Record crowd see Fire, Herons play to stalemate

Chicago Fire FC 1-1 Inter Miami CF

CHICAGO, IL—A Chicago Fire FC record crowd of 63,094 at Soldier Field saw the long-awaited clash between the Fire led by Robert Lewandowski and Inter Miami led by Lionel Messi. In the end, it was a fourth successive stalemate for the Fire at 1-1 while the Herons have won just once in their last seven league matches. 

The result drops the Fire to fourth with New England winning at New York City FC. Charlotte FC move even on points with the Fire, but behind on goal difference. Inter do gain a point on Nashville who lost to Toronto.

The Fire got off to a fast start and controlled the first ten minutes of play. It was rewarded when Andrew Gutman sent a cross into the box and Lewandowski scored off the volley to give the Fire the lead. 

However, the next forty minutes were controlled by Inter Miami who kept pushing for an equalizer only to be stymied by Chris Brady in the first half. The Herons would get their goal in the 48th minute as Messi’s corner kick was headed in by Fricio Caicedo. 

Neither team could find the breakthrough the rest of the way which was a bit more even—and it ended up honors even. 

Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter is asking his team to be more bold and have better movement with the ball.

“In games like that, what I’m stressing to the guys is, ‘We need brave guys. We need guys that want to
get on the ball, that want to make the difference. And we need more movement when we have the ball,'” said Berhalter. “So we’ll take the point. Now we move on. We get some recovery. We face New England on Sunday.”

While the Fire are unbeaten in seven league matches, it’s now three wins and four straight draws and with New England and Charlotte surging (two of the Fire’s next three opponents), the Fire need more wins to keep in the higher echelons of the table.

“We need wins,” said Fire captain Jack Elliott. “Draws and being unbeaten is one thing, but we need wins in this league. Because three points is better than one at the end of the day and that’s what we need to focus on. I think there’s an air of frustration. Regardless of being unbeaten, it doesn’t feel great to just keep drawing games.”

The Fire will host New England on Sunday in a battle for third place in the East (4:30pm CT, Apple TV) while Miami will return home to face Nashville in a  1v2 matchup on Saturday (7:30pm ET, Apple TV). 

Photos by Leslie Smith and Len Cederholm

SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Robert Lewandowski (Gutman) 10
MIA-Fricio Caicedo (Messi) 48

BOOKING SUMMARY:
MIA-Telasco Segovia (caution, dissent) 4
MIA-Maxi Falcon (caution, reckless tackle) 23
CHI-Jonathan Dean (caution, tactical foul) 50
CHI-Dje D’Avilla (caution, reckless foul) 59
MIA-German Beterame (caution, tactical foul) 71

CHICAGO FIRE (4-3-3):  #1-Chris Brady; #15-Andrew Gutman, #32-Noah Allen, #3-Jack Elliott, #24-Jonathan Dean (#2-Leonardo Barroso 67); #17-Robin Lod (#12-Puso Dithejane 56), #42-Dje D’Avilla, #6-Anton Saletros; #7-Maren Haile-Selassie (#35-Sergio Oregel Jr.67), #9-Robert Lewandowski, #11-Philip Zinckernagel

Subs not used:  #44-Josh Cohen,#5-Sam Rogers, #18-Johan Gomez, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #29-David Poreba, #37-Robert Turdean

INTER MIAMI CF (4-3-3):  #97-Dayne St. Clair; #5-Fricio Caicedo (#4-Facundo Mura 78), #37-Maxi Falcon, #15-Casemiro, #17-Ian Fray; #8-Telasco Segovia (#88-Alexander Shaw 78), #42-Yannick Bright, #7-Rodrigo De Paul, #9-Luis Suarez, #10-Lionel Messi, #19-German Berterame

Subs not used:  #34-Rocco Rios Novo, #22-David Ayala, #34-Lovend’s Dalinos, #56-Daniel Pinter, #59-Preston Plambeck, #70-Daniel Sumalla, #76-Cesar Abadia-Reda

EXPECTED GOALS:  CHI 1.1-0.6 MIA
TOTAL SHOTS:  CHI 10-20 MIA
SHOTS ON GOAL:  CHI 3-7 MIA
FOULS:  CHI 16-14 MIA
OFFSIDES:  CHI 0-2 MIA
CORNER KICKS:  CHI 2-5 MIA
SAVES:  CHI 6-2 MIA

Referee:  Jair Marrufo
Assistant Referees:  Andrew Bigelow, Walt Heatherly
Fourth Official:  Calin Radosav
VAR:  Daniel Radford
AVAR:  Jonathan Johnson
Weather:  Cloudy and 77º 
Attendance:  63,094
Man of the Match:  Chris Brady (CHI)

Follow us on bluesky

Follow us on Twitter