HARRISON, NJ—Even though it is just the third match of the season, and that Ignacio Alisdea, Miguel Navarro, and Fabian Herbers are still out— Chicago Fire FC have fast become the definition of insanity as more defensive lapses and lack of a potent attack lead to yet another loss away from home, 2-0, to New York Red Bulls. It will not help matters for the Fire that the average age of the two goal scorers for Red Bulls was 18.5.
After a goalless first half where the most notable scoring chance was Fabio striking one off the post in the 37th minute, Fabio then picked up a long ball and found an unmarked Cristian Casseres making a run. The Venezuelan international would strike past three defenders and Bobby Shuttleworth two minutes into the second half to give the hosts the lead.
Fabio was again the provider in the 64th minute. Kyle Duncan stripped Jonathan Bornstein of the ball and gave to Sean Davis, who then gave it to Fabio. Fabio then headed it for 17-year old Caden Clark to strike on the volley to double the Red Bulls’ advantage.
The Red Bulls would go on to get their first win of the season and first under Gerhard Stuber. Meanwhile, the Fire extend their road winless streak to 13 (0-8-5) and show no signs of improvement from last season and now have the added scrutiny of not giving younger players more minutes.
The former of no improvement in the first three games of 2021 is not lost on Fire head coach Raphael Wicky.
“It’s always the same,” said Wicky. “That the team is there, the team is in the game, they stood up today, they followed the second balls and all the fighting, and then again out of nothing, you make a big mistake and it costs us the game. That’s the frustrating thing, and we’ve got to change that as quick as possible. Otherwise we’re going to talk about that the whole year.
“Yeah, at the end of the day, it’s just not good enough. It’s just not good enough to make these mistakes every single game and we have to fix that. Otherwise you will never be rewarded and that’s obviously a frustration today because, yeah, we want to reward ourselves for what we do. But that’s the frustration.”
The Fire will have another noon kickoff—this time at Soldier Field—against Philadelphia Union. No doubt, things need to change for the Fire and now. Otherwise, we will be just writing the same match report over and over again.
SCORING SUMMARY:
RBNY-Cristian Casseres (Fabio) 47
RBNY-Caden Clark (Fabio) 64
BOOKING SUMMARY:
RBNY-Sean Davis (caution, tactical foul) 42
CHI-Boris Sekulic (caution, reckless foul) 44
CHI-Francisco Calvo (caution, tactical foul) 62
NEW YORK RED BULLS (4-2-3-1): #13-Carlos Coronel; #6-Kyle Duncan, #15-Sean Nealis, #33-Aaron Long, #5-Andrew Gutman; #27-Sean Davis, #8-Frankie Amaya (#16-Dru Yearwood 55); #23-Cristian Casseres Jr., #9-Fabio (#42-Brian White 68), #37-Caden Clark (#21-Omir Fernandez 81); #74-Tom Barlow (#77-Daniel Royer 55)
Subs not used: #18-Ryan Meara, #47-John Tolkin, #21-Omir Fernandez, #3-Amro Tarek, #17-Cameron Harper
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Bobby Shuttleworth; #2-Boris Sekulic, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #5-Francisco Calvo, #3-Jonathan Bornstein (#14-Jhon Espinoza 69); #30-Gaston Gimenez, #22-Mauricio Pineda; #11-Przemyslaw Frankowski (#40-Brian Gutierrez 69), #8-Luka Stojanovic (#27-Elliot Collier 61), #10-Alvaro Medran (#9-Chinoso Offor 69); #27-Robert Beric
Subs not used: #34-Chris Brady, #38-Alex Monis, #36-Andre Reynolds, #20-Wyatt Omsberg, #37-Javier Casas
TOTAL SHOTS: RBNY 14-6 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: RBNY 6-4 CHI
FOULS: RBNY 13-14 CHI
OFFSIDES: RBNY 0-1 CHI
CORNER KICKS: RBNY 1-2 CHI
SAVES: RBNY 4-4 CHI
Referee: Ted Unkel
Assistant Referees: Peter Balciunas, Ryan Graves
Fourth Official: Nima Saghafi
VAR: Hilario Grajeda
Weather: Sunny and 57º
Man of the Match: Fabio (RBNY)
