Chicago Fire FC (2-1-4, 10 points) and the Philadelphia Union (2-4-2, 8 points) battled to a 2-2 draw at Soldier Field on Saturday night.
Despite racing ahead to a two-goal lead just two minutes into the second half, the Fire conceded twice in a two-minute stretch midway through the final 45 minutes, resulting in a point gained for each side.
Both Chicago and Philadelphia were keen to attack and Chicago’s first dangerous chance came in the eighth minute when the Fire intercepted a ball near midfield in their own defensive end. The loose ball fell into space, where defender Arnaud Souquet pounced with a one-time shot that sailed toward Andre Blake’s empty goal with the Philadelphia goalkeeper well off his line. The long-range shot, which would have been an instant Goal of the Year candidate, went inches over the crossbar. Chicago had another chance 10 minutes later when forward Kei Kamara trapped the ball in the box but hit a close-range shot just wide.
It was winger Maren Haile-Selassie that opened the scoring with his first Chicago Fire goal in the 19th minute. Chris Mueller passed a ball up the left flank for an overlapping Miguel Navarro, who sent a service in across the box. Kamara was in front of the goal, but left the ball for Haile-Selassie at the far post. The Swiss midfielder had a touch before sending it into the right side of the goal.
Two minutes into the second half, Chicago created a play that resulted in an own goal for the Philadelphia Union. Mueller, Souquet and Fabian Herbers combined on the right side to get the ball into the box, where Souquet played a pass in for Brian Gutiérrez. Philadelphia defender Jakob Glesnes tried to clear it, but it bounced off Nathan Harriel and into the net.
Philadelphia leveled the score with back-to-back goals in the 62nd and 64th minutes. The referee pointed to the penalty spot after a hard tackle just inside Chicago’s 18-yard-box and Daniel Gazdag lined up to take the penalty, sending it into the top left corner. Shortly afterward, a cross put into the box was met by a headed pass from Daniel Gazgad to Alejandro Bedoya for a low, driven shot that found the back of the net.
Chicago’s pressure didn’t let up and in the 82nd minute, some back-and-forth play between second-half substitutes Xherdan Shaqiri and Georgios Koutsias ended with Shaqiri lobbing a ball over the Union defense. The Greek forward got a touch on the ball, directing it toward goal, but his effort bounced off the post and back into play.
NEXT MATCH: Chicago will head south for Club’s first and only road match of April against Atlanta United at 3:30 p.m. CT on Sunday, April 23, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The match will be broadcast on Apple TV+ and FS1, and transmitted locally in Spanish on TUDN 1200 AM.
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Notes:
- With the 2-2 result, the Fire remained above the playoff line, ranking eighth in the East for points (10) so far this season.
- Swiss winger Maren Haile-Selassie scored his first goal in a Chicago Fire shirt, with Miguel Navarro registering his first assist of the season.
- The Chicago Fire have scored seven first-half goals in seven matches. Only the Columbus Crew (8) have scored more first half goals in MLS this season.
- Chicago remains unbeaten at home this season with one win and four draws from their five contests at Soldier Field.
- In their last six league matches, Chicago have won two, drawn four and lost one to earn 10 points.
- The Fire started with the same opening lineup that began in last weekend's 2-1 win against Minnesota United.
- Coming in as a substitute in the 65th minute, Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri returned to the field for the first time since the two teams last faced off on March 11 in Philadelphia. Shaqiri had missed the team’s last four matches due to injury.
- Forward Kei Kamara started for a second-straight match after delivering a first half brace in last weekend's win.
- Defenders Arnaud Souquet, Rafael Czichos and Carlos Terán are the only Fire players to start every match this season.
- Midfielder Fabian Herbers also returned to the starting XI to line up alongside Gastón Giménez in the deep-lying spot. Herbers is closing in on an MLS milestone, as he made his 149th career regular season appearance tonight.
- In net, 19-year-old Chris Brady started his sixth-straight match.
- Midfielder Jairo Torres (right upper leg), midfielder Federico Navarro (left upper leg), and forward Victor Bezerra (left upper leg) are unavailable for selection due to injury tonight.
