Chicago Fire 1-0 Atlanta United
CHICAGO, IL–Chicago Fire FC have a lot riding these days as they keep adding up victories. The Fire have put together three of them as they got past Philadelphia Union, Nashville SC, and now Atlanta United FC. Chicago scored just one goal in the first half, and they held on from there for a 1-0 shutout over Atlanta United FC at Soldier Field.
The Fire improved its home record to 3-1-0 and now are 4-2-1 which is good for 13 points. While Atlanta dropped its mark to 1-5-1 4 points.
“Proud of the effort, another shutout and another 1-0 victory,” Chicago Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter said. “If I’m at critical of the team. It’s a little bit of needing to make a second goal and make it easier for ourselves. But, give Atlanta credit, they hung in there. They caused this problem, especially in the opening phase of the game. But, we got our defensive shape right, and as we started to close their spaces, the game was more in control for us.”
The Fire over its last few games, come together to win the close ones and keeping the other teams off the board.
“The guys have shown resilience so far this year,” Berhalter said. “The character so far this year, to hang out to victories like this. Where last year might not have been the same thing.”
The Fire scored the only goal they needed for the second match in a row in the 13th minute of play. They did it with a combination of passes in front of the Atlanta United FC goal. Maren Haile-Sellassie found the back of the net from passes by Jonathan Bamba and Philip Zinckernagel.
“Yea, we worked on it this week,” Haile-Sellassie said. “We saw where we could have the spaces. We did well. I think we could’ve done a better job, even more, because the spaces were there. We had the players in the right spots.”
Defensively, the Fire was able to keep Atlanta off its game a bit. The Fire worked as a unit and limited the opportunities from Atlanta up top.
Fire keeper Chris Brady earmed his 20th career clean sheet and made five saves.
“(Atlanta) was a team that creates chances and we knew that coming in,” Berhalter said. “When you look at thlook at our set-piece defending. It was pretty good. I think there was one chance out of 11 corners. When I look at some of the corners that we conceded, we could’ve done a better job and closed it down quicker or not hit the ball directly out of bounds for corners. The guys played when we needed to play. We grinded when we needed to grind, and that’s always important in close games.”
The Fire has a couple of matches coming up this week. They will open up the 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on the road facing Detroit City FC at 6:30 p.m. CDT. on Tuesday. Then travel to take on FC Cincinnati next Saturday with a 6:30 p.m. CDT kick-off.
Atlanta travels to play at Chattanooga for its U.S. Lamar Hunt opening match on Wednesday 6:30 p.m. CDT and will host Nashville next Saturday.
SCORING SUMMARY
CHI-Haile-Sellassie (Bamba) 13′
BOOKING SUMMARY:
ATL – Jacob (yellow, unsporting behavior) 3′
CHI – Zinckernagel (yellow, unsporting behavior) 8′
CHI – Barroso (yellow, unsporting behavior) 48′
CHICAGO FIRE: #1-Brady, #15-Gutman, #3-Elliott, #2-Barroso (#24-Dean 67), #4-Mbokazi, #17-Lod, #42-D’Avilla (#22-Pineda 67), #6-Saletros, #7-Haile-Sellassie, #19-Bamba (#16-Waterman 89), #11-Zinckerrnagel (#20-Skolalook 89)
Subs not used: #44-Cohen, #12-Dithejane, #44-Radojevic, #29-Poreba, #35-Oregel.
ATLANTA UNITED FC: #1-Hoyes, #5-Gregersen, #55-Jacob, #4-Mihaj, #3-Baez (#16-Amador 78), #48-Sanchez (#7-Alzate 66), #8-Muyumba, #88-Galarza, #11-Lobjanidze (#20-Brennan 78), #10-Almiron, #9-Lath (#30-Tagashi 78).
Subs not used: #2-Hernandez, #6-Berrocal, #35-Fortune, #47-Edwards.
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 18-18 Atlanta
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 3-6 Atlanta
FOULS: CHI 13-5 Atlanta
OFFSIDES: CHI 2-2 Atlanta
CORNER KICKS: CHI 6-11 Atlanta
SAVES: CHI 5-2 Atlanta
Referee: Drew Fischer
Assistant Referees: Ryan Graves and Gerard-Kader Lebuis
Fourth Official: Matt Thompson
VAR: Danielle Chesky
Assistant VAR: Mike Kampmeinert
Weather: Cloudy and 48.
Attendance: 17,764