Chicago Fire FC (2-6-5, 11 points) fell 1-0 to New York City FC (7-3-2, 23 points) at Citi Field on Sunday afternoon.
Just one minute after Gastón Giménez saved a shot off the line to keep the score level, New York City was awarded a penalty kick when Heber and Miguel Navarro both went up to contest a ball in the box. Heber’s header hit Navarro’s arm on the way down and the referee consulted with VAR before pointing to the spot. Heber sent the ball into the right side of the net for the only goal of the match.
Goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina made three saves in the game, including two on point-blank chances from New York. In the 39th minute, the ball bounced through several players in the six-yard box before Pereira directed it toward goal, but Slonina had been monitoring the action and reacted quickly to make the save. Two minutes later, a combination of passes from New York ended with the ball at Hebers feet directly in front of goal, but Slonina was there to block the shot. The rebound fell to Hebers again, who hit the crossbar with his second attempt. The second half saw the teams even with seven shots each, but neither team was able to find the back of the net.
NEXT MATCH: Chicago will cross the border to face Toronto FC on Sunday, May 28 at BMO Field. Beginning at 6:00 p.m. CT, the match will be broadcast live on WGN-TV and CF97 Live and will be transmitted locally in Spanish on Univision Radio.
Social: Twitter - @chicagofire, @vamosfire (Hashtags: #CF97 #VamosFire) | Instagram - @chicagofire | Facebook
Notes:
- Forward Jhon Durán, who last time out became the youngest player in Fire history to record goal contributions in consecutive matches, started his third match of the season.
- New signing Chris Mueller started his third straight game and made his fourth appearance overall since joining the Club from Scottish Premiership side Hibernian F.C. two weeks ago.
- Wyatt Omsberg and Gabriel Slonina are the only two Fire players to have started all 13 of the Club’s matches this season.
Box Score:
New York City FC 1:0 Chicago Fire FC
Goals:
NYC - Heber (2) (penalty) (WATCH) 23’
Discipline:
NYC - Acevedo (Yellow Card) 46’
CHI - Sekulić (Yellow Card) 63’
NYC - Martins (Yellow Card) 90’
NYC - Parks (Yellow Card) 90+4’
Chicago Fire FC: GK Slonina, D Sekulić (Espinoza, 84’), D M. Navarro, D Omsberg, D Pineda (Terán, 46’), M Mueller (Herbers, 72’), M Shaqiri ©, M Giménez, M F. Navarro, M Gutiérrez (Torres, 46’), F Durán (Przybyłko, 55’)
Subs not used: GK Brady, D Bornstein, M Ivanov, F Offor
New York City FC: GK Johnson ©, D Martins, D Callens, D Amundsen (Gloster, 67’), M Morales, M Moralez (Parks, 66’), M Rodriguez, M Acevedo (Gray, 67’), F Thiago (Jasson, 87’), F Heber, F Pereira (Magno, 44’)
Subs not used: GK Mizell, D Latinovich, M Zelalem, M Haak
Stats Summary: NYC / CHI
Shots: 15 / 10
Shots on Goal: 5 / 1
Passing Accuracy: 81.3% / 70.3%
Saves: 3 / 1
Corners: 5 / 5
Fouls: 13 / 12
Offsides: 4 / 4
Possession: 61.8% / 38.2%
Attendance: 18,823
Referee: Fotis Bazakos
Assistant Referees: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho, Lyes Arfa
Fourth Official: Greg Dopka
VAR: Drew Fischer, Jeff Muschik
Chicago Fire FC Quotes
Chicago Fire FC Head Coach Ezra Hendrickson
On the team’s performance today…
“Well, I didn't think this was one of our better performances this year. Normally, even in our losses, our previous losses, I thought, you know, we were in the game a bit. But I thought tonight, we just -- we turned the ball over a lot and we were forced to defend a lot and that's very difficult to do, and in these conditions, that type of hot weather, it becomes difficult for you. So I thought we suffered from that.”
On what he thought of the hand ball…
“I haven't seen it yet. So I can't really comment on it but it's a difficult one. What I do think is that he got pushed in the back a little bit, and when you get pushed like that, your body just naturally, your arms go up like that and I don't think he was trying to put his hand up to stop the ball from going towards the goal. But the call was made and here we are.”
On how Gabriel Slonina responded to his last couple of games and what the situation was with Xherdan Shaqiri and Sean Johnson after the match…
“I thought Gaga responded well. He was called upon a couple times and he had some good saves, but we expected that. He's just 18 and we know that he's a very good goalkeeper and we expected that he would rebound this way.
“As far as Sean and Shaq, I don't really know what was happening. I just saw them kind of jarring at each other, so I just went over there to try to break it up. I'm not sure what transpired or why they were going at each other.”
Chicago Fire FC Forward Kacper Przybyłko
On what the team can do to get the attack going again…
“For right now, it's mental, I think right now. I think it feels like we lose a little bit of confidence. So we need to push each other, like, for the next week, you know, be more positive with each other. But yeah, today was not a good game. I think we need to move a little bit more of the ball. We need, obviously, also more movement without the ball. But right now, think it's a mental thing.”
On what it will take to beat Toronto on Saturday…
“That's a very good question. First of all, I think we need to analyze the game. We are going to do that in the next days and then we need to analyze, also, Toronto. I haven't watched many games from Toronto.
But like I said, mentally think and need to stay still positive because we are better than that, I know that for sure. It was a tough loss again, with this one penalty call. Other than that, yeah, we will work on that.”
On how the team fends off negativity when the results haven’t been there…
“Just like I said, we need to turn over, we need to think and talk to each other and be very honest, I think that's the most important.
Right now it seems like everyone is defending himself. We are a team. We have to go through it together and it starts in the back and goes up to the front, to me. Today was not good enough from everyone. So we need to be first of all honest with each other. You know, get our confidence back because we really are not doing, like, that bad. So I think right now we need to have, like, a big talk and be honest with each other, and then stay positive and then work our ass off because it's not good enough, you know, from everyone, and especially we have to work our asses off for the team and for the Club.”