Fire Wind-Aided in Victory

Chicago Fire FC 4-3 CF Montreal

CHICAGO, IL—Sunday is St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago, though the parade was held on Saturday as was the annual tradition of dyeing the Chicago River green. For most of the match against CF Montreal, it felt more like Groundhog Day for Chicago Fire fans as they were down 3-1 in the 84th minute. Then, it would be Fire’s lucky day as the Fire netted three goals, including two in stoppage time, to snatch a 4-3 victory from the jaws of defeat. 

The Fire became the first team in MLS history to come down from two goals down in the 84th minute or later to win a match in regulation. Given that there were a total of 24 minutes of stoppage time in the game—and the Fire scoring three goals in stoppage time—regulation might be a social construct. 

The craziness started in the 7th minute when VAR picked up Chase Gasper tripping Matias Coccaro in the box and referee DeShun Beard awarded Montreal a penalty which Coccaro coverted. 

Five minutes later, a more obvious penalty was conceded by Tobias Salquist after taking down Coccaro. Again, Coccaro converted the spot kick. The Fire looked bereft of ideas until almost halftime—which came after the referee gave ten minutes of with the VAR and other stoppages—as out of nowhere, Rafael Czichos sent a long ball that connected to Maren Haile-Selassie who would score from an acute angle to make it 2-1. 

Xherdan Shaqiri was once again subbed before the end of the match. This time, at the 69th minute for Georgios Koutsias. Whether or not it was preservation for his international callup next week, his performances have left something to be desired this season. Also leaving something to be desired was the defense after that sub as a give-and-go with Josef Martinez led to Montreal’s substitute Dominik Iankov scoring to restore Montreal’s two-goal advantage.

However, Montreal would soon have a one-man disadvantage as Raheem Edwards was sent off after officials caught him throwing an elbow at Koutsias in the penalty area. That would result in a penalty for the Fire which Brian Gutierrez would convert in the 84th minute. 

The second half would see a minimum of nine minutes of stoppage time and in the fifth minute of that time added on, Hugo Cuypers pounced from close range to put in the equalizer and net his first for the Fire this season. 

There would be one more sting in the tail in the ninth minute of stoppage time as Kellyn Acosta sent what initially was an innocent-looking long ball from his own half. The wind would take the ball and direct it towards goal and beyond the reach of Jonathan Sirois and into the net to cap off an improbable victory and to be on the right side of a late goal.

“I mean, I don’t know what to tell you to be honest,” said Acosta. “I think that was Chris Brady’s first assist so congrats to Chris. I mean for me it was just about getting the ball in the mixed zone basically and create some things. I had some balls that I found in the back post and if I’m being fully transparent that’s what I tried to do again.

“This time though I had some St. Patrick’s Day luck, the wind was able to take it and for me it was one of those things that when it left my foot I was almost upset with myself like ‘Dang I kind of blew an opportunity.’ Then I realized like this might have a chance, I saw the ‘keeper take two steps and I’m like this really might have a chance, and yeah, I mean he came out and it went over his head and the rest was history. Excited for my first goal with the club, and I’m more excited for the win.”

“What a game!”, said Fire head coach Frank Klopas. “It’s good to be on the other side of games like this, you know? Obviously, the start was one thing and the finish was another thing. So it was obviously a difficult start for us to fall behind right away with two PKs early in the game, it’s not the start that we wanted. We wanted to come out and really bring energy from the start and press them. You can see what the wind can do, even in the first half with us, the adjustment with the backline, maybe we could have dropped a little bit deeper at moments. And then we scored the goal right before the half and then, again, it’s a difficult one because you give up the third goal, but I sensed there was a big belief. I think we pushed the game, we made the moves that we needed to make, I believe. We brought energy onto the field with the changes; there was a big belief within the group all the way to the end and, you know, scored three goals after we came from behind. They don’t call it the Windy City for nothing, I guess, to finish it like that.

“[Overcoming a two-goal deficit was] huge because I think when we gave up those late goals, the question with everybody even in this room was like, you know, here we go with the team in the past because we have leads. But in the end, you have to look at the game. Even though we gave up goals, we created two or three good chances in those games. So it was not a team that was sitting back, that we weren’t aggressive. That’s the thing that I looked at. I mean to score going back down 3-1 and to come back and score three goals, it’s huge, because it gives the team confidence.”

The Fire head to New England next Saturday to take on the Revolution. Kickoff is at 6:30pm CT on Apple TV as part of the MLS Season Pass. 

SCORING SUMMARY:
MTL-Matias Coccaro (penalty kick) 7
MTL-Matias Coccaro (penalty kick) 12
CHI-Maren Haile-Selassie (Czichos) 45+8
MTL-Domink Iankov (Martinez) 70
CHI-Brian Gutierrez (penalty kick) 84
CHI-Hugo Cuypers (Teran) 90+5
CHI-Kellyn Acosts (Brady) 90+9

BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Tobias Salquist (caution, tactical foul) 11
MTL-Matias Coccaro (caution, reckless tackle) 16
CHI-Chase Gasper (caution, reckless tackle) 45+4
CHI-Fabian Herbers (caution, unsporting behavior) 78
MTL-Raheem Edwards (sent off, violent conduct) 82
MTL-Maxime Chioniere (caution, dissent) 90+11

CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1):  #34-Chris Brady; #77-Chase Gasper (#12-Tom Barlow 75), #5-Rafael Czichos, #14-Tobias Salquist (#4-Carlos Teran 45), #27-Allan Arigoni; #21-Fabian Herbers, #23-Kellyn Acosta; #17-Brian Gutierrez, #10-Xherdan Shaqiri (#19-Gerogios Koutsias 69), #7-Maren Haile-Selassie; #9-Hugo Cuypers

Subs not used:  #18-Spencer Richey, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #30-Gaston Gimenez, #8-Chris Mueller, #24-Jonathan Dean, #2-Arnaud Soquet

CF MONTREAL (3-4-1-2):  #40-Jonathan Sirois; #4-Fernando Alvarez, #16-Joel Waterman, #25-Gabriele Corbo; #11-Ariel Lassiter, #29-Maxime Choiniere, #6-Samuel Piette, #22-Ruan (#44-Raheem Edwards 65); #10-Bryce Duke (#8-Dominik Iankov 65; #23-Ousman Jabang 88); #9-Matias Coccaro (#17-Josef Martinez 45), #14-Sunusi Ibrahim (#19-Nathan Saliba 45)

Subs not used:  #1-Sebastien Breza, #2-Victor Wanyama, #13-Mason Toye, #3-Joaquin Sosa

EXPECTED GOALS:  CHI 2.78-2.66 MTL
TOTAL SHOTS:  CHI 22-8 MTL
SHOTS ON GOAL:  CHI 12-3 MTL
FOULS:  CHI 15-17 MTL
OFFSIDES:  CHI 5-1 MTL
CORNER KICKS:  CHI 9-1 MTL
SAVES:  CHI 0-8 MTL

Referee:  DeShun Beard
Assistant Referees:  Wale Animashaun, Race Williams
4th Official:  Mersid Turjacanin
VAR:  Joe Fletcher
Attendance:  14,874
Weather:  Mostly Sunny and 56º
Man of the Match: Kellyn Acosta (CHI)