Red Magic: Chicago Fire 2, New York Red Bulls 1

CHICAGO, Ill. — The Fire found their magic tonight.

For the second year in a row, the Fire played the New York Red Bulls looking for their first win after the summer’s Leagues Cup break. Last year, they left Red Bull Arena with a 1-0 victory. This year, goals from Tom Barlow – his first in a Fire uniform – and Georgios Koutsias propelled the team to a 2-1 victory over the Red Bulls.

As was the case a year ago, the win bolsters the team’s hopes of making the postseason for the first time since 2017, with a crucial midweek test coming up against a team that, like the Fire, is on the outside of playoff position going into the match.

Fire Head Coach Frank Klopas was planning on having close to his full lineup available, but fate intervened: Brian Gutièrrez suffered a late groin injury, keeping the Fire’s most marketable Latino star out of the market for the team’s Hispanic Heritage Night. That wasn’t the only player unexpectedly missing for the Fire: Andrew Gutman was kept out of the lineup as a precautionary measure, giving Ariel Lassiter his second start in a Fire uniform, and first in MLS play, and former captain Rafael Czichos was injured during warmups, putting Wyatt Omsberg into the Starting XI.

Red Bulls Head Coach Sandro Schwarz played his team out of their normal 4-4-2, playing Elias Manoel and Lewis Morgan in the two forward positions, keeping Cory Burke, who has eight goals in 10 appearances against the Fire as a bench option. With Designated Player Emil Forsberg still out with a long-term foot injury, Peter Stroud started in his normal spot in the left attacking midfield.

In what’s becoming a familiar pattern for the Fire, the team started off slow and their opponent was in the driver’s seat through the early proceedings: Just three minutes in, Peter Stroud tested Chris Brady but his shot sailed above Chris Brady’s net. Three minutes later, Elias Manouel had a shot from just inside the six yard box blocked, and in the opening quarter hour of the game, the Red Bulls were in the unusual position of dominating possession.

The Fire soon started showing signs of life. In the 14th minute, both Hugo Cuypers and Gastón Giménez, in his 100th start for the Fire, tested Carlos Coronel but both attempts went wide. Five minutes later, Barlow had a left-footed shot from just inside the penalty area that looked dangerous but ultimately went wide.

It wasn’t a mistake that he’d repeat. In the 31st minute, Cuypers capitalized on a Red Bulls giveaway and space for a shot despite the presence of two Red Bull defenders, forcing Coronel to extend on the ground to make the save. He couldn’t do anything about the resulting rebound, however, which found its way to Barlow who buried it past the Red Bulls goalkeeper, still out of position. Speaking to reporters after the match, Brady took time to call out Barlow, saying that his teammate was “always putting himself in the best situations metaphorically and literally, tonight, by his work rate,” adding “throughout training and throughout games, this guy is running through a brick wall for our team.”

The goal gave the Fire their first lead across all competitions since their victory over FC Cincinnati on July 17th. After the goal, however, the Fire seemed content to sit back with the lead and the Red Bulls didn’t seem particularly interested in finding an equalizer for the rest of the half, and the teams went into the tunnel with the Fire up 1-0.

At the start of the second half, Schwarz brought on Dante Vanzeir and Dennis Gjengaar and it wouldn’t take long for the two to make an impact: Vanzier was able to shrug off Carlos Terán creating acres of space to get a cross that connected with Gjengaar just outside of Brady’s six yard box, buying it past the Fire netminder to level the game. On the play, it was clear that part of the reason that Vanzier was able to get so much space on Terán was because the Colombian center back appeared to pull his hip flexor on the play, and a few minutes later he went down on the pitch, clearly unable to continue, with Tobias Salquist brought on in his stead.

After the goal, the Red Bulls were once again felt in control of the match, and a near-breakaway with Chris Brady was broken up at the last second by Lassiter, who shoved his target towards Brady. Brady was alert enough to make a play for the ball at the last second, keeping the discipline to a yellow for Lassiter rather than a red for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity.

Still, it felt like the next goal was likely to be in the belong to the visitors, and Klopas looked for a spark off his bench, taking off Tom Barlow and Chris Mueller for Georgios Koutsias and Kellyn Acosta.

For the second time in the match, it wouldn’t take long for substitutes to make their mark. Kousias worked his way into the box, weaving his way past Red Bull defenders to earn a shot on target whose rebound found its way out for a Fire corner. Andres Reyes got a toe on Maren Haile-Selassie’s ensuing corner and Serge Ngoma, who had just come on for the Red Bulls, attempted to clear it, but Haile-Selassie blocked the attempt and played it to Acosa who shot the ball into the box to Koutsias who headed it past Coronel restoring the Fire’s lead.

Searching for an equalizer, Schwarz brought on Burke in the 88th minute but the despite some hairy moments in the ensuing ten minutes of stoppage time, the now-former Fire killer had his second match in a row without a goal against the Fire without a goal – Koutsias has found a way to silence Burke, and the game ended 2-1.

The victory on the pitch wasn’t the only win for the Fire on the night: the 22,188 at Soldier Field gave the Fire their best-ever single-season attendance, with a total of 322,527 in attendance, with two home games still to go.

Even with the win, however, the team are in 13th place in the Eastern Conference, four points back of D.C. United for the last postseason spot, and  ahead only of Nashville and New England, both of whom have games in hand over the Fire.

The team faces Nashville on Wednesday, and a victory, combined with some lucky results elsewhere, can put the team within striking distance of a postseason spot, before a game next Saturday against Montréal, another team currently trying to battle its way into the second season.