Chicago Fire FC (8-13-8, 32 points) played the Columbus Crew (9-6-13, 40 points) to a scoreless draw at Lower.com Field on Saturday evening. Fire goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina earned his 12th shutout of the season, making a career-high nine saves in a single match in the process.
Chicago is now unbeaten in two-straight matches with five games left to play in the Eastern Conference.
In a first half that saw the Crew utilize high pressure, the Fire was forced to make a substitution in the 33rd minute when midfielder Brian Gutiérrez was replaced by Jhon Durán after going down with an injury. The team shifted into a 4-4-2 formation for the first time in the season, with Kacper Przybyłko and Durán leading the charge on the attack.
Goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina was called into action during the second minute of first-half stoppage time when Derrick Etienne Jr. took advantage of a wall created by his teammates at the top of Chicago’s box, curling a shot around to the second post that Slonina did well to dive to his right to make the save.
Slonina and the Fire defense were once put on high alert in the 63rd minute by Columbus forward Cucho Hernandez, who took a shot that Slonina reacted well to save. Both players quickly went after the rebound, with Slonina blocking the shot and Fire defender Carlos Terán then clearing the ball out of danger.
NEXT MATCH: Chicago will return to Chicago for two consecutive home matches, hosting Inter Miami CF on Saturday, Sept. 10 at SeatGeek Stadium. Beginning at 7:00 p.m. CT, the match will be televised 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:
- Chicago has stopped the opposition from scoring a first-half goal in 19 of their 29 games so far in 2022. Only the Philadelphia Union (24) has done this more often in Major League Soccer this season.
- Chicago Fire Homegrown product Andre Reynolds II started in consecutive matches for the first time in his MLS career.
- The Fire extended their unbeaten run to two-straight matches, having shutout the New England Revolution on Wednesday night.
- It is Gabriel Slonina’s 12th shutout of the season, good for third-place in Major League Soccer. Slonina recorded a career-high nine saves in a single match against the Columbus Crew.
Box Score:
Columbus Crew 0:0 Chicago Fire FC
Goals:
None
Discipline:
CLB - Diaz (Yellow Card) 74’
CHI - Herbers (Yellow Card) 85’
CHI - Espinoza (Yellow Card) 90+7’
Chicago Fire FC: GK Slonina, D Sekulić (Bornstein, 68’), D Czichos ©, D M. Navarro, D Terán, M Pineda, M Herbers, M Reynolds II (D Espinoza, 61’), M Gutiérrez (Durán, 33’), M Mueller, F Przybyłko (Shaqiri, 68’)
Subs not used: GK Richey, D Burks, M F. Navarro, F Bezerra, M Oregel Jr.
Columbus Crew: GK Room, D Mensah ©, D Degenek, D Sands (Farsi, 80’), D Moreira, M Nagbe, M Zelarayán, M Morris (Artur, 80’), F Hernández, F Díaz (M Yeboah, 87’), F Etienne Jr. (Molino, 68’)
Subs not used: GK Bush, D Williams, F Hurtado, D Anibaba, M Igbekeme
Stats Summary: CLB / CHI
Shots: 25 / 6
Shots on Goal: 9 / 1
Saves: 1 / 9
Passing Accuracy: 89.5% / 81.3%
Corners: 10 / 0
Fouls: 11 / 13
Offsides: 0 / 0
Possession: 62.1% / 37.9%
Attendance: 18,189
Referee: Ismir Pekmic
Assistant Referees: Chantal Boudreau, Walt Heatherly
Fourth Official: Sergii Demianchuk
VAR: Jair Marrufo, Fabio Tovar
Chicago Fire FC Head Coach Ezra Hendrickson
On Gabriel Slonina’s performance and whether he has noticed a change in his demeanor since his agreement with Chelsea…
“Not really. He's always been a confident goalkeeper. He's always been a good ’keeper. Hence, he signed a contract with Chelsea.
But he came up with another great performance again. I think that's his 11th, maybe 12th shutout this year. So you know, we know that he's a good goalkeeper, and has been good all year for us. So we're happy to have him.”
On the team's overall performance and how important Slonina was in getting the draw against Columbus…
“Well, you know, what I told the guys is that in normal circumstances, a point on the road, a clean sheet, it's good. Not that this is not good but we're in a situation now that we need to pick up points.
Tonight I thought, defensively, we did well. There was some miscommunication on some things that they were able to break us down. For the most part, I thought we did well but with the ball, the transition from defending to attacking, again, tonight, was not up to par where it needs to be. We're turning the ball over too much, too easily, sometimes with no pressure, unforced errors. We need to clean that up, but definitely want to keep the clean sheets and be better on the attacking end of things.
Right now it's not good enough. We need to get points, especially at home, coming up next weekend, we have to get the full three points and then still go on the road and pick up three points at Cincy, Montréal, one of those teams.
We definitely kept ourselves in it by not losing these games and picking up points. The key thing is we didn't give the two teams now that we are fighting for a playoff spot with full points at their place, so that's very important. The effort was there, Wednesday and tonight. Tonight I thought we got a little winded, our legs got out from under us a little bit. You know, third game in the last seven, eight days, two being on the road, it's a little difficult. But the guys put in the effort. We have to be better once we win the ball and once we’re going forward.”
On whether the lineup could change again on Saturday against Inter Miami given all the injuries…
“We'll take a look at the squad and what we have and how guys came out of these three games. We have taken some knocks. We are missing some key players here tonight. (Xherdan Shaqiri) wasn't able to start the game.
We have to make sure we heal up a little bit. We don't have a midweek game coming up this week. That helps. We have a good seven days to prepare. Maybe take a couple days off. We've just got to get healthy and hopefully by next Saturday we are refreshed and ready to go again.”
Chicago Fire FC Goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina
On the team earning a point on the road but not seeming very content with the result…
“Yeah, I mean, it's pretty difficult now. You want to get three points. The coach and the coaching staff put in the idea of a seven-game season so we need to pick up as many points as we can every single game.
Before, it would be nice to get a point on the road but now we want more. It's not good enough for us just to pick up one. So we are going to continue to work and focus on this next match at home to pick up three.”
On his individual performance tonight, in which he made a career-high nine saves in a single match…
“At the end of the season, at the end of the day, we want to make the playoffs. So I'm happy for that accolade, but it would be better if I made three saves and we got the win. I think the clean sheet is nice, but obviously, like we were just talking, we want to get as much points as possible. So going for the win I think is the most important.”
On his outlook as he starts to make the move over to Chelsea…
“I mean, for me, it's obviously about giving my best every single game and obviously just staying in the moment and doing what I can for my team to come out and get the three points. I think I'm just going to continue to focus on every single match at hand because I think that will, in the end prepare, me for what's to come.”
On whether the team had a different mentality going into the game against Columbus…
“I don't think anything changed. We always go into a game with the mentality that we want to come away with three points. I think that defensively we fixed a few things, we tweaked what we needed to make sure we were structured and organized.
I think, offensively, I'm the first attacker, right? So we need to do a little bit of a better job at creating those chances and making sure that we can get chances and get goals. I think it's the same. We just buckled down and made sure that we stop conceding goals and then we can work on putting them away on the other end.”
On how the locker room is feeling after the tie…
“Yeah, I mean, we are not happy. We want to -- it's a tie but we want to come away with three points; at this part of the season, I think every point, every minute is vital right now. We are going to see what we can do better and see how we can improve our game for the next match against Miami.”