Fire Sidebar: Duran gets Brace and Fitting in Up Top!

CHICAGO, IL–How fast is Jhon Duran? A lot faster than you just might think, and on the pitch he’s faster to stay with, if he gets away from you.

Duran on numerous occasions slipped away from the Toronto FC defense on Wednesday night, which he was able to score a pair of goals in leading the Chicago Fire FC to a 2-0 victory at Soldier Field.

In scoring both goals, he had his first career brace and became the second youngest player in club history to score multiple goals in game at 18-years old. Former Fire midfielder DeMarcus Beasley was the youngest to accomplish that feat.

“It’s work that we put in during the week, we worked hard on pressuring and attacking the spaces,” Duran said. “I think that was more conviction, wanting to score and score goals. For the other part, I’m happy to start scoring again to help the team.”

Duran has scored three goals this season and has the opportunity to move into a starting role up top for the Fire and has seen his youth and ability show up in the last couple of matches.

“For a long time, Durán was catching up to the speed of play in training,” Chicago Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson said. “So, he was struggling a bit in training, just keeping the focus, just being mentally there within a game, play within the team concept. So that too, was keeping him off the pitch. But we felt like the time was right, a couple of games ago, to make the switch.”

As for playing on the field, his results have shown the way as with his ability. At this point, the Fire may have found a player that can play up top and score goals at the same time.

“The kid has done well, and I always tell them it’s not a name game, it’s about performance.” Hendrickson said. “If you’re not starting, how you do in training will get you minutes on the pitch. And when you get your minutes, if you do well, you stay on the pitch, it doesn’t matter who you are, and everyone is held to that standard. And that’s how we’re going to be competitive as a team, that’s how we’re going to grow as a team, by making sure everyone is held accountable and do their jobs. We’re a team that, everyone has to play within their roles. Their roles are clearly defined. There are no secrets about how we defend, what you have to do, how we attack, what your roles are when we have the ball; it’s just a matter of going out and doing it. And if you do it, you’ll stay on the pitch; if you don’t, you’ll come up with a bench. It’s as simple as that.”

Duran wasted no time finding the back of the net against Toronto FC. Just four minutes into the match he received a pass from Chris Mueller and then let his speed take over to score on a breakaway.

Then about 12 minutes later, the Fire was on a quick transition. Brian Gutierrez hit a spectacular backheel flick off his right leg for Duran on the run towards the goal. Duran took control of the ball and fired it with his left leg for a 2-0 advantage.

“I knew (Duran) was there and tried to (kick) the ball there,” Gutierrez said. “But (Duran) made most of the play and it was all him. (Duran) is always a threat on the backline. He can go 1-on-1 and he’s a really good player.”

Both Guttierez and Duran are homegrown players that are starting to show that they can make an impact with the club.

“Well, I’ve always said that Durán and Gutierrez, have a high ceiling, a very, very high ceiling.” Hendrickson said. “Duran is getting an opportunity to play now and he’s able to show that. Even though he didn’t score last game against Columbus, he had a good performance. Now it’s just getting these guys up to 90-minute match fit because they just haven’t been playing much, so they get a little tired in the second half. But you can see what he can do. You know, this guy is a very talented player, he’s very fast, very strong. So, he can be a very, very good forward in this league and can score a lot of goals.”