HARRISON, NJ—New York Red Bulls entered this match winless in their first five home games while the Fire entered this match winless in seven overall. Both streaks continues as the two sides played to a 3-3 draw.
The Red Bulls opened the scoring from the spot in the 20th minute through Lewis Morgan after Omir Fernandez was pushed down from behind by Jhon Espinoza. However, the Fire would respond in the 38th minute after Chris Mueller got space after a give-and-go with Brian Gutierrez and roofed it into the net past Carlos Coronel to make it 1-1.
The Fire started the second half the hotter of the two sides and were rewarded four minutes in after Wyatt Omsberg headed in a corner from close range to make it 2-1 Fire. However, nine minute later, Gaga Slonina would have another bad moment as he would let a Cameron Harper shot go through his hands and into the net to make it 2-2.
Both teams were heading for a point until the 89th minute when Xherdan Shaqiri was the recipient of a takeaway by Fabian Herbers and scored his first goal from open play for the Fire. But just a minute into stoppage time. Three points became one as Omir Fernandez got by Boris Sekulic and fed Patryck Klimala for his third goal this season against the Fire.
“Definitely two points dropped,” said Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson. “It’s a tie but feels like a loss. You’re on the road at a tough place to play against a very good team, and you put yourself in position to walk away with three points and in the blink of an eye, you let it slip away.
“We’ve just got to learn to manage games better, you know, in situations like this because we don’t want to find ourselves come August, September, looking back thinking, man, we should have got three there, we should have got three there. These points are valuable points that we need to come away with, especially the ones we put ourselves in position to get them. It’s just mistakes and you know lack of concentration that once again has — you know, in two games now has put us into this position.”
Another concern is Gaga Slonina who has now committed two howlers in as many matches. He does not have a shortage of experienced players who support him.
“Look, Gaga, he’s young, and he needs to learn also, so he will make mistakes,” said Fire midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri. “This is pretty normal. He will have always our support. He will learn from his mistakes. He saved us a lot, so yeah, he will learn for sure and we are going to keep going. We are going to help him every time he needs and, yeah, we are behind him. We are going to help him and I’m pretty sure he’s going to manage that well, and yeah, he’s going to do his work again in the next game and he’s going to help us a lot. So I’m pretty sure he’ll learn from these mistakes.”
“As a young player, I don’t think you can look back at times where anybody was a young player where they didn’t make mistakes,” said Fire midfielder Chris Mueller.
“Obviously being a goalkeeper, sometimes those are highlighted but I mean, being his age and stepping in and playing such a difficult role as goalkeeper where if you do make a mistake, it’s right, center stage under the spotlight. But he’s a confident kid. He has a good head on his shoulders and he’s got people around him who will continue to encourage him and put their confidence in him.
“Obviously it’s a difficult challenge for him as it is for the team but I have no doubt that he’ll bounce back just knowing his character.”
The first stay in the New York/New Jersey area this week and head to the blue half of New York to take on New York City FC at Citi Field on Sunday. Kickoff is at 4pm CT on WGN-TV.
SCORING SUMMARY:
RBNY-Lewis Morgan (penalty kick) 20
CHI-Chris Mueller (Gutierrez) 38
CHI-Wyatt Omsberg (Duran, Shaqiri) 49
RBNY-Cameron Harper (Fernandez, Amaya) 58
CHI-Xherdan Shaqiri (unassisted) 89
RBNY-Patryck Klimala (Fernandez, Casseres Jr.) 90+1
BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Carlos Teran (caution, reckless foul) 1
CHI-Jhon Espinoza (caution, reckless foul) 19
RBNY-Cameron Harper (caution, tactical foul) 26
RBNY-Tom Edwards (caution, dissent) 63
RBNY-Aaron Long (caution, reckless tackle) 66
CHI-Miguel Navarro (caution, tactical foul) 70
CHI-Wyatt Omsberg (caution, tactical foul) 85
NEW YORK RED BULLS (3-4-2-1): #1-Carlos Coronel; #7-Tom Edwards, #15-Sean Nealis, #33-Aaron Long; #17-Cameron Harper (#24-Jason Pendant 67), #8-Frankie Amaya, #16-Dru Yearwood (#82-Luquinhas 54), #21-Omir Fernandez; #23-Cristian Casseres Jr., #10-Lewis Morgan (#28-Zach Ryan 76); #74-Tom Barlow (#9-Patryk Klimala 54)
Subs not used: #18-Ryan Meara, #37-Caden Clark, #30-Jesus Castellano, #75-Daniel Edelman
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #1-Gaga Slonina; #14-Jhon Espinoza (#2-Boris Sekulic 46), #23-Carlos Teran (#30-Gaston Gimenez 46), #20-Wyatt Omsberg, #6-Miguel Navarro; #31-Federico Navarro, #22-Mauricio Pineda; #8-Chris Mueller (#21-Fabian Herbers 80), #10-Xherdan Shaqiri, #40-Brian Gutierrez (#7-Jairo Torres 66); #26-Jhon Duran (#11-Kacper Przybylko 71)
Subs not used: #34-Chris Brady, #9-Chinoso Offor, #3-Jonathan Bornstein, #99-Stanislav Ivanov
TOTAL SHOTS: RBNY 12-11 CHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: RBNY 4-6 CHI
FOULS: RBNY 17-16 CHI
OFFSIDES: RBNY 1-2 CHI
CORNER KICKS: RBNY 1-4 CHI
SAVES: RBNY 3-1 CHI
Referee: Ted Unkel
Assistant Referees: Adam Wienckowski, Art Arustamyan
Fourth Official: Luis Arroyo
VAR: Guido Gonzalez Jr.
Weather: Cloudy and 70º
Attendance: 13,257
Man of the Match: Xherdan Shaqiri (CHI)
