St. Louis rallies to eliminate Fire from Open Cup

Chicago Fire 1-2 St. Louis City SC

BRIDGEVIEW, IL—The difference between winning and losing can come down to certain moments, and two certain moments were the reason Chicago Fire FC are no longer in the US Open Cup as they fell 2-1 to St. Louis City SC at SeatGeek Stadium. St. Louis reach the quarterfinals of the Open Cup for the first time in their short history. 

It was goalless first half, but not for lack of effort from the Fire. Twice the Fire would hit the woodwork through Hugo Cuypers and Maren Haile-Selassie. St. Louis only had one real chance in the first half while the Fire were in control. 

That continued into the second half and the Fire eventually got the goal they deserved as Anton Saletros headed in Philip Zinckernagel’s cross in the 63rd minute. Subs came in for the Fire shortly thereafter to see out the match, but it was the subs the came in St. Louis four minutes earlier that would make more of an impact. 

Eduard Löwen back-heeled a ball to Marcel Hartel that was cleared off the line by Joel Waterman, but Tomas Totland was there to put in the rebound in the 71st minute to level the score. Seven minutes later, Another sub, Mykhi Joyner drew a host of defenders and managed a cross through to an unmarked Löwen who had a virtually open net to shoot at and give St. Louis the lead and the eventual win. 

Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter said that it was a couple of moments where they came up short despite controlling most of the game. The Fire have scored first in 10 of their first 11 matches in all competitions, but this is their third loss despite scoring first.

“So we trailed for about 20 minutes [against St. Louis],” said Berhalter. “But I think it’s about sample size. We know that we’re a good team. We know that if we’re focused, and we play with the necessary intensity, that we’ll be in a lot of games. We’ve shown throughout the course of these last seven weeks that we can do a good job. And
today, it’s just something to learn from. It’s not something where you throw everything out and you say
this is a disaster. We have to learn from it, take the positives, take the negatives, and keep moving.”

The Fire return to league action at home on Saturday to play FC Cincinnati (7:30pm CT, Apple TV). St. Louis travel to Austin FC on Sunday (4:30pm CT, Apple TV). 

SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Anton Saletros (Zinckernagel) 63
STL-Tomas Totland (unassisted) 71
STL-Eduard Löwen (Joyner) 78

BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Viktor Radojevic (caution, persistent infringement) 28
STL-Dante Polvana (caution, tactical foul) 65
STL-YiannDamet (caution, dissent) 81
CHI-Joel Waterman (caution, tactical foul) 82
STL-Simon Becher (caution, delaying a restart) 87

CHICAGO FIRE (4-3-3):  #1-Chris Brady; #27-Dylan Borso (#15-Andrew Gutman 77), #16-Joel Waterman, #4-Mbekezeli Mbokazi (#3-Jack Elliott 85), #14-Viktor Radojevic (#29-David Poreba 85); #35-Sergio Oregel #22-Mauricio Pineda, #6-Anton Saletros (#17-Robin Lod 65); #11-Philip Zinckernagel, #9-Hugo Cuypers (#20-Jason Shokalook 65), #7-Maren Haile-Selassie 

Subs not used:  #44-Josh Cohen, #42-Dje D’Avilla 

ST. LOUIS CITY SC (3-4-3):  #1-Roman Burki; #21-Dante Polvara, #32-Timo Baumgartl, #5-Lukas MacNaughton; #14-Tomas Totland (#4-Mbake Fall 85), #24-Daniel Edelman, #8-Chris Durkin, #6-Conrad Wallem (#59-Mykhi Joyner 59); #17-Marcel Hartel, #16-Sergio Cordova (#11-Simon Becher 85), #36-Cedric Teuchert (#10-Eduard Löwen 59)

Subs not used:  #39-Ben Lundt, #27-Fallou Fall, #28-Miguel Perez

TOTAL SHOTS:  CHI 12-10 STL
SHOTS ON GOAL:  CHI 1-5 STL
FOULS:  CHI 16-14 STL
OFFSIDES:  CHI 0-3 STL
CORNER KICKS:  CHI 5-5 STL
SAVES:  CHI 2-0 STL

Referee:  Joshua Encarnacion
Assistant Referees:  Tyler Wyrostek, Meghan Mullen
Fourth Official:  Calin Radosav
Weather:  Partly Cloudy and 48º 
Attendance:  3,426
Man of the Match:  

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