Chicago Fire FC (1-5-1, 4 points) fell 2-0 against Columbus Crew SC (4-2-2, 14 points) at Historic Crew Stadium on Saturday night.
In front of a sold-out crowd, the Crew managed to score both goals in the first half as forward Gyasi Zardes found the back of the net in the 17th and 34th minutes, respectively.
NEXT GAME: Chicago Fire FC will return to Soldier Field to kick off a four-game homestand on Wednesday, June 23, taking on FC Cincinnati at 7:00 p.m. CT. The match will be broadcast live on WGN-TV, CFFC Live and TUDN 1200 AM. Wednesday’s game will be the Club’s annual Pride Night and fans can secure their tickets for the match here.
Social: Twitter - @chicagofire, @vamosfire (Hashtags: #CF97 #CFFC #VamosFire) | Instagram - @chicagofire | Facebook
NOTES:
- Defender Carlos Terán received his first ever start for the Fire, having recovered from an injury he picked up during preseason. The 20-year-old Columbian international made his first appearance of the 2021 season going the full 90 minutes.
- Midfielder Ignacio Aliseda earned his first start of the 2021 season after making two appearances this season. The Young Designated Player had been dealing with a lingering left thigh injury.
- Midfielder Fabian Herbers earned his 50th career start and 95th overall appearance in MLS since joining the league in 2016.
- Today’s match at Historic Crew Stadium marked the final match at the stadium for Columbus, concluding an era at the first soccer-specific stadium in MLS. The Crew are moving to Lower.com Field, a brand new stadium in downtown Columbus, which will open its doors on July 3.
- The Fire were without midfielders Przemysław Frankowski and Gastón Giménez due to international duty. Frankowski is currently with the Poland National Team as they compete in the UEFA EURO 2020 tournament. Giménez is competing at Copa América for Paraguay's National Team.
- Yesterday, the Fire unveiled the Club’s new primary crest and visual identity following a months-long, fan-focused project that saw more than 20,000 Fire fans, supporters, and Chicagoans at large add their voice to the creation of the new identity. Created by Matthew Wolff, the new crest’s primary elements - a six-pointed star contained with the letter “C,” surrounded by a modernized Florian cross incorporating the Chicago city flag colors - were the most commonly requested items across all fan touchpoints. Additional information regarding the new crest can be found here. Media assets can be downloaded here.
- Chicago Fire announced this week that the Club’s match against Atlanta United FC on Saturday, July 3 at Soldier Field will mark the debut of its full fan experience with the lifting of capacity restrictions. The match will mark the Fire’s first match without capacity restrictions at Soldier Field since the Club announced its return to the lakefront on Oct. 8, 2019.
- The Fire, along with all MLS clubs, wore Juneteenth-inspired numbers on their jerseys for tonight’s match and were designed by Indianapolis native Israel Solomon in collaboration with MLS and Black Players for Change (BPC). The game-worn jerseys and their custom commemorative boxes are set to be auctioned off beginning June 21. Proceeds from the auction will benefit local Chicago nonprofit organization, My Block, My Hood, My City (M3), chosen by Fire defender Andre Reynolds II, the Club’s BPC representative. Additional information on M3 can be found here, and auction information will be available beginning June 21 at MLSauctions.com.
- Play-by-play commentator Arlo White made his Chicago Fire broadcast debut, joining U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Tony Meola in the booth tonight. Including the match against the Crew, White is set to call four straight matches for the Club from June 19 - July 3. Read more here.
