ORLANDO, FL–Back in action after 129 days and against the team they opened the 2020 season against on March 1st, Chicago Fire FC got their revenge on Seattle Sounders FC with a 2-1 decision in their opening match at the MLS is Back Tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando. The win puts the Fire atop Group B on three points while the Sounders all of a sudden find themselves in third after two matches on a solitary point.
After an fairly uneventful first half, the Fire got on the board seven minutes into the second and Xavier Arreaga misplayed a long ball from Mauricio Pineda allowing Robert Beric in on goal. Beric then got by Yeimar Gomez Andrade and beat Stefan Frei far post to put the Fire ahead.
Just as on March 1st, Jordan Morris started on the bench and came on in the second half. It appeared he would prove the difference for the Sounders again as he fed fellow sub Handwalla Bwana for the equalizer in the 77th minute.
But seven minutes later, the ending would be different as the Fire got a corner and Pineda stood by on the far post to put the ball in the back of the net and the Fire held on for three valuable points on this Tuesday morning.
“I’m obviously very, very happy with the team spirit, with the fighting spirit the team put on the field,” said Fire head coach Raphael Wicky. “It’s tough for everyone. It’s our first game since four months, and so I wanted to see a team who works together, fights together. We saw that.
“I think we, in the first half, actually had three, four, five quite good chances, half-chances, where we were a threat going forward, even (though) we didn’t have the ball as much as Seattle, we were well-organized, and in the second half it became more and more difficult. We dropped -I think a little bit too deep. We couldn’t really keep the ball anymore and we couldn’t really then create stuff and make them run. But (at) the end of the day, it’s the first game. It’s a big win for us against a champion and I’m really proud of the performance the team has put on the field.”
As for Pineda, he was impressing prior to the season being interrupted, and took Man of the Match honors with his first professional goal and an assist in the win.
“I guess I haven’t really reflected too much,” said Pineda on the hard work to get to this point. “I think right now all my energy is going towards this team. I’m just really happy that we got the three points. I think everything has been directed towards this game, all the hard work that we have had in the past three to four months, so I’m just putting all my energy on that and I’m glad we got the result and I’m happy with that and I’m ready to move on to the next game.”
As for the Sounders, they find themselves needing a win against Vancouver on Sunday to have a shot at advancing.
“We have to get a win to have any chance of going through,” Sounders forward Jordan Morris said via videoconference call provided by MLS. “That’s our mentality for the next game. We’ll have a little bit more rest, which will be good. Vancouver is a team we’re familiar with, so we’re going to have to come out and do everything we can to get a win.”
The Fire also next play on Sunday against the San Jose Earthquakes. Kickoff is at 7pm central time on FS1 and TUDN.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Robert Beric (Pineda) 52
SEA-Handwalla Bwana (Morris) 77
CHI-Mauricio Pineda (Gimenez) 84
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Fabian Herbers (caution, tactical foul) 22
SEA-Shandon Hopeau (caution, tactical foul) 41
SEA-Yeimar Gomez (caution, reckless tackle) 60
SEA-Raul Ruidiaz (caution, tactical foul) 90
CHICAGO FIRE (4-3-3): #18-Kenneth Kronholm; #2-Boris Sekulic, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #5-Francisco Calvo (#20-Wyatt Omsberg 75), #3-Jonathan Bornstein (#6-Miguel Angel Navarro 46); #11-Przemyslaw Frankowski, #30-Gaston Gimenez, #10-Alvaro Medran (#8-Luka Stojanovic 75); #21-Fabian Herbers (#14-Djordje Mihailovic 68), #9-CJ Sapong, #27-Robert Beric (#28-Elliot Collier 90+1)
Subs not used: #24-Connor Sparrow, #32-Gabriel Slonina, #36-Andre Reynolds, #25-Nicholas Slonina, #13-Brandt Bronico, #37-Javier Casas, #7-Ignacio Aliseda
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC (4-2-3-1): #24-Stefan Frei; #18-Kelvin Leerdam (#8-Jordy Delern 85), #28-Yeimar Gomez (#27-Shane O’Neill 62), #3-Xavier Arreaga (#16-Alex Roldan 85), #5-Nouhou Tolo; #4-Gustav Svensson, #7-Cristian Roldan; #37-Shandon Hopeau (#13-Jordan Morris 46), #10-Nicolas Lodeiro, #11-Miguel Ibarra (#70-Handwalla Bwana 58); #9-Raul Ruidiaz
Subs not used: #1-Trey Muse, #30-Stefan Cleveland, #84-Joshua Atencio, #45-Ethan Dobbelaere, #75-Danny Leyva, #99-Justin Dhillon
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 10-7 SEA
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 5-1 SEA
FOULS: CHI 9-12 SEA
OFFSIDES: CHI 0-4 SEA
CORNER KICKS: CHI 5-2 SEA
SAVES: CHI 0-3 SEA
Referee: Rosendo Mendooza
Assistant Referees: Kathryn Nesbitt, Jeremy Kieso
4th Official: Armando Villarreal
VAR: Allen Chapman
Weather: Fair and 82º
Man of the Match: Mauricio Pineda (CHI)
