered the match in the 55th minute and would make an impact yet again late. Accam would put in Patrick Doody’s cross in the 78th minute to make it 3-2. But yet again, that impact did not result in points though again it was very close late. This time, Tim Melia made an outstanding save late on Nemanja Nikolic to preserve the victory. It was one of just two saves Melia had to make on the evening.
McCarty gave his assessment on what went wrong on Saturday night after the match.
“It was execution,” said McCarty. “You score two goals against the best defense in the League on the road against the keeper that’s playing the best in the League right now, you should probably try to defend and not concede three goals if you want to come out with a result. But that’s not the case, we defended very poorly and that’s what you get. The first goal is my fault. I’m trying to be cute and head the ball backwards because I think we have defenders there and I put a guy in on a 75 yard run unimpeded to our goal where he gets in the box and scores off a deflection. Second goal, guy comes through in the box, cross, Lampson makes a great save. We don’t win the second ball, goal. And then the third goal, a guy’s just standing in the box with the ball at his feet six yards from our goal and we have no one closing him down. So I think it’s pretty simple where the breakdowns occurred and it’s not just with the defenders or the midfielders or the attackers, it’s with the entire team.”
The Fire return home next Saturday to face the New England Revolution. Kickoff is at 7:30pm on CSN Plus. Hopefully, a return home (after an All-Star Game at Soldier Field) will help restore winning ways.
SCORING SUMMARY:
SKC-Daniel Salloi (unassisted) 23
CHI-Matt Besler (own goal) 28
SKC-Benny Feilhaber (unassisted) 45+1
SKC-Latif Blessing (Rubio, Salloi) 51
CHI-David Accam (Doody) 78
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Juninho (caution, tactical foul) 76
CHI-Joao Meira (caution, tactical foul) 90
SPORTING KANSAS CITY (4-3-3): #29-Tim Melia; #8-Graham Zusi, #3-Ike Opara, #5-Matt Besler, #15-Seth Sinovic; #27-Roger Espinoza, #6-Ilie Sanchez, #10-Benny Feilhaber (#2-ErikPalmer-Brown 87); #9-Latif Blessing (#94-Jimmy Medranda 83), #11-Diego Rubio, #30-Daniel Salloi (#19-Cristian Lobato 73)
Subs not used: #21-Andrew Dykstra, #17-Saad Abdul-Salaam, #4-Kevin Ellis, #22-Soony Saad
CHICAGO FIRE (4-3-3): #28-Matt Lampson; #2-Matt Polster, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #66-Joao Meira, #22-Patrick Doody; #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger (#16-Jonathan Campbell 90+1), #6-Dax McCarty, #19-Juninho (#20-Daniel Johnson 77); #9-Luis Solignac (#11-David Accam 55), #23-Nemanja Nikolic, #8-Michael de Leeuw
Subs not used: #30-Stefan Cleveland, #5-Michael Harrington, #16-Jonathan Campbell, #14-Djordje Mihailovic, #18-Drew Conner
TOTAL SHOTS: SKC 19-10 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: SKC 9-3 CHI
FOULS: SKC 8-10 CHI
OFFSIDES: SKC 5-3 CHI
CORNER KICKS: SKC 5-5 CHI
SAVES: SKC 2-6 CHI
Referee: Alan Kelly
Referee’s Assistants: Eric Weisbrod, Mike Kampmeinert
4th Official: Alejando Mariscal
Weather: Mostly Sunny and 82º
Attendance: 20,313
Man of the Match: Daniel Salloi (SKC)
Chicago Fire
Sporting Kansas City