Box Score:
Chicago Fire FC 2:2 Philadelphia Union
Goals:
CHI - Haile-Selassie (1) (M. Navarro 1, Mueller 1) (WATCH) 19’
CHI - Own Goal (WATCH) 47’
PHI - Gazdag (3) (penalty) (WATCH) 62’
PHI - Carranza (3) (Gazdag 5, Sullivan 1) (WATCH) 64’
Discipline:
CHI - Herbers (Yellow Card) 66’
PHI - Gazdag (Yellow Card) 90+2’
PHI - Curtin (Yellow Card) 90+5’
CHI - Giménez (Yellow Card) 90+5’
Chicago Fire FC: GK Brady, D Souquet, D Terán (Burks, 58), D Czichos (capt.), D M. Navarro, M Haile-Selassie, M Mueller, M Gutiérrez (Shaqiri, 65’), M Herbers (Casas Jr., 80’), M Giménez (Pineda, 46’), F Kamara (Koutsias, 65’)
Subs not used: GK Gal, D Omsberg, D Dean, F Przybyłko
Philadelphia Union: GK Blake, D Elliott, D Glesnes, D Mbaizo, D Harriel, M Martinez, M Gazdag, M Bedoya (capt.), M McGlynn (Bueno, 90’), F Uhre, F Carranza
Subs not used: GK Bendik, D Real, D Lowe, M Perea, M Torres, M Sullivan, M Craig, F Donovan
Stats Summary: CHI / PHI
Shots: 12 / 16
Shots on Goal: 2 / 4
Saves: 2 / 1
Passing Accuracy: 77.5% / 80.1%
Corners: 4 / 2
Fouls: 8 / 12
Offsides: 0 / 2
Possession: 49.5% / 50.5%
Attendance: 12,811
Referee: Ismail Elfath
Assistant Referees: Logan Brown, Adam Garner
Fourth Official: Walt Heatherly
VAR: Alejandro Mariscal, Mike Kampmeinert
Chicago Fire FC Quotes
Chicago Fire FC Head Coach Ezra Hendrickson
On the status of injured players and their effect on the final result...
“Well, first the injuries. Just unfortunate that we had to take off Gastón (Giménez) at halftime. He just pulled something in his upper leg, and then (Carlos) Terán was having pain in his knee area, so he couldn't continue. And then later on, Fabi (Herbers) also was hurting, so he had to come out.
But regardless of that, and that affects what you do as far as your subs and stuff like that. But regardless of that, you know, being at home, being up 2-0 again, take nothing from them, it's a good team that we're playing against tonight. They're in the semifinals of the (Concacaf) Champions League for a reason. That being said, though, again, at home, up 2-0. We just have to, one, finish our chances when we do get them because there's an opportunity to go up three, maybe even 4-0 and really put the game out and we don't do that.
And then secondly, it's the second time now, late in the game, that we've had the ball in a box to clear. We don't clear it, we try to play out when we're under pressure and tonight, it led to a PK, because we missed that pass. And then I don't know what the foul was all about. There was no need to foul there. We just made a very, very poor decision on that foul. Once they got that PK, they kind of got some momentum, kind of had us back on our heels a little bit. And you know, we had some moments after that, with (Georgios) Koutsias in the box getting some balls from Shaq and stuff. But after that, I think they had the better of the game.
But at the end of the day, like I told them, at home, you have to have the mentality of, even though it's not a loss tonight, again, it felt like a loss. And so, our mentality in games, late in games, we're not going to have 90 minutes of the ball, we're not going to be on top of a team 90 minutes; rarely does that happen in this game. The key is, when you haven't had the better part of the game, can you keep the ball out of the back of the net? And right now, we're not able to do that. When we're under pressure, we’re kind of breaking.”
On the slim margin between a winning streak and an unbeaten streak...
“Well yeah, I mean, we're not out there on the pitch by ourselves, but we've shown that we've put ourselves in these games to win these games. Against D.C., it was not finishing, it was a big save by the keeper in the 90th minute. Against Cincy, it's not clearing a ball in the corner. You know, it's us not executing in both ends of the field. And I told them that tonight, 'guys, in the boxes, late in the game, we have to become better.' So we're going to finish the chances that we're still creating and then we also got to keep the ball out of the back of the net on the other end.
So yeah, there was an opportunity there to have a five-game unbeaten streak or a winning streak. But teams are fighting and we just have to learn, especially at home, how to fight back and how not to break; we can bend but not break. Because, like I said, the other teams are going to have moments of the game; we can't expect that we're going to have complete control of the game for 90 minutes. The key is to, when we're under pressure like that, that we do not break and we do not give up goals, especially soft goals.”
