Nashville SC 3-0 Chicago Fire FC
NASHVILLE, TN–When the starting XI came out for the Fire, it was apparent that they were prioritizing Tuesday’s US Open Cup match against St. Louis CITY SC at SeatGeek Stadium. Eight lineup changes were made, but all it did was expose the Fire’s inferiorities and showed them what an impactful Designated Player is supposed to look like in Hany Mukhtar. His hat trick led to a 3-0 win over the Fire at Geodis Park.
As mentioned, the eight lineup changes from last week meant the only holdovers were Chris Brady, Federico Navarro, and Rafael Czichos. Czichos would come off in the 22nd minute after feeling tightness. He hopes to be available for the rest of the week against St. Louis.
It was a one-sided first half in Nashville’s favor, thought they lacked a finishing touch for most of it until just before halftime as Federico Navarro took down Dax McCarty in the box on a corner kick and conceded a penalty which Mukhtar duly converted.
Brian Gutierrez, who started on the bench due to groin tightness, was inserted to start the second half along with Gaston Gimenez. Almost immediately, the Fire played better and pressed for an equalizer, but was susceptible to a counter in the 67th minute through Jacob Shaffelburg and another penalty kick as Kendall Burks took him down. That led to another spot kick conversion from Mukhtar.
Mukhtar would get his hat trick in stoppage time after scoring off a rebound after Chris Brady made an initial save on Fafa Picault. The Fire were outshot 30-5 overall and 11-3 on shots on goal. The expected goals were 4.5 for Nashville and 0.4 for the Fire.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest that the Fire need to win on Tuesday at SeatGeek Stadium against St. Louis (7pm, Bleacher Report YouTube) for this to be worth the lineup changes. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to calls for numerous changes in the soccer operations if they weren’t there already.
