Fire Send Columbus to Fourth Straight Defeat

CHICAGO, IL–Playing at home as been helpful for the Chicago lately. The Fire has found some life in its game and ways to get some victories.

Luka Stojanovic scored the game winning goal and led the Fire past the visiting Columbus Crew 1-0 Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field.

Stojanovic now has team-high 6 goals with 3 over the last two matches. His effort happened in the 77th minute, when Brian Gutierrez had a kick that was deflected and Stojanovic was able to finish it.

The Fire (5-9-5, 20 points) wrapped up a three-game homestand with scoreless draw against NYCFC and a 2-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls. They are now unbeaten in their last 8 home matches.

Chicago keeper Bobby Shuttleworth had to come up big in the final minute of the match making a point blank stop, seeing the defense in front of him make a few big kicks and had help from another shot go off the post.

“There was a little bit chaos and we were just trying to ride it out,” Shuttleworth said. “I came up with a big save, then we came up with some really big blocks. The guys got back and it was all hands on deck in the last minute. You do everything you can to try to get the points and we were able to do that.”

As for the Fire, with their recent run of points, they were able to put together back-to-back wins for the second time this season.

“I think we’re seeing obviously an improvement of this team since many weeks now and many games,” Chicago Fire head coach Raphael Wicky said. “We had a little bit of that in the Nashville game, which was a big shocker for everyone. But, I think we’ve seen some big improvement how the team works together and plays together. That’s hard work and that’s mentality. We’re taking things game by game, and we’re not getting too far ahead. The next game is Wednesday down in Miami and then we go from there.”

Chicago starts a long six-game road trip that will keep them away from Soldier Field for more than a month. It begins at Inter-Miami Wednesday night at 6:30 CT.

Columbus (6-7-6, 24 points) has lost four straight matches and remains under the playoff line.

Not getting a point has been a bit tough lately, but there was some improvement.

“First and foremost, I thought we deserved the result,” Columbus Crew head coach Caleb Porter said. “There was a lot of improvement with the goals we gave up last week. I thought, we defended much better today, (Fire) didn’t have many chances at all. I thought the goal was a little bit unlucky. It was a bang-bang deflection and it was very optimistic on their part.”

There was a good start on the attack along with a strong effort at the end and almost pulling out a point for the Crew.

“I thought we started out the match very well and the mentality was very good,” Porter said. “I saw lots of improvement. That’s why I’m very disappointed at the very least that we didn’t get a point. I thought the guys deserved that. We were a bit unlucky at the end and hit the post. Guys fought extremely hard. It was a game that was always going to be tight, it was on the road. I thought they deserved a result with how hard they played.”

Columbus will next return home to play Seattle next Saturday at 4:30 ET.

CHI-Luka Stojanovic 77′