CHICAGO, IL—The giveaway for Saturday’s match at Soldier Field were blue and red flags for the fans to wave. The Fire’s recent performances, including Saturday’s 2-0 loss to the Union, are raising the latter as their winless streak extends to ten.
The Union did their damage in a ten-minute span in the second half. Off a throw-in in the 51st minute, Cory Burke and Jamiro Monteiro played a give-and-go resulting in the former opening the scoring. It was Burke’s fifth career goal against the Fire—the only active Union player with multiply goals against the Fire.
Nine minutes later as off another set piece, Kai Wagner was able to send a ball into the box and headed in by Jakob Glenses to make it 2-0.
The Fire kept its roster largely intact during the offseason in the hopes that continuity would lead to better results. However, a lot of what doomed the Fire in 2020 is repeating itself in the first four matches of this season in which they have been outscored 9-1 since the opening 15 minutes against New England.
“It’s always the same,” said Fire captain Francisco Calvo. “Since last year, I can come here and sit in this chair and say the same thing week-by-week because these four games are really not good enough for us and we need to change something.
“I don’t know if it is attitude, if it is decisions on the field, but we need to change something. That’s all I can say because I don’t have too many answers right now.”
The Fire need to find answers that do not involving waiting for their injured players getting back to full health starting before Thursday’s match at DC United (7pm, WGN). Otherwise, fans may be waiving proverbial white flags on this team sooner than later.
SCORING SUMMARY:
PHI-Cory Burke (Montero) 51
PHI-Jakob Glenses (Wagner) 60
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Johan Kappelhof (caution, persistent infringement) 26
CHI-Wyatt Omsberg (caution, tactical foul) 48
CHI-Boris Sekulic (caution, unsporting behavior) 90+2
PHI-Sergio Santos (caution, unsporting behavior) 90+2
PHI-Jakob Glesnes (caution, tactical foul) 90+7
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Bobby Shuttleworth; #2-Boris Sekulic,#20-Wyatt Omsberg (#14-Jhon Espinoza 71), #5-Francisco Calvo, #3-Jonathan Bornstein (#6-Miguel Navarro 57); #4-Johan Kappelhof (#22-Mauricio Pineda 46), #30-Gaston Gimenez; #11-Przemyslaw Frankowski, #8-Luka Stojanovic (#10-Alvaro Medran), #28-Elliot Collier (#9-Chinoso Offor 57); #27-Robert Beric
Subs not used: #32-Gabriel Slonina, #38-Alex Monis, #40-Brian Gutierrez, #37-Javier Casas
PHILADELPHIA UNION (4-3-3): #18-Andre Blake; #15-Olivier Mbazio (#2-Matt Real 79), #5-Jakob Glesnes, #3-Jack Elliott, #27-Kai Wagner; #11-Alejandro Bedoya, #31-Leon Flach, #16-Jack McGlynn (#21-Anthony Fontana 62); #23-Kacper Przybylko, #10-Jamiro Monteiro, #19-Cory Burke (#17-Sergio Santos 62)
Subs not used: #1-Matt Freese, #78-Aurelien Collin, #13-Cole Turner, #33-Quinn Sullivan
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 9-15 PHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 3-5 PHI
FOULS: CHI 10-17 PHI
OFFSIDES: CHI 3-3 PHI
CORNER KICKS: CHI 5-4 PHI
SAVES: CHI 3-3 PHI
Referee: Marcos de Oliveira
Assistant Referees: Eric Boria, Ian McKay
4th Official: Greg Dopka
VAR: Daniel Radford
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 48º
Attendance: 6,457
Man of the Match: Cory Burke (PHI)
