Fire Gain Point, Potentially Lose Three Players
CHICAGO, IL—For the 14th successive season, Chicago Fire FC failed to win their opening match. However, they would rally to get a point after a 1-1 draw against New York City FC at Soldier Field. Also however, the Fire may be minus at least a couple of players come next Saturday at Philadelphia.
The Fire had to make two first half substitutions after both Federico Navarro and Jairo Torres went off with injuries leaving them with just one substitution window in the second half. The Fire were already missing goalkeeper Chris Brady after tweaking his thigh. Chris Mueller would leave with a knock in the 63rd minute. Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson said that MRIs would be coming for both Navarro and Torres and the best is hoped for them. It also forced adjustments earlier than anticipated.
“It’s difficult, you know, because then it changes what you do,” said Hendrickson. “Now you’ve lost two moments and you only get three moments to make subs. We felt like we had to make a sub at halftime just so we don’t use up a moment, because that doesn’t count [against the allotment of windows]. But then, you’re still sitting on two subs in the second half and you just have one time to make it. We wanted to wait a little longer, but then once Chris (Mueller) couldn’t go anymore because he took a knock – got a knee to the thigh – then we had to make both subs. So, we were just hoping that for the rest of the 20-25 minutes that nothing happened because we were out of it.”
By the 39th minute, the Fire were a goal down as Gabriel Pereira would beat Spencer Richey far post to put the Pigeons ahead.
Kei Kamara would make his Fire debut at the start of the second half as halftime subs do not count against the windows. Maren Haile-Selassie would also make his Fire debut. Kamara would make more of an immediate impact in the 75th minute setting up Fabian Herbers whose shot from outside the area would deflect off Talles Magno and past Luis Barraza to make it 1-1.
Kamara is hoping that it is not just the strikers who pick up the freight in terms of scoring this season.
“It has to be,” said Kamara. “I mean, when you have a team and you focus on one guy to score goals, then you know it doesn’t become a team there. But if you can take the load off of the number nine and somebody else is scoring and that’s why you know you can never just pinpoint one guy.”
The Fire next play Philadelphia Union next Saturday at 6:30pm CT on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
SCORING SUMMARY:
NYC-Gabriel Pereira (unassisted) 39
CHI-Fabian Herbers (unassisted) 75
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Mauricio Pineda (caution, reckless foul) 34
NYC-Maitas Pellegrini (caution, tactical foul) 44
NYC-Andres Jasson (caution, tactical foul) 58
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #18-Spencer Richey; #2-Arnaud Soquet, #5-Rafael Czichos, #4-Carlos Teran, #6-Miguel Navarro; #17-Brian Gutierrez (#30-Gaston Gimenez 63), #31-Federico Navarro (#22-Mauricio Pineda 14); #20-Jairo Torres (#21-Fabian Herbers 45+3), #10-Xherdan Shaqiri, #8-Chris Mueller (#7-Maren Haile-Selassie 63); #11-Kacper Przybylko (#23-Kei Kamara 46)
Subs not used: #25-Jeffrey Gal, #16-Wyatt Omsberg, #24-Jonathan Dean, #27-Kendall Burks
NEW YORK CITY FC (4-2-3-1): #1-Luis Barraza; #35-Mitja Ilenic (#34-Stephen Turnbull 90+4), #13-Thiago Martins, #4-Maxime Chanot, #3-Braian Cufre; #6-James Sands (#80Justin Haak 73), #55-Keaton Parks; #11-Gabriel Pereira, #17-Maitas Pellegrini (#10-Santiago Rodriguez 73), #21-Andres Jasson (#8-Thiago Andrade 68); #43-Talles Magno
Subs not used: #49-Matt Freese, #19-Gabriel Segal, #12-Malte Amundsen, #22-Kevin O’Toole, #93-Tony Alfaro
EXPECTED GOALS: CHI 0.77-1.65 NYC
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 9-9 NYC
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 1-3 NYC
FOULS: CHI 14-19 NYC
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-0 NYC
CORNER KICKS: CHI 6-4 NYC
SAVES: CHI 2-0 NYC
Referee: Filip Dujic
Assistant Referees: Corey Rockwell, Adam Garner
Fourth Official: Guido Gonzales Jr.
VAR: Geoff Gamble
Weather: Rain and 42º
Attendance: 19,671
Man of the Match: Spencer Richey (CHI)