Chicago Fire 4-0 Louisville City FC
BRIDGEVIEW, IL–Louisville City FC put in a valiant effort, but the quality gap was too much to overcome as the Fire strolled to a 4-0 win to advance to their 13th US Open Cup semifinal and 5th in six years.
Nemanja Nikolic opened the scoring in the 16th minute heading in a cross from Aleksandar Katai. It was his fourth goal in three Open Cup matches.
“The goals are important for me and for the team always and especially in these kind of games when you want to score immediately at the beginning of the game,” said Nikolic. “It helps us to play with more calm and more confidence.”
Katai himself scored in the 33rd minute collecting a pass from Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Louisville continued to attack and showed endeavor to get back into the match buoyed by their boisterous support who made the journey to Bridgeview. But the quality was with the other side and by the end, frustrations built and the visitors would go a man down after Kyle Smith was sent off for a rash challenge on Tony Tchani.
It got worse in second half stoppage time as a bad back pass to goalkeeper Tim Dombrowski led to a Diego Campos goal. Then, Elliot Collier would score from a acute angle to make it 4-0. Finally, Louisville ended with nine men after Magnus Rasmussen got his marching orders for lashing out at Tchani.
The lineup decision from last Saturday against Dallas and the lineup on Wednesday night against Louisville may signal that the Fire are placing priority on the Cup, but Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic says that every game is a final.
“Every game is important. Open Cup is very important for us and we are very happy to advance to the next round, but for us the league is also very important for us. It’s the same priority, getting into the playoffs and from there we will set new goals…For us, every game is the final. This game is a final and it’s behind us and Saturday is another final [against Toronto].”
During the match fans in the Harlem End (north end of the stadium) displayed banners protesting the Fire front office regarding mismanagement of the club and the situation with Sector Latino and the clearance of Section 101. There was due to be no organized supporters activities according to a statement by Section 8 Chicago on Monday, but the banners were well visible by the crowd who attended. More on this later this week.
In the meantime, the Fire advance to the semifinal against Philadelphia Union on Wednesday, August 9th with the draw to determine the hosts of the semifinals and the Final taking place on Thursday at 12:45pm at Soccer House in Chicago.
The Fire’s next league match is Saturday at home against Toronto FC at 6pm on ESPN+.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Nemanja Nikolic (Katai) 16
CHI-Aleksandar Katai (Schweinsteiger) 33
CHI-Diego Campos (unassisted) 90
CHI-Elliot Collier (unassisted) 90+2
BOOKING SUMMARY:
LOU-Paco Craig (caution, reckless tackle) 62
LOU-Paolo DelPiccolo (caution, reckless foul) 64
LOU-Kyle Smith (sent off, serious foul play) 84
CHI-Elliot Collier (caution, reckless foul) 86
LOU-Sean Totsch (caution, tactical foul) 89
LOU-Magnus Rasmussen (sent off, violent conduct) 90+3
CHI-Tony Tchani (caution, dissent) 90+4
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #45-Richard Sanchez; #25-Jorge Corrales, #3-Brandon Vincent, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #17-Diego Campos; #13-Brandt Bronico, #6-Dax McCarty (#12-Tony Tchani 70); #10-Aleksandar Katai (#27-Rafael Ramos 73), #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger (#16-Jonathan Campbell 82), #28-Elliot Collier; #23-Nemanja Nikolic
Subs not used: #30-Stefan Cleveland, #18-Drew Conner, #20-Daniel Johnson, #21-Alan Gordon
LOUISVILLE CITY FC (3-4-2-1): #28-Tim Dombrowski; #15-Pat McMahon (#21-Shaun Francis 73), #4-Sean Totsch, #5-Paco Craig; #24-Kyle Smith, #80-Devon Williams, #36-Paolo DelPiccolo, #19-Oscar Jimenez; #22-George Davis IV (#14-Ilija Ilic 58), #10-Brian Ownby; #9-Cameron Lancaster (#7-Magnus Rasmussen 60)
Subs not used: #13-Chris Hubbard
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 17-10 LOU
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 7-3 LOU
FOULS: CHI 15-18 LOU
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-0 LOU
CORNER KICKS: CHI 3-2 LOU
SAVES: CHI 3-3 LOU
Referee: Nima Saghafi
Assistant Referees: Andrew Bigelow, Art Arustamyan
Fourth Official: Eric Tattersall
Video Assistant Referee: Timothy Goldman
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 75º
Attendance: 3,322
Man of the Match: Aleksandar Katai (CHI)
Chicago Fire
US Open Cup
April, 2024
