Photo Credit: Charlotte Thomas
Philadelphia Union 3-1 Chicago Fire
CHESTER, PA—The Chicago Fire had a chance to move within one point of second place in the East NYCFC, they might end up one point behind Atlanta for third place and just one clear of Columbus for fourth after losing, 3-1, to Philadelphia at Talen Energy Stadium.
The Union took the lead in the 12th minute after Keegan Rosenberry sent a cross into the box that was headed in by Chris Pontius for his first of the season. Pontius got his second of the season in the 56th minute after Matt Lampson spilled a shot by Fabrice-Jean Picault offering Pontius the rebound on a silver platter.
CJ Sapong quickly made it 3-0 in the 64th minute scoring his 14th on the year collecting a cross from Fabinho.
Luis Solignac pulled one back for the Fire three minutes later, but it was of little use as the Fire could not break down a resolute (read: 11 men behind the ball daring the Fire to play from the back) defense.
“I don’t think it’s a moment now to go back and analyze too much, go too deep, we have to move forward,” said Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic. “Obviously we’re not happy with the performance nor the result, but credit to our guys for pushing hard until the end. I think this team never gave up and tried, after we scored the first one, we tried to push and score the second which would have helped us obviously in order to get the point at least but it didn’t happen, the second goal was a must be but I think we weren’t sharp enough, we didn’t push enough and the team just has to get better. Now we have to think about the next game, recover the guys and think about San Jose.”
The Fire take on San Jose on Wednesday night at 9:30pm on CSN Plus.
SCORING SUMMARY:
PHI-Chris Pontius (Rosenberry, Creavalle) 10
PHI-Chris Pontius (unassisted) 56
PHI-CJ Sapong (Fabinho, Bedoya) 64
CHI-Luis Solignac (Nikolic, Polster) 67
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Matt Polster (caution, tactical foul) 16
CHI-Johan Kappelhof (caution, tactical foul) 42
PHI-Keegan Rosenberry (caution, persistent infringement) 85
PHI-Warren Creavalle (caution, tactical foul) 86
PHILADELPHIA UNION (4-3-3): #18-Andre Blake; #12-Keegan Rosenberry, #3-Jack Elliott, #16-Richie Marquez, #33-Fabinho (#28-Raymon Gaddis 90+1); #11-Alejandro Bedoya, #6-Haris Medunjanin, #2-Warren Creavalle; #13-Chris Pontius, #17-CJ Sapong (#27-Jay Simpson 86), #22-Fabrice-Jean Picault (#20-Marcus Epps 79)
Subs not used: #23-John McCarthy, #5-Oguchi Onyewu, #10-Roland Alberg, #9-Charlie Davies
CHICAGO FIRE (4-4-2): #28-Matt Lampson; #2-Matt Polster, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #66-Joao Meira, #3-Brandon Vincent; #12-Arturo Alvarez (#14-Djordje Mihailovic 68), #18-Drew Conner, #6-Dax McCarty (#16-Jonathan Campbell 78), #11-David Accam (#9-Luis Solignac 60); #8-Michael de Leeuw, #23-Nemanja Nikolic
Subs not used: #45-Richard Sanchez, #5-Michael Harrington, #13-Brandt Bronico, #10-David Arshakyan
TOTAL SHOTS: PHI 15-11 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: PHI 6-5 CHI
FOULS: PHI 14-7 CHI
OFFSIDES: PHI 0-1 CHI
CORNER KICKS: PHI 6-3 CHI
SAVES: PHI 4-3 CHI
Referee: Robert Sibiga
Assistant Referees: Adam Wienckowski, Kevin Klinger
4th Official: Ted Unkel
Video Assistant Referee: Jonathan Weiner
Weather: Sunny and 82º
Attendance: 18,619
Man of the Match: Chris Pontius (PHI)
Chicago Fire
Philadelphia Union
