"Divine intervention": Chicago Fire 2, Atlanta United 1
The Fire finally have their home win, beating a struggling Atlanta United team 2-1 in the team’s second and final home game in May. The victory, the Fire’s first since March 29th, improves the Fire to an even 4W-4D-4L on the season. Although the team’s position in the standings isn’t improved much, it pushes the Fire within striking distance of the pack of teams in postseason spots as MLS enters the middle third of its season.
Jeff Gal was given the nod for his first MLS start, with Chris Brady serving a one game suspension after receiving a red card last week. Sam Rogers returned to the starting lineup for the Fire a week after giving way to 16-year-old Christopher Cupps. Despite starting many of the same players in the team’s midweek U.S. Open Cup game, Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter made no other changes to his lineup from last week’s 0-0 draw against Orlando City.
Atlanta’s head coach Ronny Deila also made two changes from the lineup that played last week, and made a formation shift. Instead of the team’s normal 4-2-3-1 shape, Atlanta lined up in a 5-4-1, with the versatile Matthew Edwards playing as a third center-back alongside Luis Abram and Derrick Williams.
It didn’t take long for the Fire to strike. Atlanta’s Aleksey Miranchuk got in the way of a Fire pass in Atlanta’s box, but his defensive efforts involved his hand, giving the Hugo Cuypers an opportunity from the penalty spot. Cuypers buried it past former U.S. Men’s National Team keeper Brad Guzan.
Hugo Cuypers’s second goal from the spot this season put the Fire up 1-0. After MIR97 Media’s Alex Calabrese remarked to Berhatler that the goal in the 14th minute, just days after a Chicago native was named Pope Leo XIV, Berhalter joked that the goal was “divine intervention.” Truthfully, however, the Belgian striker probably didn’t need much help from a higher power: The goal was his eighth tally of the season, just 12 games in, and gave Cuypers sole possession of the lead spot atop the MLS Golden Boot race.
Later in the first half, Cuypers almost struck again. Jonathan Bamba’s rocket of a free kick from just outside the penalty arc forced its way through the wall and Cuypers pushed through the parting Atlanta defenders completely unmarked, giving him an one-on-one look at Guzan from inside the six yard box. Guzan, however, was fortunate to be in a good position and managed a reaction save.
Although the Fire returned to the locker room at half up by a single goal, the team looked dangerous throughout, controlling the lion’s share of possession and peppering Atlanta with nine shots, though only three landed on target.
In the second half, end-to-end action resulted in precious few real chances for either team. In the 80th minute, however, just when it felt like the Fire were cruising towards their first home victory of the season, Atlanta made it interesting.
In the 80th minute, Atlanta’s Aleksey Miranchuk lobbed a relatively innocent ball into the Fire’s box. Jack Elliott headed it up, but not out of danger, where Sam Rogers headed it past Jeff Gal, tying the game at 1-1. Rogers was being shadowed by Atlanta’s Emmanuel Latte Lath, and needed to make a defensive play, but the own goal was still one of Rogers’s worst moments in a Fire uniform. Heartbreakingly, the play came just 30 seconds after one of Rogers’ best plays in a Fire uniform, when he did well to catch up to Atlanta’s record-breaking incoming transfer and cleanly stripped the ball from him inside the box in a sliding tackle.
That may have been the end of the story for previous iterations of the Fire, but this year’s edition wasn’t done. After the goal, Berhalter went to his bench, bringing on Rominigue Kouamé, Maren Haile-Selassie and Omari Glasgow, three players with strong offensive upsides.
The substitutes didn’t take long to make their mark. Within seconds of the substitutes coming on, the Fire were back on the front foot, winning a corner. Minutes later, they struck.
In the 86th minute, Haile-Selasse threaded the ball through two Atlanta defenders to Glasgow who had just entered the box with speed. Running towards the goal line, the Guyanese international played it to Kouamé, the trailing runner into the box having found an ideal pocket of space between Atlanta’s defenders. Kouamé slid to get a foot on the pass but got more than enough steam on the ball to send it past Guzan and seal victory for the Fire.
That the play came off the Fire’s three substitutions wasn’t lost on the locker room. Speaking to reporters after the match, Andrew Gutman said “the guys that came in, you know, I think Omari got the assist, Romi [Kouamé] scored the goal, so it says a lot about the guys coming off the bench.”
All four of the Fire’s wins on the season have now come after the Fire have either been at a deficit or conceded a tying goal. Asked about what has enabled this year’s squad to battle back, Gutman credited the group’s “mentality,” noting that the victory took a “team effort.”
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