Chicago Fire FC 2-2 Sporting Kansas City
CHICAGO, IL—Sporting Kansas City appeared to be heading towards the top of the Western Conference overnight, but Tim Melia was late in dealing with a last-gasp long ball and Djordje Mihailoivc equalized with the last kick of the match as the Fire escape with a 2-2 draw at Soldier Field.
The draw temporarily puts the Fire back above the red line in the East while Sporting KC are level on points with Seattle and Portland at the top of the West, but third on goal difference.
Both of Sporting KC’s goals came the result of opportune moments. In the 35th minute, Gadi Kinda dispossessed Mauricio Pineda and fed Erik Hurtado who got in behind Wyatt Omsberg and beat keeper Bobby Shuttleworth far post to give Sporting the lead.
Sporting looked to go into halftime with the lead, especially after it appeared that Amadou Dia had cleared the ball off the line from a Robert Beric shot before halftime. However, VAR determined the ball had entirely crossed the plane of the goal line prior to that clearance and it was 1-1.
Sporting KC went ahead again in the 83rd minute on a corner kick when Ilie Sanchez’s header set up Kinda’s header from a yard out to put the visitors 2-1 ahead. It looked to finish that way, but in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Pineda sent a long ball that Djordje Mihailovic beat Tim Melia to and put the ball into an empty net to rescue a point for the Fire.
“Yeah I saw Mauricio, and obviously the wind played a big role in that,” said Mihailovic. “It did help the ball up in the air and gave me enough time into the ball, but I saw Mauricio line up just to send it long. You know, in the 94th+ at the end of the game, just got to get the ball into the box and hope something good happens. And obviously, I was first to the ball, got around them and with the field and it’s a bit bumpy from the football game so I didn’t really want to risk some sort of issue with that so I just had to control the ball and make sure I had it all under control. So that’s what I did.”
Fire head coach Raphael Wicky did not think the match on the whole was a good one.
“To be honest, I have to watch the game again. I cannot really give you a very clear feedback on the last 20 minutes. I can give you feedback on the 90 minutes. I think it wasn’t a good game, we didn’t play our football like we normally play,” said Wicky. “But in the end of the day, we obviously are happy with the point. When you equalize in minute 92 or 93, I don’t know when it was, you have to take the point and be happy. But overall, I think we were sloppy with the ball, we lost a lot of easy balls, we gave away a lot of easy balls, that’s not how we want to play. We were technically not as clean as we normally are. I think in the end of (the day), I think today we have to take the point and be happy with that.”
The Fire get a full week to prepare for New York Red Bulls next Saturday night at Soldier Field. Kickoff is at 6:30pm on WGN-TV.
SCORING SUMMARY:
SKC-Erik Hurtado (Kinda) 35
CHI-Robert Beric (Omsberg) 45+1
SKC-Gadi Kinda (Sanchez, Russell) 83
CHI-Djordje Mihailovic (Pineda) 90+5
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Mauricio Pineda (caution, tactical foul) 22
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Bobby Shuttleworth; #2-Boris Sekulic (#9-CJ Sapong 73), #5-Francisco Calvo, #20-Wyatt Omsberg (#40-Brian Gutierrez 90), #3-Jonathan Bornstein; #22-Mauricio Pineda, #10-Alvaro Medran; #7-Ignacio Aliseda (#11-Przemyslaw Frankowski 60), #21-Fabian Herbers (#14-Djordje Mihailovic 60), #9-CJ Sapong (#28-Elloit Collier 80); #27-Robert Beric
Subs not used: #24-Connor Sparrow, #36-Andre Reynolds, #25-Nicolas Slonina, #16-Micheal Azira, #37-Javier Casas, #40-Brian Gutierrez
SPORTING KANSAS CITY (4-3-3): #29-Tim Melia; #26-Jaylin Lindsey, #4-Roberto Puncec, #22-Winston Reid, #13-Amadou Dia; #17-Gadi Kinda (#21-Felipe Hernandez 85), #6-Ilie Sanchez, #27-Gianluca Busio; #7-Johhny Russell, #19-Erik Hurtado (#11-Khiry Shelton 78), #28-Cameron Duke (#15-Roger Espinoza 67)
Subs not used: #24-John Pulskamp, #5-Matt Besler, #3-Andreu Fontas, #36-Luis Martins, #20-Daniel Salloi, #12-Gerso
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 8-8 SKC
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 4-5 SKC
FOULS: CHI 12-10 SKC
OFFSIDES: CHI 3-2 SKC
CORNER KICKS: CHI 5-4 SKC
SAVES: CHI 3-2 SKC
Referee: David Gantar
Assistant Referees: Brian Poeschel, Adam Garner
4th Official: Silviu Petrescu
VAR: Hilario Grajeda
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 61º
Man of the Match: Gadi Kinda (SKC)
