CHICAGO, IL–Fabian Herbers prefers a starting role, but stepped onto the pitch as a substitute for the Chicago Fire that led to the game-winning goal over visiting DC United 1-0 at Soldier Field Saturday night.
For Herbers, he stepped onto the field in the 65th minute and produced the goal 13-minutes later with a header from Kacper Przbylko’s assist.
“I got the goal at the end, and I was happy to help the team,” said Herbers, who also scored his first goal of the season. I just tried to help the team and give everything you got in front of the home crowd. I do prefer starting the match. The coach put me in and wanted some fresh legs on the field and I thought the other guys played pretty well so far. But obviously, when you put somebody else in you give a different look and I just tried to bring energy and give (DC United’s) defense more problems. Luckily, I got the goal this time.”
Even Chris Mueller noticed a big difference with the effort from Herbers and what it caused in the final third of the field.
“Yes, it was a very important play,” Mueller said. “He knew what he had to do coming off the bench and it’s important for the subs to come in from the bench and give us some energy. Just for them do everything they can to impact the game. It was a really good play and a really good moment for the team, He stepped up and he was able to produce that moment.”
The big part of the attack was to get the ball moving and seeing the result. For the Fire that’s the most important part of scoring goals and it’s been something lacking in recent matches.
“He added more movement, and the final product was being sharp on the ball,” Mueller said. Obviously, it helped us out, he got the goal and helped us win the game.”
Coach Ezra Hendrickson made the substitution with Herbers but also brought into the match Jhon Espinoza in the 75th-minute. Which brought in fresh legs and a pretty good combination against the DC United defense.
“We noticed that Guti was getting a little tired and getting a little fatigued,” Hendrickson said. So, my thoughts were that maybe we take him out, put Chris in the middle and put Fabi on the left and get Espinoza on the right wing. So, we have to make a change to kind of stop what was going on over there. And, you know, the guys came on and you know, did the job. Every player, though. The guys who started, the guys who came on, put it in tonight. And that’s what we asked of them. That’s why we train so hard. We work so hard week in and week out to get results, you know, and we haven’t been getting them.”
For this match, the right moves were made at the right times. Now, the Chicago Fire will need to move forward with its momentum and try to build of its first victory in nearly three months.
