Giorgios Giakoumakis scored the opening goal (Photo: Jim Stapp)
Atlanta United 2-1 Chicago Fire
ATLANTA, GA–They say you make your own luck. The last several years have seen the Fire make a lot of bad luck and Sunday against Atlanta United had two examples resulting in a 2-1 loss at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Five Stripes keep third in the East with the win, while the Fire stay in tenth with the loss after dropping there after Saturday’s action.
Atlanta took the lead in the 13th minute after a long ball from Thiago Almada was kept in by Brooks Lennon, misplayed by the Fire’s Rafael Czichos, and put in from close range by Giogios Giakoumakis who scored in his fifth successive match.
The Fire spent most of the remainder of the match looking for the equalizer and were more dangerous with Brian Gutierrez in central midfield than with Xherdan Shaqiri who played 61 minutes. Federico Navarro also returned to action for the first time since March 4th.
The Fire’s equalizer came in the 90th minute when Franco Ibarra’s very ill-advised back pass was intercepted by Kacper Przybylko who had his first effort saved by Clement Diop (who subbed for starter Quintin Westberg at halftime), but scored on the second chance after Gutierrez kept the ball in the final third. It was the second straight match that Atlanta had given up a goal in second half stoppage time.
The Fire then had to endure nine minutes of stoppage time to preserve a point, but despite an amazing save by Chris Brady late, a corner kick in the ninth minute of stoppage time went off the thigh of Juan Purata, off the back of Maren Haile-Selassie and in for an own goal and Atlanta got out of jail.
It’s hard to keep a team optimistic after they constantly drop points like the Fire have the last two seasons, but head coach Ezra Hendrickson isn’t giving up.
“We’re making good progress, so the guys continue to fight,” said Hendrickson. “As long as I’m the coach here, I’m going to keep them positive and keep the confidence high. One of the things we tell them is like when you get in pressure situations like this, think of an egg and a potato. Same boiling water, the egg becomes hardened and the potato becomes soft. What are you going to be, are you going to be an egg or a potato?
“We have to learn to take the positive, egg side of things and be hard when things get rough, and especially on the road like this, can we find a way to come out with that point tonight. Tonight we were not able to but we’re getting better, and that’s something that I am happy to see that the players are grasping what we are trying to do and they are doing what we are trying to teach them in training.
“The finishing part of things is still something that we are lacking because tonight we had really, really good chances in the box to score and we didn’t take them, and I think that came back to haunt us tonight. But confidence-wise, it’s not (hard) to keep them upbeat because they know that they are playing good football. We are just not quite there yet.”
It is hoped that the Fire will at least get there against Chicago House AC on Wednesday night in the US Open Cup at SeatGeek Stadium. Kickoff is at 7pm. Atlanta is home in the US Open Cup against Memphis 901 FC of the USL Championship on Tuesday at Fifth Third Stadium in Kennesaw.
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