Chicago Fire 2-1 New York Red Bulls
CHICAGO, IL—Last Wednesday saw solid defense from Chicago Fire FC, but no goals at the other end against NYCFC. On Sunday, the latter was solved in eight minutes as two goals from Luka Stojanovic were enough to give the Fire a 2-1 win over New York Red Bulls.
Stojanovic, in his first start since June 26th, got his first goal since May 22nd in just the second minute receiving a feed from Chinoso Offor and scoring from 20 yards out. Six minutes later, off a long throw-in from Carlos Teran and an errant header off a Red Bulls defender, Stojanovic stuck on the volley to make it 2-0. It’s been a while since Stojanovic has made an impact, but he hopes he made a statement in getting back into the starting lineup.
“Yeah exactly, I was out for some games. And this was a coach decision that I don’t want to go on that because I work hard every day,” said Stojanovic. “And I will enjoy this time now and I think I proved myself to me also, to all staff, and all my teammates that have played. And this is the best way to look (forward). I cannot look back, I know I was on the bench, sometimes I didn’t even come in, but that’s soccer so I have to go forward. This is the best way, today, to show to people that they can believe in me.
“Yeah, I started this season really, really well with the goals. Probably, how I see, maybe this system, that we changed, I don’t even remember now, but I believe that when we change the system, we win two games at home. It’s difficult to put all the players in, you have to find their place, but in the best way. The best way is when you get your opportunity, to do the best and try to get to the result and I believe from my side, I know I was out of these games, I say again, but this night today, I hope it will change everything in a better way. And I hope we can also be much more aggressive and score more goals in away games.”
From there, the Fire managed to keep the Red Bulls off the score sheet until the very last kick when Tom Barlow scored off a rebound from a free kick. Apart from that, it was another strong defensive performance from the Fire and an improvement compared to the start of the season.
“I think we’re defending pretty well right now,” said Fire head coach Raphael Wicky. “We already had against Atlanta here good defense as well, Orlando, but these last three games were very compact, very, very hard to break down and I think that’s the base. I am happy about that. I think everyone gets to know more and more about his role in the way we play. I think the team is picking up the right moments when to press a bit higher, more aggressive, and then to be a little bit more compact. So, yeah, I am pretty happy about that.”
The Fire made five changes from Wednesday’s lineup—two due to injury (Miguel Navarro and Ignacio Aliseda), one because Bobby Shuttleworth was healthy again (Gabriel Slonina), one returning to the bench (Johan Kappelhof), and then Alvaro Medran who was placed on Health and Safety Protocols.
Coach Wicky gave no specifics, but did say that the team and staff are fully vaccinated.
The Fire stay home next Sunday to take on Columbus Crew SC. Kickoff is at 5pm on WGN-TV and CFFC Live.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Luka Stojanovic (Offor) 2
CHI-Luka Stojanovic (unassisted) 8
RBNY-Tom Barlow (unassisted) 90+7
BOOKING SUMMARY:
RBNY-Thomas Edwards (caution, tactical foul) 21
RBNY-Sean Davis (caution, reckless foul) 40
RBNY-Amro Tarek (caution, tactical foul) 69
RBNY-Andrew Gutman (caution, reckless tackle) 77
CHI-Chinoso Offor (caution, tactical foul) 90+5
CHICAGO FIRE (3-5-2): #1-Bobby Shuttleworth; #23-Carlos Teran (#20-Wyatt Omsberg 67), #22-Mauricio Pineda, #5-Francisco Calvo; #2-Boris Sekulic, #21-Fabian Herbers, #30-Gaston Gimenez, #8-Luka Stojanovic, #3-Jonathan Bornstein; #28-Elliot Collier (#27-Robert Beric 57), #9-Chinoso Offor
Subs not used: #32-Gabriel Slonina, #34-Chris Brady, #40-Brian Gutierrez, #38-Alex Monis, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #99-Stanislav Ivanov, #14-Jhon Espinoza
NEW YORK RED BULLS (4-4-2): #13-Carlos; #6-Kyle Duncan, #7-Thomas Edwards, #3-Amro Tarek, #47-John Tolkin; #19-Wikelman Carmona (#21-Omir Fernandez 55), #23-Cristian Casseres Jr. (#5-Andrew Gutman 19), #27-Sean Davis, #37-Caden Clark (#74-Tom Barlow 74); #9-Fabio, #10-Patryk Klimala
Subs not used: #18-Ryan Meara, #77-Daniel Royer, #39-Mandela Egbo, #8-Frankie Amaya, #15-Sean Nealis
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 9-12 RBNY
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 3-4 RBNY
FOULS: CHI 14-14 RBNY
OFFSIDES: CHI 0-2 RBNY
CORNER KICKS: CHI 3-6 RBNY
SAVES: CHI 3-1 RBNY
Referee: Guido Gonzales Jr.
Assistant Referees: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho, Claudiu Badea
Fourth Official: Ismir Pekmic
VAR: Alex Chilowicz
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 91º
Attendance: 11,894
Man of the Match: Luka Stojanovic (CHI)
