Fire Beat House in Open Cup ‘Wilt Derby’
Chicago Fire FC 3-0 Chicago House AC
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—The second Peter Wilt Derby of the 2023 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup took place in the third round and it would be Chicago Fire FC taking care of business over Chicago House AC, 3-0, at SeatGeek Stadium. House AC of the Midwest Premier League won three matches in the Open Cup, including a second round win over Forward Madison of USL League One (another Peter Wilt team), to get to this stage.
At this stage, the Fire came ready to play. Kacper Przybylko opened the scoring in the 26th minute after collecting a cross from Miguel Navarro. Eleven minutes later, Kendall Burks would head in a corner from Alonso Aceves to double the Fire’s lead.
House AC goalkeeper Tony Halterman did his best to keep things close making six saves on the night. However, there was nothing he could do about the third Fire goal after a cheeky back heel from Wyatt Omsberg led to the second of the night for Burks at close range in the 70th minute.
For Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson, it was good to see the Fire see out the match after not doing so against Union Omaha last year in the Cup and going out on penalties.
“It’s very good for our morale,” said Hendrickson. “One of the big things that we’ve talked about all year is just finishing out game. I told them, it doesn’t matter what the score is in the 75th or 80th minute. Let’s make sure we finish strong tonight and I felt we did that.
“I’m happy for the boys that they finished out strong and this is something that we have to take into league play. We have to make sure that when we’re up on teams like this that we stay strong and we finish games like this. That’s the final part of a maturation that we just don’t have as yet and it’s good to see that [tonight]. Hopefully, tonight starts things in that direction.”
For House AC, they became the ninth amateur side to play an MLS club in the US Open Cup. Their coach Matthew Poland hailed his side, which included a high school senior, for holding their own against the Fire.
“I think 25 minutes without giving up a goal in the first half was really strong from us,” said Poland. “I think we came back out again in the second half and continued to fight and show some good moment and some good belief.
“First time playing an MLS club. It’s an awesome experience for us. As a club from where we were a year ago to now, it’s an incredible achievement.”
The Fire will be in the hat for the Round of 32 on Thursday at 1pm. They return to league play on Saturday against New York Red Bulls at Soldier Field at 7:30pm on Apple TV and WLS AM-890 on the radio.
House AC kick off their MWPL campaign away to Berber City on May 13th at 6pm at Stuart Field on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Kacper Przybylko (M. Navarro) 26
CHI-Kendall Burks (Aceves) 37
CHI-Kendall Burks (Omsberg) 70
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHAC-AR Smith (caution, tactical foul) 43
CHAC-Ricardo Avalos (caution, reckless tackle) 59
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #18-Spencer Richey; #24-Jonathan Dean, #16-Wyatt Omsberg, #27-Kendall Burks, #6-Miguel Navarro; #22-Mauricio Pineda (#30-Gaston Gimenez 61), #31-Federico Navarro (#37-Javier Casas 46); #38-Alex Monis, #7-Maren Haile-Selassie (#35-Sergio Oregel 46), #3-Alonso Aceves (#32-Missael Rodriguez 78); #11-Kacper Przybylko (#19-Geirgios Koutsias 61)
Subs not used: #25-Jeffrey Gal, #5-Rafael Czichos
CHICAGO HOUSE AC (4-2-3-1): #18-Tony Halterman; #2-Jack Kramer (#4-Alejandro Mentasti 75), #13-Oskar Duenkel (#6-Jasper Waddington 86), #15-Nassouh Kabbanl, #99-Florian Duaddour; #20-Aaron Nguyen (#8-Shannon Seymour 86), #22-Jhon Alzate (#11-Georgi Spasov 66); #10-Ricardo Avalos, #14-AR Smith, #94-Damon Almazan (#21-Daniel Hayes 86); #7-Adam Mann
Subs not used: #33-Billy Castro, #25-Rodrigo Gudino
EXPECTED GOALS: CHI 4.38-0.11 CHAC
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 27-3 CHAC
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 9-2 CHAC
FOULS: CHI 14-11 CHAC
OFFSIDES: CHI 3-0 CHAC
CORNER KICKS: CHI 12-0 CHAC
SAVES: CHI 2-6 CHAC
Referee: Luis Arroyo
Assistant Referees: Eric Del Rosario, Ryan Birdsall
Fourth Official: Ryan Shanklin
Attendance: 3,421
Weather: Clear and 46º
Man of the Match: Kendall Burks (CHI)