Chicago Fire FC (2-3-4, 10 points) fell 4-1 to Atlanta United FC (4-4-3, 14 points) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday evening.
Two Chicago-area players played their first minutes with the Fire tonight, as Schaumburg native Chris Mueller came in for midfielder Brian Gutiérrez at halftime, earning his debut for the Chicago Fire after joining the team on Thursday. Additionally, Homegrown forward Victor Bezerra made his MLS debut in tonight’s match, coming on for forward Chinonso Offor in the second half.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with Atlanta opening the scoring in the third minute with a goal from Ronaldo Cisneros. Chicago answered with a goal from Chinonso Offor just seven minutes later, with the Nigerian striker scoring his first of the season. Midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri sent in a ball from the left side after a miscleared corner kick, and Offor timed his run to one-time his shot past goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth (WATCH).
Cisneros scored two more goals before halftime, finding the back of the net in the 27th and 36th minutes. Brooks Lennon added the final goal for Atlanta in stoppage time of the second half.
NEXT MATCH: Chicago returns to Soldier Field to face FC Cincinnati on Saturday, May 14. The Fire will celebrate Polish Heritage Night, featuring the National Anthem performance by The Voice Kids Poland finalist Natalia Kawalec. Beginning at 7:00 p.m. CT, the match will be broadcast live on WGN-TV, CF97 Live and transmitted locally in Spanish on Univision Radio.
Social: Twitter - @chicagofire, @vamosfire (Hashtags: #CF97 #VamosFire) | Instagram - @chicagofire | Facebook
Notes:
- Chicago Fire Homegrown player Victor Bezerra made his Major League Soccer debut, coming on for Chinonso Offor in the 81st minute.
- Chinonso Offor’s 11th minute goal was his first for the Fire in 2022.
- Atlanta United leads the series in 2022 with the win after the two clubs split the season series in 2021 with Chicago winning 3-0 at home and losing 3-1 on the road.
Box Score:
Chicago Fire FC 1:4 Atlanta United FC
Goals:
ATL - Cisneros (2) (Araújo 1, Moreno 3) (WATCH) 3’
CHI - Offor (1) (Shaqiri 3) (WATCH) 11’
ATL - Cisneros (3) (WATCH) 27’
ATL - Cisneros (4) (Almada 1) (WATCH) 36’
CHI - Lennon (2) (WATCH) 90+1’
Discipline:
CHI - M. Navarro (Yellow Card) 30’
ATL - Araújo (Yellow Card) 45+4’
CHI - Mueller (Yellow Card) 72’
Chicago Fire FC: GK Slonina, D Sekulić, D Omsberg, D Terán, D M. Navarro (D Espinoza, 90+2’), M Pineda, M Shaqiri ©, M F. Navarro, M Gutiérrez (Mueller, 46’), M Ivanov (Herbers, 63’), F Offor (Bezerra, 81’)
Subs not used: GK Brady, D Bornstein, D Burks, M Oregel Jr., M Casas Jr.
Atlanta United FC: GK Shuttleworth, D Franco, D Lennon, D Robinson © (De John, 17’), D Ibarra (Sosa, 81’), D Gutman (Wiley, 67’, Hernandez, 81’), M Almada, M Rossetto, F Moreno (Hyndman, 67’), F Araújo, F Cisneros
Subs not used: GK Rios-Novo, M Sejdic, F Dwyer, F Wolff
Stats Summary: CHI / ATL
Shots: 14 / 16
Shots on Goal: 2 / 7
Passing Accuracy: 83.4% / 90.4%
Saves: 3 / 1
Corners: 4 / 3
Fouls: 7 / 8
Offsides: 1 / 1
Possession: 38.8% / 61.2%
Attendance: 42,547
Referee: Ramy Touchan
Assistant Referees: Matthew Nelson, Brian Dunn
Fourth Official: Elvis Omsanovic
VAR: Daniel Radford, Jeffrey Greeson
Chicago Fire FC Quotes
Chicago Fire FC Head Coach Ezra Hendrickson
On the plan for managing Chris Mueller’s minutes and updates on Jairo Torres’s injury…
“Yeah, so I don't have any updates as far as when Jairo will be back. Hopefully sooner rather than later but I can't give you a definite for that right now.
The decision was made I think Thursday when we decided that he couldn't train; that it's probably best that we leave him out for this game. Hopefully by next week or the following week, he's ready. But I don't have a timeline for that. Hopefully, like I said, sooner rather than later.
As far as Chris, his first game we just wanted to make sure we get him in, get some minutes, because he's been playing but he hasn’t had a 90-minute game in a while, so we wanted to be careful about that and make sure we bring him in slowly. Make sure he doesn't get any injuries there. I thought he came in and did well tonight. That was a bright spot in tonight's game.”
On the team’s reaction after going behind early…
“I thought the immediate reaction was really good, tying the game up like that. But after that, we were just a step slow to everything. We were late to everything, including the first goal. We were just, one- or two-touch by them and we were just late. We weren't shifted over and that hurt us.
What I told them is basically you can't come to another team's house and spot them three goals because it's very, very hard to get back from. But I thought the immediate reaction, getting that goal back, tying it up 1-1 was good, and then we slacked off that first half.
The second half, we adjusted some things defensively. I thought we stepped up, we pressed, we won a lot of balls. Got a lot of turnovers in their final third. But we just made either a bad decision on the ball or just poor quality with our passing. We just turned it back over right way, and you can't do that.
I think when you're down like that and you get a turnover like that, that close to their goal, you have to really, really have some quality and put the ball in the back of the net. There's an instance on a restart on our corner, ball comes back over, we have three guys naked, you know, and this is five, ten minutes into the second half and we can't put that away. So we gave ourselves opportunities to tie the game up but we just didn't have the quality to do it in the end. Then that fourth goal by the end, the game is over.
But, immediate response in the first half was good. Then we slacked off again. Wasn't getting tight. We adjusted some things at halftime and I thought defensively we did well, put ourselves in position with our turnovers on our press. But we made bad decisions once we won that ball or the immediate pass, we turned it right back over. These are some things that we've got to improve on.”
Chicago Fire FC Forward Victor Bezerra
On his thoughts about playing in his first Major League Soccer match…
“Yeah, it's a huge honor for me. Something I've always dreamed of. The circumstances weren't great but you know, I do whatever the coach needs me to do and whenever he needs me and I'm happy to be prepared to come in and help the team in any way I possibly can.”
On whether anything has changed around the team between the first couple games of the season and after the international break…
“No, I wouldn't say anything's changed. I think if anything, the amount of work rate that everyone is showing, the amount of intention that everybody is showing; everybody wants to be here and everybody believes in what the coaches are implementing within the group.
I think that, you know, if there's negative losses, it only causes us to train harder and try to correct what we're doing on the field.”