Bad Night At The Office: Nashville SC 7, Chicago Fire 2

The Fire travelled to Nashville looking for their first-ever win in the Music City and came close, falling just short in a 7-2 defeat to the home team. The Fire, as gracious visitors, allowed their hosts their customary hat trick – though this time, instead of going to Hany Mukhtar, the 2022 MLS Golden Boot winner, as had been the tradition, it went to Sam Surridge. That’s the third time the Fire have allowed an individual player to score three goals in their five visits to Nashville in league play. The Fire allowed seven goals for the first time in their history and tied the five-goal margin for the worst defeat in MLS league play in their history.

In an effort to ingratiate themselves to their hosts, they even allowed the 26-year-old from Slough, England (which the more cynical might remark is the setting for the original British version of The Office, as well as the headquarters for Mick Herron’s Slow Horses) a fourth goal.

A distinct possibility remains, however, that in previous matches Mukhtar felt that a fourth goal in one match  – something that had only happened 18 times in the 8,224 games played in Major League Soccer history before this match– was on offer but politely refused, thinking that it’d violate his sense of Bescheidenheit. Surridge felt no reason to deny himself a fourth, however: Around London, the British upper-class pretensions towards modesty stay contentedly well within the confines of the M25.

His first goal came from the spot, after Jack Elliott fouled Jacob Shaffelburg in the box. After that, the Fire seemed to wake up and sustained some possession, but the next goal was Nashville’s when Jeisson Palacios scored a header from a corner with service, naturally, from Mukhtar. On the play, Brian Gutiérrez was outmuscled and then outrun, leaving the Colombian center-back free to connect with Mukhtar’s looping ball with a header.

Following the second goal, Nashville opened the floodgates. Mukhtar scored a third goal for the team less than three minutes later, connecting with a long ball from Shaffelburg on the far post as the Fire’s Omari Glasgow was unable to close him down. Just after the half hour mark, Mukhtar completed his brace, putting him in pole position for his third hat trick against the Fire.

Surridge had the next goal, however: Deep in stoppage time, Glasgow muscled him away as both were trying to connect with a long ball into the Fire’s box. The referee signaled for a penalty, and although VAR had a look, it was ultimately rewarded – the winger-cum-wingback’s shove into Surridge’s back may have proven definitive in the review. The call may have been soft, but the Fire’s four goal deficit beforehand rendered such considerations almost entirely academic.

The late goal sent the Fire into the tunnel down 5-0 at half, and the run of play made an increase in the margin feeling more likely than not. After the break, Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter swapped off winger Jonathan Bamba for Tom Barlow, and ended Gutiérrez’s night as he brought on Maren Haile-Selassie. Because Berhalter had already brought on Jonathan Dean for Andrew Gutman and Dje Davilla for Mauricio Pineda in the first half, that left the Fire with one substitution for the rest of the match.

Despite the substitutions, any hopes that a different Fire team would emerge from the locker room were dashed less than five minutes into the half. Surridge completed his hat trick when he received a long ball from Andy Nájar and sent the ball past Brady before the Fire’s defense had a chance to make any serious attempt at closing him down. He added a fourth on a carbon-copy goal minutes later.

That marked the first time in Fire history that the team had ever conceded seven goals in any competition, though they did lose 6-0 in a U.S. Open Cup match to the Seattle Sounders in 2014, en route to the Sounders eventual victory in the competition. The goal onslaught was, mercifully, finally over.

In the 64th minute, Philip Zinckernagel got one back for the Fire off a beautiful curving shot that left Nashville’s Joe Willis without a chance. Hugo Cuypers scored seven minutes later, giving him his seventh on the season – one more than Surridge, who started the evening with two goals on the year. Cuypers is now tied for the the lead in the MLS Golden Boot race with Tai Baribo, ahead on the tiebreaker thanks to his two assists.

Fire fans looking for something else to cheer, quietly: 16 year-old Christopher Cupps made his MLS debut in the 76th minute for the Fire with the team’s last substitution. The heralded center-back prospect who was signed in the offseason to a first-team deal did not look out of place on an MLS pitch in his quarter hour on for the Fire. After Cupps came on – as Berhalter noted after the match – Nashville did not score, giving the Fire an even 2-2 second half against Nashville after their lopsided 5-0 half.

As a result of the team’s worst-ever seen goals conceded, the Fire now exit April without a win after a promising March, and the defensive stability the Fire hoped to find with more time as the group gelled seems farther away than it was at the start of the season. The Fire are now 11th in MLS’s Eastern Conference, three points – and four goals on goal differential – ahead of 12th place Nashville.

The team is back in action next Saturday against Orlando, whose 18 goals tie the Fire’s for fourth in the league behind San Jose, Philadelphia and now, Nashville.