Fire dominate Detroit in Open Cup

Photo: Leslie Smith

Chicago Fire 4-0 Detroit City FC

BRIDGEVIEW, IL—Cbicago Fire FC ended a six-match winless streak in all competitions with an emphatic 4-0 win over Detroit City FC of the USL Championship. The Fire advance to the US Open Cup round of 16 which will take place two weeks from now. The draw for the Round of 16 is Thursday.

Things got off to an auspicious start as in the fourth minute, Detroit’s attempt to play the ball out of the back was intercepted by Maren Haile-Selassie, who then fed Hugo Cuypers who scored the opening goal.

The Fire were on the attack from the word ‘go’ and pressed to extend the lead. That lead would be extended in the 35th minute as Maren Haile-Selassie’s corner was accidentally knocked in by Darren Smith following a touch by Cuypers.

The Fire added to their lead five minutes into the second half on a counter attack Jonathan Bamba moved towards the area and sent a low cross that Rominigue Kouame dummied and Omari Glasgow would put in for this first goal with the main Fire squad.

“It was a transitional moment and, as a transition, you’ve got to sprint forward as fast as possible,” said Glasgow. “I put in the work to sprint forward and Romi (Kouamé) left it for me. So I must say it was a good transition moment.”

The scoring would be complete in the 71st minute after Kellyn Acosta’s long ball was met by Brian Gutierrez who unselfishly fed Haile-Selassie for the goal to go with his assist.

“I would say it was a complete game, good game from the team, very focused and concentrated,” saud Haile-Selassie. “We wanted to start off the game, very serious and good. We scored early goals, and I’m happy to help the team and to have contributed with goals and assists. But yeah that was a good win– a must win, obviously and we moved to the next one.”

The Fire outshot Detroit, 23-5 during the match and Detroit would not get their first shot on target until well into the second half. The Fire got their first home win in a competitive match since September 14th.

“I think it’s a professional performance,” said Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter. “If you don’t come in with the right mindset, you can easily get beaten. If you see some of the other results, [Tuesday[, teams went into overtime. [Wednesday], New York City FC lost [to Pittsburgh]. So you have to come in with the right mindset, and I think the guys did that and had a professional performance.”

The Fire will now look to break their winless streak in the league when they take on Atlanta United at Soldier Field. Kickoff is at 1:30pm CT on Apple TV.

For more of Leslie Smith’s photos, please click on the link to her gallery.

SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Hugo Cuypers (Haile-Selassie) 4
CHI-Darren Smith (own goal) 35
CHI-Omari Glasgow (Bamba) 50
CHI-Maren Haile-Selassie (Gutierrez) 71

BOOKING SUMMARY:
DET-Ryan Williams (caution, reckless foul) 41
DET-Rhys Williams (caution, reckless tackle) 70

CHICAGO FIRE (4-3-3): #1-Chris Brady; #15-Andrew Gutman (#24-Jonathan Dean 46), #3-Jack Elliott (#34-Omar Gonzalez 54), #5-Sam Rogers, #26-Omari Glasgow; #23-Kelyn Acosta, #42-Dje D’Avilla, #6-Rominigue Kouame (#35-Sergio Oregel 67); #19-Jonathan Bamba (#12-Tom Barlow 54), #9-Hugo Cuypers (#17-Brian Gutierrez 54), #7-Maren Haile-Selassie

Subs not used: #25-Jeff Gal, #22-Mauricio Pineda

DETROIT CITY FC (4-4-2): #91-Carlos Saldana, #3-Alex Villanueva (#14-Haruki Yamazaki 77), #5-Stephen Carroll, #30-Devon Amoo-Mensah, #12-Michael Bryant (#4-Shane Wiedt 57); #10-Jeceil Cedeno, #39-Ryan Williams (#45-Marcello Polisi 57), #6-Jay Chapman, #2-Rhys Williams; #7-Darren Smith (#9-Ben Morris 57), #11-Connor Ruiz (#99-Jordan Adebayo-Smith 67)

Subs not used: #32-Ates Diouf, #21-Carlos Herrera

TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 23-5 DET
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 9-2 DET
FOULS: CHI 20-15 DET
OFFSIDES: CHI 3-2 DET
CORNER KICKS: CHI 8-5 DET
SAVES: CHI 2-5 DET

Referee: Matthew Thompson
Assistant Referees: Ethan Buege, Mateusz Dulski
Fourth Official: Alex Beehler
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 58º
Attendance: 4,374
Man of the Match: Maren Haile-Selassie (CHI)