Chicago Fire 1-1 New York City FC
BRIDGEVIEW, IL–The Fire had another chance to move above the red line with a win against New York City FC, but they were unable to take advantage and played to a 1-1 draw. NYCFC are now unbeaten in eight while the Fire remain below the red line.
Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic made four changes from the lineup that took the pitch in the 4-0 loss in San Jose. Among those changes, Kenneth Kronholm replaced David Ousted in goal and Nemanja Nikolic was benched in favor of CJ Sapong up front. Both were “technical decisions” according to Paunovic.
It was Sapong who put the Fire ahead in the 28th minute after knocking in a cross from Brandt Bronico. Bronico was initially ruled offside on the goal, but VAR showed that Bronico was indeed onside and the goal was given by referee Ramy Touchan. The goal was the 1,000th regular season goal in Fire history.
NYCFC did not show much in attack apart from a few opportunist moments. Yet, they made good on one of them five minutes from halftime as Alexandru Mitrita blasted one from 25 yards out past Kronholm for the equalizer.
The second half was tepid for both teams and the closest chance either side had was when Heber snuck past Francisco Calvo to try and poach a goal, but Kronholm made the save. Sean Johnson made four saves of his own on the day for the visitors.
Paunovic mentioned that Kronholm was a long-term target and announced in the post-match presser that he will start Wednesday night at DC.
“We always thought that he’s going to improve our style,” said Paunovic about Kronholm, “and we expect that he’s still going to do better, even though today, I think he just showed glimpses of his capability of delivering very good balls in the buildup. I think he helped the team a lot
As for the match, Paunovic said that it was a struggle for both teams with the warm weather and the dry pitch.
“I think after the 35th minute, after we scored and little bit more, I think we struggled,” said Paunovic. “And I have to say, it was hard for them and for us also hard, the temperature and the field was dry after the 35 minutes. We cannot keep it wet, right, because of the humidity and everything. So that made the game difficult for both teams but we have to handle that first half much better. Once you have the opportunity, once you take the lead, you have to close down, at least go to halftime with the lead. But, unfortunately, we conceded that goal and the second half was pretty much for both teams, the question of who’s going to make a mistake and not much in a beautiful, beautiful game from both teams.”
It was also another frustrating result for the Fire who could’ve gone as high as fifth in the Eastern Conference with a win as Saturday headed into the evening.
“We feel like that most of the games we play,” said Fire forward CJ Sapong. “Obviously, it’s no secret we’ve been struggling to execute those chances. I think also on the other side of the ball we want to preserve the result when we get it so a lot of things that we’re familiar with and now there’s really nothing else to say about it except we got to do better. I think everybody knows that.”
The Fire travel to DC to play United on Wednesday night (7pm CT, ESPN+) while NYCFC travel to Columbus next Saturday (7:30pm ET, YES Network).
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-CJ Sapong (Bronico, Frankowski) 28
NYC-Alexandru Mitrita (Moralez) 40
BOOKING SUMMARY:
NYC-Alexander Ring (caution, reckless tackle) 53
CHI-Aleksandar Katai (caution, reckless foul) 80
NYC-Ismael Tajour-Shradi (caution, tactical foul) 90
CHI-Raheem Edwards (caution, tactical foul) 90+1
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #27-Kenneth Kronholm; #4-Johan Kappelhof, #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger, #5-Francisco Calvo, #7-Raheem Edwards; #6-Dax McCarty, #14-Djordje Mihailovic; #11-Przemyslaw Frankowski (#23-Nemanja Nikolic 78), #13-Brandt Bronico (#21-Fabian Herbers 57), #10-Aleksandar Katai (#18-Cristian Martinez 88); #9-CJ Sapong
Subs not used: #1-David Ousted, #2-Marcelo, #25-Jorge Corrales, #19-Mo Adams
NEW YORK CITY FC (3-4-3): #1-Sean Johnson; #4-Maxime Chanot, #16-James Sandes, #6-Alexander Callens; #3-Anton Tinnerholm, #8-Alexander Ring, #15-Tony Rocha, #22-Ronald Matarrita (#12-Ebenezer Ofori 66); #28-Alexandru Mitrita (#29-Ismael Tajouri-Shradi 89) #9-Heber (#11-Valentine Castellanos 77), #10-Maxi Moralez
Subs not used: #41-Brad Stuver, #33-Sebastien Ibeagha, #55-Keaton Parks, #19-Jesus Medina
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 11-8 NYC
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 5-2 NYC
FOULS: CHI 16-12 NYC
OFFSIDES: CHI 6-0 NYC
CORNER KICKS: CHI 4-5 NYC
SAVES: CHI 1-4 NYC
Referee: Ramy Touchan
Assistant Referees: Frank Anderson, Chris Elliott
Fourth Official: Elvis Osmanovic
Video Assistant Referee: Jon Freeman
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 79º
Attendance: 10,986
Man of the Match: Sean Johnson (NYC)
Chicago Fire
