Chicago Fire FC (9-14-8, 35 points) fell 3-2 to CF Montréal (17-9-5, 56 points) at Stade Saputo on Tuesday night, snapping the Club’s three-game unbeaten run. Designated player Xherdan Shaqiri converted two penalty kicks on the night, but the Fire were unable to recover from conceding back-to-back goals in a nine-minute stretch in the first half.
The Fire sit seven points below the Eastern Conference playoff line with three games remaining against teams that are also competing for the seventh and final playoff berth in the East. Two of those matches will take place at home - Sept. 17 vs Charlotte and Oct. 9 vs. New England. The Club will travel to Cincinnati for its final away match of the campaign on Oct. 1.
Montréal opened the scoring in the 21st minute, while the Fire were a man down during an injury evaluation period for Andre Reynolds II, who would later return to the pitch. The scoring play began when Montréal midfielder Ismaël Koné sent a service into a crowded 18-yard-box, where Kei Kamara deflected the ball off his foot and into the back of the net. Eight minutes later, the home side doubled their lead when Kamara received a pass from Koné at the top of the box, turned and finished his attempt to give Montréal the 2-0 advantage.
With just over seven minutes remaining in the half, the Fire earned a penalty as a result of a foul on forward Jhon Durán by Montréal goalkeeper Sebastian Breza. Shaqiri stepped up to the spot, ripping a low finish in the bottom right hand corner of the net to split Montréal’s lead in half.
However, with less than a minute remaining in the half, Montreal would extend their lead with a goal from Zachary Brault-Guillard, off an assist from Kamara to push the score to 3-1 going into halftime.
Eight minutes into the second half, the Fire earned another penalty following video review of a foul on Durán inside the box by Montréal defender Joel Waterman. Shaqiri converted his second PK of the night, sending Breza the wrong way to bring the scoreline to 3-2 in the 57th minute.
NEXT MATCH: Chicago will return home to host Charlotte FC on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7:00 p.m. CT at Soldier Field where the Club will celebrate its Hispanic Heritage Night match, presented by motorola edge. Tickets to the match can be purchased here and the contest will also be televised live on WGN-TV and CF97 Live, and transmitted locally in Spanish on TUDN 1200 AM.
Social: Twitter - @chicagofire, @vamosfire (Hashtags: #CF97 #VamosFire) | Instagram - @chicagofire | Facebook
Notes:.
- Xherdan Shaqiri scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season.
- Homegrown defender Andre Reynolds II has started in three of the team’s last four matches.
- Tonight’s match was the team’s fourth contest in the last 14 days.
- The Fire will play two of their final three matches at home, with their final away fixture scheduled for Oct. 1 in Cincinnati.
- Tonight’s 3-2 away result snapped a three-game unbeaten run (1-0-2, 5 points) for the Fire.
- Defensive midfielder Federico Navarro missed tonight’s match due to yellow card accumulation.
- The Fire have lost twice in their last five matches (1-2-2, 5 points), with both losses occurring against Montréal.
Box Score:
CF Montréal 3:2 Chicago Fire FC
Goals:
MTL - Kamara (7) (Kone 4) (WATCH) 21’
MTL - Kamara (8) (Kone 5) (WATCH) 29’
CHI - Shaqiri (6) (WATCH) 39’
MTL - Brault-Guillard (4) (Kamara 7) (WATCH) 44’
CHI - Shaqiri (7) (WATCH) 57’
Discipline:
CHI - Reynolds II (Yellow Card) 19’
MTL - Waterman (Yellow Card) 57’
MTL - Camacho (Yellow Card) 62’
MTL - Wanyama (Yellow Card) 69’
CHI - Terán (Yellow Card) 85’
CHI - Czichos (Yellow Card) 88’
Chicago Fire FC: GK Slonina, D Sekulić (Bezerra, 87’), D Czichos ©, D Terán, D M. Navarro, M Gutiérrez, M Pineda, M Bornstein (M Casas Jr., 80’), M Shaqiri, M Reynolds II (D Espinoza, 80’), F Durán
Subs not used: GK Richey, D Burks, F Rodríguez, M Oregel Jr., M Monis
CF Montréal: GK Breza, D Camacho, D Corbo, D Brault-Guillard, D Waterman, M Piette © (Wanyama, 62’), M Mihailović (Miljevic, 46’), M Kwizera (Choiniere, 72’), M Kone, F Toye (Torres, 72’), F Kamara (Quioto, 62’)
Subs not used: GK Pantemis, D Miller, M Johnston, D Thorkelsson
Stats Summary: MTL / CHI
Shots: 11 / 6
Shots on Goal: 5 / 3
Saves: 1 / 2
Passing Accuracy: 86.5% / 81%
Corners: 5 / 1
Fouls: 16 / 14
Offsides: 2 / 2
Possession: 54.2% / 45.8%
Attendance: 11,535
Referee: Ted Unkel
Assistant Referees: Lyes Arfa, Brian Dunn
Fourth Official: Guido Gonzales Jr.
VAR: Jorge Gonzalez, Cory Richardson
Chicago Fire FC Quotes
On the performance considering that the team was shorthanded…
“Well you know, the effort, I thought, was there. But when you play against a team that strong and (as) good as Montréal, you have to really limit your miscues, really limit your mistakes.
