New York Red Bulls (5-2-4, 5th in East) vs. Chicago Fire FC (2-5-4, 14th in East)
Chicago Fire FC face three straight matches on the road in a span of 11 days starting with New York Red Bulls on Wednesday night. The Fire are on a four-match losing streak and seven winless in the league. They also have the fewest goals in MLS with just eight. They may find shots on target hard to come by as the Red Bulls have allowed just 8.4 attempts per match.
The Red Bulls remain unbeaten away from Red Bull Arena, but remain winless at Red Bulls Arena. The Red Bulls will most definitely see this match as their best chance to win in front of their home fans. They would become the seventh team in MLS history to not win in their first six home games if they don’t.
Back on April 30th at Soldier Field, the Red Bulls rallied from 1-0 down to defeat the Fire, 2-1, on a pair of goals from substitute Patryck Klimala. The match-winner came after the Fire drew two red cards and a penalty awarded via VAR.
Fairly or unfairly, the tag “same old Fire” was applied after two defensive howlers committed by the two players who had arguably been their best players early in the season–Rafael Czichos and Gaga Slonina–gave FC Cincinnati a win they otherwise did not deserve. I’m writing the same old thing by suggesting the Fire need to cut out those defensive errors and make the best of their wing play offensively so not everything is on Shaqiri to create.
Kickoff for the match is at 6:30pm CT on WGN-TV.
INJURIES:
NEW YORK RED BULLS: OUT: Andres Reyes (foot), Wiki Carmona (foot), Lucas Monzon (hamstring), Ashley Fletcher (knee)
CHICAGO FIRE FC: OUT: Spencer Richey (head), Javier Casas Jr. (pelvis); QUESTIONABLE: Rafael Czichos (right lower leg), Jairo Torres (left hip), Kacper Przybyłko (back)
SUSPENDED:
RBNY: Dylan Nealis
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW:
CHI: Gaston Gimenez
Referee: Ted Unkel
Assistant Referees: Adam Wienckowski, Art Arustamyan
Fourth Official: Luis Arroyo
VAR: Guido Gonzalez Jr.
THIS YEAR:
04/30/22: CHI 1-2 RBNY
