Chicago Fire 2-0 Philadelphia Union
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—In what was described as a must-win by most people, the Chicago Fire did just that despite being a man down for the whole of the second half. It’s their third win in four matches and are just a point adrift of the red line, albeit with three teams to pass and having played the most matches of any team in the league right now.
The Union remain three points clear at the top of the East, but could be knocked off that perch Sunday night if Atlanta win at Portland.
The first half was uninteresting until the final ten minutes. The Fire struck in the 38th minute after Przemyslaw Frankowski sent a perfect cross to Nemanja Nikolic who tapped in from close range.
Five minutes later, CJ Sapong was felled in the box by Aurelien Collin and referee Joe Dickerson pointed to the spot. Nikolic converted the spot kick for his 50th league goal with the Fire and now second all-time in club history behind Ante Razov. It was also Nikolic’s fifth goal in four games.
“The life of a striker, they will all tell you the same thing, sometimes you have periods where everything is going in and sometimes you feel that nothing wants to go inside the net,” said Nikolic. “In that case, you just need to do two things. When the ball doesn’t want to go in the net, you need to believe in yourself. I say it a lot, if you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t expect your coaches, teammates or supporters to believe in you. You need to work hard, wait for the situation and react when you have an opportunity to score again. I knew that I would start to score goals again, it was a discussion of time. I feel like everyone here believes in me and now I have scored in the last four games.”
The Fire would once again find themselves down a man just before halftime as Nico Gaitan was sent to the showers early for tackling Jamiro Monteiro from behind leaving the Fire down to ten for the second consecutive match. The sending off was upheld after a VAR review.
Despite the man advantage, the Union were unable to take advantage. Despite 18 shots (16 in the second half), only three were on target. Those shots included some stunning misses by Alejandro Bedoya and Kacper Przybylko when it seems Kenneth Kromholm was beat.
Kromholm and the defense would maintain the clean sheet, their third in four matches.
Union head coach Jim Curtin said that the hardest thing to do was to try and end a team’s season, but the Fire had the intensity on the night to stay alive.
“We looked like we were in first gear for the first half,” said Curtin. “Catch a break to get back in the game with the red card, but we just weren’t sharp enough on the night. Chicago deserved the points. Playing on the road in this league is very difficult. We’ll learn from the game again. We’ve been a good road team, but tonight’s left a lot to be desired.”
“Overall, I think it was a great performance given the circumstances we had and given the week that we had,” said Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic. “Today, we kept a clean sheet after the red card and that spirit is something that is bringing the team important wins and points.
‘I think we have to stay humble. We have to keep doing what we were doing so far, believing and growing the spirit. The spirit of that locker room is starting to really, really believe in a comeback that we are chasing right now.’’
The Fire travel to New England for another potential must-win next Saturday. Kickoff is at 6:30pm CT.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Nemanja Nikolic (Frankowski, Kappelhof) 38
CHI-Nemanja Nikolic (penalty kick) 45
BOOKING SUMMARY:
PHI-Aurelien Collin (caution, tactical foul) 43
CHI-Nico Gaitan (sent off, serious foul play) 45+3
PHI-Jamiro Monteiro (caution, unsporting behavior) 66
CHICAGO FIRE (4-3-3): #27-Kenneth Kronholm; #4-Johan Kappelhof, #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger, #5-Francisco Calvo, #3-Jonathan Bornstein (#15-Grant Lillard 90+4); #13-Brandt Bronico, #6-Dax McCarty, #20-Nico Gaitan; #11-Przemyslaw Frankowski, #23-Nemanja Nikolic (#16-Michael Azira 77), #9-CJ Sapong
Subs not used: #45-Richard Sanchez, #2-Marcelo, #12-Amando Moreno, #14-Djordje Mihailovic, #17-Diego Campos
PHILADELPHIA UNION (4-4-2): #18-Andre Blake; #28-Raymond Gaddis (#7-Andrew Wooten 57), #3-Jack Elliott, #78-Aurelien Collin (#22-Brenden Aaronson 80), #27-Kai Wagner; #11-Alejandro Bedoya, #6-Haris Medunjanin, #2-Warren Creavalle (#25-Ilsinho 46), #35-Jamiro Monteiro; #23-Kacper Przybylko, #10-Marco Fabian
Subs not used: #12-Joe Bendik, #4-Mark McKenzie, #32-Matt Real, #9-Fabrice-Jean Picault
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 5-18 PHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 3-3 PHI
FOULS: CHI 13-12 PHI
OFFSIDES: CHI 3-2 PHI
CORNER KICKS: CHI 2-7 PHI
SAVES: CHI 3-1 PHI
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Assistant Referees: Brian Dunn, TJ Zablocki
4th Official: Dave Gantar
Video Assistant Referee: Younes Marrakchi
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 77º
Attendance: 14,883
Man of the Match: Nemanja Nikolic (CHI)