On the absence of Jairo Torres and Federico Navarro and the impact on the match...
“Yes, definitely. That decision was made, Jairo probably Thursday or so, and with Fede, it was yesterday. He just couldn't go.
They're our starters when they're healthy, so I think that makes a difference when they're on the pitch. Having Shaq on the pitch from the start also makes a difference for us. We're missing some key players, but we don't want to focus on the players that we’re missing because at the end of the day, you still have to go out and play the game. Even with those guys missing, we put ourselves in good positions to win these games, but we're just not finishing out games and that part of it has to get better. And we have to take a look at ourselves and make sure that, one, we continue to do what is asked of us and we don't just start doing whatever we feel like doing, and just be better in the boxes on both ends of the field.”
Chicago Fire FC Midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri
On how he is feeling physically…
“Feeling good, not really 100 percent. But I was obviously out for a few weeks. But it was good to be back with the team and good to get back on the pitch.”
On recurring injuries…
“This is normal in football. This happens to everybody. You have to deal with this.”
On coming into the game after the team conceded two goals…
“It’s frustrating for sure. But we have to learn from this and we have to manage the game better especially when we are leading the game. Yeah, and obviously today we had more chances to score the third one and especially that one. We probably need to score more goals so that we can really be sure that we will win the game.”
On the team’s performance in his absence…
“We have taken a step forward but we still have to learn a lot of things and we will have to grow. Because you can see we're not where we wanted to be and that's why it's gonna be a hard year and we want to reach our goals and for that we need very good performances because we know how good the teams are here. It's not simple to make the playoffs but this is our goal and we’re still in the beginning of the season. And in the end, we calculate and we'll see but this is our main goal, that we make the playoffs.”
On what the team needs to learn…
“I don’t think it's the right time to say now, what we have to learn, because you see this from outside too and you can judge this but I think, like today, we need to learn to manage the game better. To keep the ball, we need to keep the ball more and try to dominate the teams more and more. This is what I want from this team and we need to grow and try to be there but this is also hard work. We need to train this every day in training and the players need to step up.”
On Georgios Koutsias…
“Yeah, he's a very good guy. He wants to work hard and that is the most important thing. He's young, he can learn and you saw it today. He wants to score goals, sadly he didn't score but it was close, but I'm sure he will have a big future and he will help us a lot.”
Chicago Fire FC Midfielder Fabian Herbers
On tonight’s result against Philadelphia…
“It's pretty hard to explain honestly. We played really well in the first half and go up, deservedly. Come out strong in the second half as well, scored the second goal even though it was a little bit lucky. Even then, after that we have chances for the 3-0, even the 4-0 but we can’t capitalize on those chances. I feel like if we use those chances, we can put the game away. And then it kind of happens again, give up a cheap penalty and then you almost already see it coming on the field. Even though I hate to say that, but that's what I felt. Philadelphia was very strong coming out in the second half and they, you know, really pushed for it. They didn't look tired at all even though they had a midweek game and they really put us on the backfoot in the second half and we were lucky to not even lose the game.
No explanation as to why it happens. I don't know, we just have to stick together and find a solution for this. Maybe putting away our chances when we are up 2-0, you know, we got to keep our calm, we got to keep playing like it’s 0-0. We can’t think that it's 2-0 and if we concede, now, one, we might concede another one. We just have to have that 0-0 mentality and you know play as hard as we would if it were 0-0.”
On how they can get past that mentality…
“Yeah, I don't know, it's hard to explain, again. You know, we give up a cheap penalty again. Then, you see guys putting our heads down and then not even two minutes after, I don't know how long it took, it was a really nice play, to be fair, from Philadelphia, but still an avoidable goal. I think, if you look back at it, but I have no explanation at this point as to why it is happening because it's been a pattern for us this season and even past seasons as well when I've been with the Club. It's not just under Ezra, but it's been before that as well.”
On looking into next week against Atlanta…
“Yeah, I mean, we're going there this year. I think so far, we’ve been alright on the road. Atlanta is a strong team and we go there, you know, I would have liked obviously to win this game. Then you almost go there with house money, so that you can just play freely and just go for it. But yeah, you know, any point you can pick up on the road, even if it might be three, could be huge for us at this point of the season. We go there with a winning mentality. We play the same way. And I think we can make it difficult at least for Atlanta.”