No Shots on Target, No Goals for Fire or Galaxy

CHICAGO, IL--Trying to get points this season has been a battle, but for Chicago Fire FC, a scoreless draw was well worth it for just a point against visiting LA Galaxy at Soldier Field on Saturday night.

Fire goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina earned his 5th clean sheet in 7 matches this season as Chicago (2-1-4, 10 points) claimed its fourth draw, while the LA Galaxy (4-2-1, 13 points) earned its first draw this season.

“At home, it’s always going to feel like two points dropped,” Chicago Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson said. “But if I’m honest, it was an even game and I think both teams probably got the deserved point. But for my sake, I’d much rather have three points, so I’ll call it two points lost.”

The match was a good one on both sides in front of a crowd announced of 30,282 that had a lot of play in the middle of the field but was played without a goal on the board.

“I think I really got to tip my hat off to these guys,” Hendrickson said.  “I mean, every man, again, played. This was a game, I’m sure the fans loved it. It was end-to-end action from minute one to minute 90. That’s the kind of game that we expected from them. (LA Galaxy) was a very good team. They’re one of the better teams that we’ve played so far this year, but we didn’t back down from them. We went at it with them and that’s what the fans like to see: a nice, entertaining game like that, even at 0-0. The excitement was really there. And yeah, keeping it to zero is something that, we know if we do that, we won’t lose the game. And we just have this belief that we can keep every game at zero. But great, great job by the guys tonight. Really, really good. I’m really, really proud of this team and how they are coming together.”

Galaxy has had a leg up on the Fire with a 7-0-5 mark dating back to August 2010 being the last time Chicago got past LA.

The Fire played the match without a couple of key starters out with injuries, Fabian Herbers (right hip) and Xherdin  Shaqiri (calf).

The Galaxy thought that had scored on a couple of occasions in the match, but they had each goal waived off for offsides. Both occurrences happened early in the second half.

First in the 46th minute, Chicharito had taken a through ball from teammate Douglas Costa and put the ball into the back of the net, but Chicharito was caught offsides.

Then just four minutes later, Costa had received a pass from Chicharito and just got ahead of the Fire defense that left him alone to score on goal in the 50th minute. However, the play it was reviewed by the referee and the goal was waived off because Costa was offsides.

“Well, I mean, VAR or no VAR, part of the game is, if you’re offside, you’re offsides,” Hendrickson said. “It was offside. I think, especially second half, the game opened up a lot more and they were able to get behind our midfield a little bit more than we like. We typically don’t let teams get into our interior. If they want to break us down, they have to go through the outside, away from our goal. But there were a couple times I thought we stepped too quickly, and they were able to get behind us. They have good players, and if you give them that space, and you open up the interior that they’re trying to get to, then you pay for it. But thankfully, the back four was in line and stepped up together and played him offside.”

Chicago had its best opportunity in the 63rd minute, when Gaston Gimenez sent a ball forward for Kacper Przybylko. After his touch in the top of the box, Galaxy keeper Jonathan Bond snatched the ball away before a chance for a shot.

The Fire will open its US Open Cup play on Tuesday night hosting Union Omaha at 7 pm at Soldier Field and will be at Minnesota FC on Saturday at 4pm. LA Galaxy will host San Diego at Dignity Health Sports Park at 7:30pm PT and will also host Nashville Saturday at 7:30pm PT.

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