Goals:
CLB - Zardes (2) 17’
CLB - Zardes (3) 34’
Discipline:
CLB - Etienne Jr. (Yellow Card) 21’
CLB - Williams (Yellow Card) 25’
CHI - Herbers (Yellow Card) 44’
CHI - Medrán (Yellow Card) 65’
Box Score:
Columbus Crew SC 2:0 Chicago Fire FC
Chicago Fire FC: GK Shuttleworth, D Sekulić (D Espinoza 58’), D Terán, D Calvo ©, D Navarro, M Pineda, M Herbers, M Aliseda, M Medrán (M Collier 83’), M Gutiérrez (M Stojanović HT), F Offor (F Berić HT)
Subs not used: GK Slonina, D Bornstein, D Omsberg, D Kappelhof, M Monis
Columbus Crew SC: GK Bush, D Williams, D Mensah ©, D Fraser, M Nagbe, M Santos (D Abdul-Salaam 87’), M Matan (M Francis 63’), M Zelarayan, M Etienne Jr. (Molino 70’), M Afful, F Zardes
Subs not used: GK Lampson, D Wormgoor, D Lillard, D Keita, M Parente, M Hairston
Stats Summary: CLB / CHI
Shots: 14 / 14
Shots on Goal: 2 / 0
Passing Accuracy: 78.9% / 82%
Saves: 0 / 0
Corners: 4 / 3
Fouls: 13 / 7
Total passes: 332 / 495
Offsides: 1 / 0
Possession: 41.1% / 58.9%
Referee: Alex Chilowicz
Assistant Referees: Matthew Nelson, Jeffrey Swartzel
Fourth Official: Matthew Thompson
VAR: Jorge Gonzalez, Craig Lowry
Chicago Fire FC Quotes
Chicago Fire FC Head Coach Raphael Wicky
On why Robert Berić wasn’t in the starting lineup...
“Robert was gone in the break. Robert was gone for about -- almost two weeks. He had to go to Europe for his visa. So was Luka Stojanović; he was also gone for about a week, eight days. That's part of the reason why I chose to go with guys who were here for the entire three weeks, and the other reason is that we have a lot of games. We have a lot of games coming up. We need everyone, and those are the reasons and why I choose today to go without Luka in the beginning and without Robert.”
On if he received an explanation to the first-half incident not resulting in a red card...
“No, I didn't get an explanation. I mean, I was right there. Look, I don't want to look for excuses. But for me, I don't know what you have to do in order to get a red card. He was going right into the face of the player, voluntary. It wasn't that he had to turn around or he didn't see the guy. He went into his face and pushed him away.
I don't know what else you have to do. But, they took the decision not to give him red. You have to ask the referee why. I just think that if we want to educate kids, if you want to educate young people to do sports, fair play, then we cannot show images like that and not sanction them. If we say, okay, this is good, you can do this, this is just a yellow, you can go into another player's face voluntarily, then I think we are on the wrong path.
But saying that, we didn't show up for a big part of the first half. That's why I say I'm not looking for excuses. This for me is a fact. But then there were reasons why we were 2-0 down at halftime, as well.”
On how the team can dominate stats and not get a shot on target…
“First of all, I haven't seen any stats and I'm not right now in the stats. I'm disappointed with big parts of our first half. We started quite well. But then suddenly we lost in my eyes a little bit of the passion, a little bit of the fire, a little bit of the urgency to win duels, to winning challenges and winning second balls and that's the base of football. That was the message at halftime. We can talk tactics as long as you want but we have to do the dirty work first.
And I missed the first half for a part of the first half, the basics of football, the basics of the game. That's to run, that's to fight, that's to win the duels and the second balls.
Yeah, then we showed an okay and good reaction. The second half we played some good football. We create some chances. The final product is just at the end of the day in these moments not good enough and we have to work on that. We have to keep working on that. But it wasn't good enough. It wasn't precise enough. You have to be precise. The last pass has to be precise. Your shot has to be precise and your decision-making has to be better or precise. That's, I think, what is missing. That's why the stats often look good but right now it doesn't go into results.
So if we can fix that, I think we make results. But first of all we need to fix that we fight for the teammate, 90 minutes, not 45, not 60, but 90 minutes and in every duel.”
On conceding the second goal…
“Yeah, that shouldn't happen. There wasn't pressure on the ball, so we shouldn't have a high line, and then we should probably drop. But first of all, we should have more pressure on the ball so it shouldn't happen.
I have seen the clip and it's very, very close. Again, it's very, very close to the offside, but obviously they have checked, so I'm not going against that. But it's very, very close. I think one of their strikers and their winger have a countermovement where Francisco first follows. That's why there is a little bit of a breakdown but obviously that's very, very easy to concede a goal.”
