Photo Credit: NYCFC
BRONX, NY–The Chicago Fire’s 11-match unbeaten run ended against 10-man New York City FC, 2-1, at Yankee Stadium. NYCFC move to within one point of the second place Fire with the Fire having a match in hand.
The Fire lost a man before the match as Brandon Vincent strained a left quad in warmups and was replaced by Michael Harrington in the starting lineup. NYCFC would lose a man during the match as Yangel Herrera was sent off for two yellows after just 12 minutes for two rash challenges, eight minutes of having a penalty appeal wrongly denied himself.
No goals in the first 45 minutes, but there would be three in the next nine. Former Fire draft pick Jonathan Lewis found David Villa in the 47th minute who scored on the volley beating Matt Lampson far post. Three minutes later, Lampson was beaten again after making the initial save on a free kick only for Frederic Brilliant to head the rebound in to make it 2-0 to the hosts.
David Accam, a halftime substitute, pulled one back in the 54th minute after his shot from 20 yards out struck the underside of the crossbar and over the line. The Fire, who clearly looked slugging after a 17-day layoff, pushed hard for an equalizer, but were denied repeatedly by Sean Johnson, by their own sub-fluid passing, and finally the post as Juninho struck it in stoppage time.
Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic was disappointed with his team’s perceived lack of energy and urgency.
“First of all congrats to NYCFC on the three points, they deserve it,” said Paunovic. “They had more spirit than us and I think they wanted it more. And when you don’t have the right approach like we had the whole game, and how important this game was for us and playing this game against NYC here and having one man up very early, it’s an opportunity you cannot just let go. It’s not totally what NYC did as much as what we didn’t do. It’s all about us. As I said congrats to NYC but we weren’t sharp, we weren’t in the game. We didn’t have the right approach or spirit. Any changes that we did was a very small improvement. And for me it’s the attitude. Yes its hard but it was hard for NYC as well and they were one man down which should be more difficult for them. We weren’t sharp, we didn’t move the ball, we didn’t create superiority, we didn’t dare with the ball, maybe in the second half a little bit more, but when we had more urgencies but not good enough. This isn’t the way the Chicago Fire plays. This is not the way we have to present ourselves to the public. It’s a long way to go we haven’t done anything and now you see how tough it is when you don’t put into the game everything you have.”
The Fire, who will likely have Dax McCarty back by that time, travel to Sporting Kansas City next Saturday. Kickoff is at 7:30pm on CSN Chicago Plus.
SCORING SUMMARY:
NYC-David Villa (Lewis) 47
NYC-Frederic Brilliant (unassisted) 50
CHI-David Accam (unassisted) 54
BOOKING SUMMARY:
NYC-Yangel Herrera (caution, reckless tackle) 8
NYC-Yangel Herrera (sent off, second bookable offense) 12
CHI-Joao Meira (caution, reckless foul) 44
CHI-Johan Kappelhof (caution, tactical foul) 61
NYC-Jack Harrison (caution, tactical foul) 83
NYC-Frederic Brilliant (caution, delaying a restart) 87
NEW YORK CITY FC (4-3-3): #1-Sean Johnson; #2-Ben Sweat (#5-Mikey Lopez 37), #13-Frederic Brilliant, #6-Alexander Callens, #3-Ethan White; #8-Alexander Ring, #10-Maximiliano Moralez, #30-Yangel Herrera; #11-Jack Harrison, #7-David Villa (#14-Kwame Awuah 90+4), #17-Jonathan Lewis (#9-Sean Okoli 71)
Subs not used: #25-Erik Johansen, #15-Tommy McNamara, #21-Andrea Pirlo, #27-RJ Allen
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #28-Matt Lampson; #2-Matt Polster (#14-Djordje Mihailovic 55), #4-Johan Kappelhof, #66-Joao Meira, #5-Michael Harrington; #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger, #19-Juninho; #9-Luis Solignac (#11-David Accam 46), #8-Michael de Leeuw (#20-Daniel Johnson 69), #12-Arturo Alvarez; #23-Nemanja Nikolic
Subs not used: #30-Stefan Cleveland, #16-Jonathan Campbell, #14-Djordje Mihailovic, #18-Drew Conner
TOTAL SHOTS: NYC 15-25 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: NYC 6-9 CHI
FOULS: NYC 7-13 CHI
OFFSIDES: NYC 3-4 CHI
CORNER KICKS: NYC 2-8 CHI
SAVES: NYC 7-4 CHI
Referee: Allen Chapman
Referee’s Assistants: Kyle Atkins, Gianni Facchini
Fourth Official: Alex Chilwicz
Weather: Fair and 87º
Attendance: 26,025
Man of the Match: David Villa (NYC)
Chicago Fire
NYCFC
