Chicago Fire FC 3-1 Inter Miami CF
Photo: Amanda Cortese
BRIDGEVIEW, IL—It was a full moon over SeatGeek Stadium complete with clouds going past it. Maybe it was that, maybe it was the not-as-optimal pitch, or maybe it was something else; but Chicago Fire FC played one of their best matches of the year with an emphatic 3-1 win over Inter Miami before an energetic crowd of 15,104.
The win ends the Fire’s five-match winless streak, though they remain six points out of the seventh and final playoff spot with four matches to go and five teams to pass.
The Fire dominated play in the first half and were finally rewarded for their efforts. Brian Gutierrez’s cross in the 40th minute deflected off a defender and right to the head of Jhon Duran for the opening score. It was Duran’s first goal since July 13th when he had his brace against Toronto FC. It was also the Fire’s first goal in 442 minutes of play.
The lead would be doubled in the 64th minute when Mauricio Pineda’s cross was flicked on by Chris Mueller to Xherdan Shaqiri who struck for his fifth goal of the season.
Inter Miami would pull one back as they were awarded a penalty kick in the 75th minute after Federico Navarro tripped Alejandro Pozuelo in the area. Gonzalo Higuain would convert the spot kick.
The Herons’ attempt to snatch a point effectively ended after Miguel Navarro intercepted a pass and sent Jhon Duran on his way to goal with Miami caught out and he would make no mistake three minutes from time.
Both getting the win and scoring goals were important for a Fire team that was doing neither recently according to Shaqiri.
“Yeah, it was important first of all to win because the few games we didn’t win, we didn’t score,” said Shaqiri. “And we play and try to win every game, the last five games now. And every game is like a final because we need it if you want to go to the playoffs. You need any games to win. And then we see in the end what happens. But it was a good game from us, it was an important win.”
It’s not as much that the team unlocked something that wasn’t discovered previously, according to Shaqiri, but he feels the team needs to be more clinical in front of goal and make better decisions there as well.
“We need to be more ruthless in front of the goal,” said Shaqiri. ‘And need to understand each other better, the last pass needs to be better sometimes. This is the thing that we need to do and what we need do better. Because we need goals and we need three points. But we need to score goals and this is the point that we need to understand each other better and when you see a better player standing there to play and then we score. Sometimes we are too selfish, let’s say like this. But today was good, three points, that was the most important thing.”
The Fire face a quick turnaround and visit CF Montreal on Tuesday night at 6:30pm CT on WGN-TV.
(Editor’s Note: You can view more of Amanda Cortese’s photos by clicking the link)
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Jhon Duran (unassisted) 40
CHI-Xherdan Shaqiri (Mueller) 64
MIA-Gonzalo Higuain (penalty kick) 77
CHI-Jhon Duran (M. Navarro) 87
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Rafael Czichos (caution, tactical foul) 33
CHI-Federico Navarro (caution, reckless tackle) 76
MIA-Phil Neville (caution, dissent) 84
MIA-Christopher McVey (caution, deliberate handball) 90
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Gaga Slonina; #2-Boris Sekulic, #23-Carlos Teran, #5-Rafael Czichos, #6-Miguel Navarro; #22-Maurico Pineda (#3-Jonathan Bornstein 65), #31-Federico Navarro; #40-Brian Gutierrez (#36-Andre Reynolds II 65), #10-Xherdan Shaqiri, #8-Chris Mueller (#14-Jhon Espinoza 81); #26-Jhon Duran (#33-Victor Bezerra 90)
Subs not used: #18-Spencer Richey, #38-Alex Monis, #27-Kendall Burks, #37-Javier Casas, #35-Sergio Oregel
INTER MIAMI CF (4-3-3): #21-Nick Marsman, #2-Deandre Yedlin, #4-Christopher McVey, #45-Ryan Sailor, #3-Kieran Gibbs (#33-Joevin Jones 62); #26-Gregore, #7-Jean Mota (#11-Ariel Lassiter 73), #8-Alejandro Pozuelo; #17-Indiana Vassilev (#22-Bryce Duke 62), #10-Gonzalo Higuain, #16-Robert Taylor
Subs not used: #27-Drake Callender, #25-Emerson Rodriguez, #32-Noah Allen, #12-Aime Mabika, #18-Harvey Neville, #13-Victor Ulloa
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 12-7 MIA
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 4-3 MIA
FOULS: CHI 7-10 MIA
OFFSIDES: CHI 0-2 MIA
CORNER KICKS: CHI 7-2 MIA
SAVES: CHI 2-1 MIA
Referee: Matthew Conger
Assistant Referees: Meghan Mullen, Gianni Facchini
Fourth Official: Ramy Touchan
VAR: Geoff Gamble
Weather: Mostly Sunny and 84º
Attendance: 15,104
Man of the Match: Jhon Duran (CHI)
