Blacked-out: New York Red Bulls 2, Chicago Fire 1
HARRISON, N.J. — The Chicago Fire’s trip to New Jersey was unsuccessful, and the team left the former Red Bull Arena without any points following a 2-1 loss. Their five-match unbeaten streak is over, and the Men In Red slipped to 7th place in the Eastern Conference.
The game started off very even between the two teams, with New York maintaining more pressure in the early minutes. Chances for both sides would start coming at around the 15th minute of the match, at which point the Fire started getting into a rhythm and being more productive up top.
In between some dangerous counters from the Red Bulls, Chicago had a huge chance in the 31st minute, which was saved excellently by Coronel. Shortly thereafter, Hugo Cuypers combined with Philip Zinckernagel to set up Jonathan Bamba for a great run and clean finish for his first goal in MLS.
Though the momentum had begun to swing more in favor of the Fire by this point, it was short-lived as a header completely against the run of play from Serge Ngoma tied the game up in the 41st minute. Just six minutes later, in the second minute of first-half stoppage time, Kellyn Acosta clumsily fouled Dylan Nealis in the box for an unfortunate but clear penalty. The penalty was taken by Eric Choupo-Moting, who sent Chris Brady to the left with a panenka down the middle.
Both goals came almost immediately after 36-year-old Omar González entered the game, replacing Sam Rogers in the 37th minute due to injury.
Throughout most of the second half, it was the same story as the first 45 as the Fire dominated possession, looked comfortable defending, and looked dangerous in the final third. Four substitutions were made in the second half, two of which were unusual; the Fire ended the game with Omari Glasgow at right back and Maren Haile-Selassie as a left back.
In the final minutes of the game, the Fire were knocking on the door constantly but ended up with nothing to show for it. By both the eye test and the numbers, it is easy to be confused as to why Berhalter’s side did not leave with at least a point.
“When we got the lead, we had five minutes of a blackout period where we gave up the two goals. And the rest of the second half was a dominant performance,” Berhalter said.
Chicago will play Inter Miami next Sunday at home for a chance to make a big jump back up the table.
Player Ratings
Starting XI (4-3-3): Brady (6); Gutman (7), Rogers (6.5), Terán (7), J. Reynolds (6); Acosta (5), Oregel Jr. (7), Kouamé (6); Bamba (8), Zinckernagel (6.5), Cuypers (6.5)
Substitutes: González (4.5), Barlow (5), Glasgow (5.5), Pineda (7), Haile-Selassie (6.5)
