Chicago Fire 2-1 San Jose Earthquakes
BRIDGEVIEW, IL–At the final whistle, Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic shook his head in disgust despite his team’s 2-1 win over San Jose. The win does put the Fire within two points of the red line in the East with results while San Jose is now eleven points behind the red line in the West and stuck on nine points.
Paunovic was not happy with his team’s performance and the way they handled themselves in the match despite the win.
“I’m not happy with the performance, especially in that play when we conceded the goal,” said Paunovic. “I’m not happy with how we behaved, how we treated our opponent, the lack of seriousness, and lack of professionalism.
“I told the guys and I’ll speak with them on Monday, especially individuals will hear me out. I’m a competitor and if I see that somebody’s not competing in that locker room, you better change or you’re not going to be here. I am very serious with this. When I saw what I saw in the last 15-20 minutes, I was sick.
“If that happens again or I’m not going to be here or somebody else is not going to be here. I’m saying this very clearly and they will hear from me.”
Alan Gordon will likely be spared the brunt of Paunovic’s criticism after his performance which included a goal against one of his former sides in the 29th minute heading in a cross from Luis Solignac. Gordon three minutes earlier had a goal line clearance at the other end to deny the Quakes their first goal.
Aleksandar Katai scored four minutes into the second half beating Andrew Tarbell far post.
Danny Hoesen scored his seventh of the season in the 74th minute after connecting on a cross from Chris Wondolowski to pull one back for the Quakes. That last segment of the match saw the Quakes furiously push for an equalizer, but were unable to present a finished product.
In the first half, the Fire lost goalkeeper Patrick McLain to an off-the-ball injury and was replaced in the 44th minute by Richard Sanchez. McLain got up after few minutes down on the pitch, but went straight to the locker room after getting up on his feet. It’s yet another injury for the Fire to deal with with a glut of fixtures coming up in the next 11 days.
“We suffer and we are going to keep suffering in the next month or so. We still have to recover some players and that’s going to be helpful. But now we have a stretch of games that are coming one after another and that’s going to be challenging for us. On the other hand, I think we have sufficient capacity in all our lines and the major challenge is going to be recovering the guys from game to game and hopefully not lose anyone, but today McLain got hurt and we’ll see how long it’s going to be. In my eyes, it doesn’t look good.”
The Fire’s next match is away to Columbus in the Fourth Round of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup on Wednesday night at 6:30pm CT. The Quakes are away to Portland the same night in the Open Cup at 9:30pm CT.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Alan Gordon (Solignac, Kappelhof) 29
CHI-Aleksandar Katai (Bronico) 49
SJ-Danny Hoesen (Wondolowski) 74
BOOKING SUMMARY:
SJ-Fatai Alashe (caution, reckless tackle) 45+5
CHI-Jorge Corrales (caution, tactical foul) 58
SJ-Jimmy Ockford (caution, reckless foul) 61
CHICAGO FIRE (4-5-1): #32-Patrick McLain (#45-Richard Sanchez 44); #3-Brandon Vincent, #5-Kevin Ellis, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #25-Jorge Corrales; #19-Mo Adams, #13-Brandt Bronico, #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger, #9-Luis Solignac (#17-Diego Campos 79), #10-Aleksandar Katai; #21-Alan Gordon (#23-Nemanja Nikolic 67)
Subs not used: #16-Jonathan Campbell, #12-Tony Tchani, #18-Drew Conner, #20-Daniel Johnson
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES (4-4-2): #28-Andrew Tarbell; #24-Nick Lima, #15-Jimmy Ockford, #30-Yefferson Quintana (#25-Quincy Amarikwa 83), #6-Shea Salinas (#27-Fatai Alashe 14); #11-Vako, #7-Magnus Eriksson, #23-Florian Jungwirth, #16-Christopher Wehan (#22-Tommy Thompson 52); #8-Chris Wondolowski, #9-Danny Hoesen
Subs not used: #12-Matt Bersano, #3-Francois Affolter, #10-Jahmir Hyka, #14-Jackson Yueill
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 13-14 SJ
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 4-4 SJ
FOULS: CHI 17-8 SJ
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-2 SJ
CORNER KICKS: CHI 2-8 SJ
SAVES: CHI 3-2 SJ
Referee: Ismail Elfath
Assistant Referees: Eduardo Mariscal, Matthew Nelson
4th Official: Chris Penso
VAR: Matt Franz
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 73º
Attendance: 14,138
Man of the Match: Alan Gordon (CHI)
Chicago Fire
San Jose Earthquakes
May, 2024
April, 2024
