Fire goalkeeper Jorge Bava made one save in Chicago’s 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake on Saturday (photo credit Don MacGregor)
Chicago Fire 2-Real Salt Lake 0
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—For the first time since 2012, the Chicago Fire won a home opener. The Fire took advantage of a couple of bad Real Salt Lake touches to earn a 2-0 win at Toyota Park where it was just 28º at kickoff making it the coldest match in Fire history.
The first bad touch was when Sunny poked a ball away from Michael de Leeuw, but went right to Nemanja Nikolic who played on while RSL anticipated a whistle for offside with the flag up. However, referee Kevin Stott waved played on and Nikolic would get his first goal with the Fire in the 11th minute.
The second bad touch came four minutes later after Arturo Alvarez had turned three RSL defenders and his shot would deflect off David Horst and past a wrong-footed Nick Rimando.
“To be honest, I think we were in the right spot, and something happened because we were there,” said Fire midfielder Juninho. “We were in the right spot at the right moment. I think the guys did very good.”
This was the first match where Dax McCarty and Juninho were in midfield together and they were impressive. The defense held firm allowing just one shot on target. Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic praised the whole team for their efforts defensively on Saturday.
“I’m proud of the whole team because I think everyone is a huge help,” said Paunovic. “The defense, the defenders obviously, the midfielders, the wingers, everyone. What I want to highlight is the amount of work that everyone on the team is doing constantly, and that’s something I want to thank our guys for and it obviously helps our defense and overall defensive shape and the organization and talking about our defenders, I think they did a huge job up against a very good team.
“I think they stepped up frequently that made up for the strikers and attacking players and midfielders to run more and have to cover in position and that was an amazing job our defense did. Then engaging with the men in one-on-one situations and these crosses and the corners we had to defend today, our defense was very solid and very good and we can also say that our defenders, in case of Brandon Vincent, were dangerous in attack and he had a very good opportunity to score today it’s always helpful for our team.”
For both Paunovic and Juninho, winning the home opener was very important for the fans after not getting off on the right foot in recent years.
“It was very important, to start the season, especially the home opener, to win the game, it was very important to our confidence very important for everything and it’s a huge reward for a great preseason and tough preseason we had,” said Paunovic.
“It means a lot to all of us,” said Juninho. “To start a home opening game getting the win for the fans, and for all of us to have that winning taste again, I think that is the most important thing.”
The Fire travel to Atlanta United FC next Saturday. Kickoff is at 3pm on UniMas and Facebook Live. Kickoff is at 3pm CT.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Nemanja Nikolic (unassisted) 11
CHI-Arturo Alvarez (Kappelhof) 15
BOOKING SUMMARY:
RSL-Chris Wingert (caution, tactical foul) 79
CHICAGO FIRE (4-4-2): #1-Jorge Bava; #5-Michael Harrington, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #66-Joao Meira, #3-Brandon Vincent; #12-Arturo Alvarez (#9-Luis Solignac 70), #6-Dax McCarty, #19-Juninho, #11-David Accam; #8-Michael de Leeuw (#14-Djordie Mihailovic 93+), #23-Nemanja Nikolic (#13-Brandt Bronico 85)
Subs not used: #28-Matt Lampson, #17-Jonathan Campbell, #22-Patrick Doody, #18-Drew Conner
REAL SALT LAKE (4-2-3-1): #18-Nick Rimando; #2-Tony Beltran, #4-David Horst, #6-Justin Schmidt, #16-Chris Wingert; #8-Sunny (#19-Luke Mulholland 46), #5-Kyle Beckerman; #70-Jordan Allen (#22-Ricardo Velazco 27), #20-Luis Silva (#13-Chad Barrett 70), #11-Albert Rusnak; #14-Yura Movsisyan
Subs not used: #24-Matt VanOekel, #17-Demar Phillipa, #23-Sebastian Saucedo, #25-Danilo Acosta
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 6-12 RSL
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 4-1 RSL
FOULS: CHI 12-14 RSL
OFFSIDES: CHI 1-1 RSL
CORNER KICKS: CHI 4-10 RSL
SAVES: CHI 1-2 RSL
Referee: Kevin Stott
Referee’s Assistants: Kyle Atkins, Peter Balciunas
Fourth Official: Nima Saghafi
Weather: Sunny and 28º
Attendance: 13,024
Man of the Match: Nemanja Nikolic (CHI)
Chicago Fire
Real Salt Lake