On how important the upcoming four-game homestand is…
“It's very important. I always told you, we take game by game. Now the next, the most important game is the Wednesday game. But if we go with the mindset that this is will be an easy game because they are also struggling, then we are on the wrong foot because I don't think that's the right mindset we can have. We cannot allow to not take anyone serious. I mean, that's for sure something we will talk to the players; that we are obviously taking every opponent serious and that's what we are going to do. I think it's very important that mentally you're ready, not thinking that, okay, now we have home games or we have an opponent who struggles and it's going to be easy.
But it’s very important and we have to analyze that tomorrow, talk about our game from tonight tomorrow in training and quickly prepare for Wednesday and be ready. That's a good thing that we now have a lot of games and don’t have much time in between to think.”
On his thoughts about defender Carlos Terán…
“Yeah, look, you could see in the beginning that he didn't play for a while, almost three months now. I think he had his preseason game in March and he was a long time injured and he didn't really play. He needed some time to come in, but after that, I think he showed what he will bring us. He showed his aggressiveness. He showed his strength in the air and he showed his strength in defending.
I think he needs games and rhythm, and then I think we can have a very interesting, very good defender in our team. But again, first half, he needed a little bit of time to come in.”
Chicago Fire FC Midfielder Fabian Herbers
On how important the upcoming four-game homestand is…
“Yeah, in general, you always want to win your home games. We have to win our away games, too. Today we lost 2-0 here at Columbus. Obviously we wished a little bit more from this game. Hoped to get a point or even three here. I thought we started well. Unfortunately we go back 2-0 in the first half and then we are chasing the game and it's always hard to come back in front of this crowd. Columbus playing at home, they are a smart side. Yeah, it's tough.
Obviously looking forward, I mean, I don't look four games ahead. I know we have Cincinnati and on Wednesday it's a quick turnaround. It's nice, so the 2-0 doesn't stick too long in your bones. We have a chance to make it up in front of our home fans and we are up for the task.”
On if he felt the team lacked fight and desire...
“It's hard to say. When I look at the game, I didn't feel that on the field. I mean, obviously when you are 2-0 down after 45 minutes, you don't have many arguments to be honest. I mean, there was the one incident where they could have gotten the red card maybe if the ref decides differently, if a guy punches somebody in the face and he doesn't give a red card, then I don't know what is a red card.
And you know, if that would have been a red card, the game could go differently. But yeah, it's hard to say if we weren't up for the fight. I thought we did play well. We created some chances but we gave up the goals too easily at the end. You don't have many arguments if you lose 2-0 after 45 minutes.”
On why the team is struggling to generate offense...
“Yeah, I'd agree with the stats; that we are dominant in possession. We move the ball actually pretty well I think. Even away from home, it's not easy to do. But then we get into the final third, I feel like we lack a couple of runs, creativity and maybe a lucky punch that we are missing, as well.
But zero shots on goal, that's just not dangerous enough. If you want to score goals, you have to shoot on the goal. Yeah, we are lacking a little bit creativity, the last bite, the willingness and aggressiveness in the box to really want to score the goal. That's something that Columbus had today and we didn't.”
On what it will take for the team to score...
“Yeah, I agree. Today we were really not that dangerous up front. I'd agree with that. But if I look back to the Montréal game, to the Miami game - the last two games - I thought we had several, several chances, good chances to put the ball in the back of the net. Yeah, hopefully we can improve that against Cincinnati.”
On how to stay positive based on the results...
“It's not easy, but what's the alternative? I mean, we can't put our head in the sand and I've said it before, we cannot just give up and not play anymore. That's the only way to do it is stay positive, stay focused, keep working hard in training and keep your head up and try to give it all for the fans. We had a couple hundred fans that traveled from Chicago today. Sad we couldn't give them the win today.
It makes me happy and makes me proud to see fans travelling and supporting us, and yeah, we want to give them the result obviously. But we are going to stay positive. We want to keep working hard and we want to give them the results that they deserve.”
On the new crest...
“Let's just focus on the game today. Maybe I can say that in the mid-week interview. I don't have any thoughts right now for the logo.”