American Nightmare: Chicago Fire 0, Club América 1
Despite a valiant effort, the Chicago Fire were eliminated from Leagues Cup tonight by a Mexican giant Club América. Despite playing before a 95% pro-América crowd, the Men in Red kept it close, and ultimately fell by a score of 1-0 as two contrasting moments midway through the second half defined the story.
The story began hours before kickoff, as thousands of América supporters flooded Bridgeview in a sea of yellow. Some had traveled from Mexico, while others endured ten-plus hour drives from as far as Nebraska to see their team. Security was doubled down, as every seat was filled, albeit mostly by Américanistas.
When Xherdan Shaqiri led the team out of the tunnel as captain, though despite their theoretical home field advantage, the Fire were met with boos from the majority of the crowd. Las Águilas, on the other hand, were met with applause when their star-studded eleven took the field.
Their starpower was slightly weaked moments before kickoff, when news broke that Mexican national team starting forward Henry Martín had been forced to pull out of the lineup due to an injury in warmups. However, due to their tremendous depth in a salary cap-less league, they replaced him with U.S. international Alejandro Zendejas.
Despite not initially being a starter, Zendejas was extremely bright in the opening period, and caused lots of trouble for Fire left back Miguel Ángel Navarro. The Colombian number nine, Julián Quiñones, is also one of the top players in Liga MX, and he was extremely dangerous, but he was handled well by his compatriot, Carlos Terán.
The first half was all América, and in truth, it looked like men against boys. Ousmane Doumbia, making his second Fire start since arriving over the summer, was a dominant force in the middle, standing alongside Terán as the two most crucial Fire players in the first half, but the pressure was almost becoming too much to sustain.
In the 35th minute, América seemingly broke through. Quiñones surpassed the backline for the first time, rounded Chris Brady, and put the ball into the back of the net. The Fire were spared by the offside flag, a refereeing decision which was met with rounds of vulgar slurs from the América supporters. The Fire didn’t get their first shot off until the 39th minute, but still managed to enter the break level.
Despite hanging on for dear life in the first half, the home team came out with renewed energy in the second. Brian Gutiérrez and Shaqiri combined well but failed to truly test Luis Malagón before the hour mark.
It was at that point that Frank Klopas turned to his bench and introduced Kacper Przybyłko. Despite a good first half from Georgios Koutsias, who had shown good defensive effort as well as flashes of offensive talent, the decision was made to introduce the less mobile Polish striker. Shortly after coming on he was handed a glorious open-goal opportunity by Maren Haile-Selassie, who came on at the same time. In a sight that was all-too-familiar for Fire fans, he missed from point-blank range.
Things went from bad to worse moments later. América’s Leo Suárez whipped a dangerous ball into the box, and it was redirected into the back of the net by Gastón Giménez. The stadium erupted as Zendejas led his team in wheeling away in celebration by the corner flag. Brady was forced to leave the game with injury at the same time.
Giving up isn’t in this Fire’s team’s DNA, but Las Águilas proved to be too much to handle. Brief attacking sparks from Gutiérrez and even Navarro provided a gimmer of hope, but América were happy to sit back and let the clock run down. Songs typically sung by Fire fans at Soldier Field rung throughout Bridgeview, but the words were replaced by choruses of “América” and “Águilas” instead.
When the final whistle blew, there was heartbreak for the Fire. They had gone toe-to-toe with the biggest team on the continent, but came up just short, with two extremely unfortunate moments just a few minutes apart defining the match. It was a totally deserved win for América who will now go on to be a real contender to go all the way in this competition, but the Klopas’ group can leave with their heads held high.