And I thought we lost the game in the first half because all three goals, I mean, I think the first one might have been offside, if that guy is not in Gaga's path, maybe he saves that. But the other two goals (were) just mistakes that led directly to goals. We turn the ball over and they go down and punish us.
When you play against good teams like that, like I said, you have to limit those mistakes because you get punished and I think that's what happened to us tonight. Because even at 2-1, if we play out the first half, keep it at 2-1, we give ourselves a better chance. But giving up that third goal in the first half really, really hurt. And then you know we had an opportunity late in the game, the cross from Andre, Guti (Brian Gutiérrez) sliding in (at) the back post just didn't connect to tie it up. But beyond that, the first half is really where we let the game slip away from us.”
On the team not picking up points despite the performance…
“Well, they are a good team, and they had a lead, they’re at home, and did what they had to do to protect that.
Like I said, we had a pretty good chance on a cross with Guti in the back post that didn't connect. Some of the opportunities, half-chances that we lost in the final third, but they did what they had to do to protect the lead.
But we, like I said, lost the game in the first half and that's where it got away from us. We were climbing uphill the rest of the way. We tried. The guys put in the effort. We did what we had to do. We tried to make the subs that we could to try to spark something but we just didn't have enough tonight. It wasn't from lack of effort. Just some bad mistakes that cost us tonight but those things happen in the game, and tonight unfortunately, it happened to us against a really good team.
On the decision to start Jonathan Bornstein in central midfield over young Homegrown players…
“Well, going into this game on the road, to a possible Eastern Conference regular season winner, we felt that Bornstein gives us the most experience, the better opportunity to solidify the middle of the park.
You know, beyond the mistakes, I thought he did well, and Javi Casas, you have a guy that played limited minutes in the league so far, and Sergio who has never played. So it's difficult to put them in that situation like this that we faced ourselves with, we thought going with experience would be beneficial to us.
Hindsight is 20/20. I think if we had to do it all over again, we would still go with Bornstein because, like I said, the experience that we felt was needed. We were just very shorthanded today because we're missing some key players, maybe four or five starters.
And it's difficult to come into a place like that and come out with a result, which we almost did. We really put in the effort. We had a good game plan. And barring the mistakes, maybe we come out of here with at least a point.
But it wasn't to be tonight and we move on. We still have three games to play and we'll do the best we can to get full points in those and see what happens because we're still in the playoff running based on what happens tonight with the rest of the games and tomorrow. So all is not lost but it would have been good to at least get a point tonight.”
On the number of injuries and his evaluation of the Club’s Performance Staff…
“Well, you know, injuries happen. We have had some unfortunate ones. I think we have a very good training staff. The high performance people are very knowledgeable staff that we have.
You know, most of the injuries are chronic injuries that guys had coming into the season that, you know, in the case of Kacper with the back flaring up, those were old injuries. So I don't think it's so much the fault of the training staff or anyone's fault.
Just unfortunate that these injuries that we come up with has resurfaced so to speak on guys who maybe previously had those injuries and it's a reoccurrence of the injury.
We do our best we can as a staff, as a Club, to protect our players. Sometimes maybe guys play a little longer than maybe they should or we didn't rotate some games that maybe we should have, but all in all I thought we did what we can to make sure that guys are available. Because for a coach, the most important thing, doesn't matter how good a player is, if he's not available to play it's very difficult. So we try to do our best as a complete staff to make sure we limit those injuries.
But they have happened, and we have to deal with them and move on. We can't really point fingers right now because we are all in this together and we are all trying to make this Club a successful Club, and it's going to take everyone with that kind of mentality and that kind of focus for it to happen.
We'll get this thing sorted out, get guys back on the pitch as quickly as we can. And moving forward we just make sure we do what we can as a Club to make sure that player availability is something that's front and foremost because that's what it takes to win games in this league. You have to have the players to do it but every team has some injuries. We just have to manage it better and deal with our injuries the best way we can, and I think that's what we've been trying to do.”
Chicago Fire FC Defender/Midfielder Andre Reynolds II
On what it has meant to him to play consistently for the Club in recent games…
“I mean, it's great to be able to represent the city and this Club. Obviously everybody chooses to be a professional athlete because they want to be on the pitch. So having that opportunity has been great. Obviously it's been a long time coming but I've had a lot of time to learn and now just focused on contributing more and just continuing to be in good form.”
On whether he is concerned about the remaining points with three games left in the regular season…
“Yeah, obviously we knew our situation coming into this game. We would have liked to win out the rest of our games, but obviously things happen.
But we are going to keep fighting. We are not going to give up because we are still in the hunt and we still believe in ourselves as a team. So yeah, we are going to go back into the week, prepare for this next game and try to get nine points out of these next three.”
On what it’s like for him to play on the wing, which is where he has been playing recently…
“It's been different, obviously. You know, you just get adjusted to different movements. You get the ball in different positions. But like I said earlier, everybody that is a professional athlete wants to be on the field so it's just about learning quickly, which I feel like I'm starting to do and starting to figure out movements I need to make, starting to get comfortable getting the ball in different positions. And yeah, I'm happy to be on the field and to contribute to the team in any way possible.”