Brick Wall Brady shuts out Montreal again

CF Montreal 0-2 Chicago Fire

MONTREAL, QC–Chris Brady was a brick wall and had to be making six saves as the Fire netted their sixth clean sheet of the season–matching all of last season–in a 2-0 win over CF Montreal. Then again, he has been for a while as this was Brady’s fifth clean sheet against Montreal in his career.

The Fire opened the scoring in the 14th minute after Viktor Radojevic–in his first start with the Fire–sent a dime of a long ball to Maren Haile-Selassie down the flank. His cross into the area was deflected, but queueing up was Philip Zinckernagel who blasted it past Thomas Giller.

Chris Brady made two spectacular saves just before halftime to keep the Fire ahead, first on Ivan Jaime and then on Wiki Carmona. More saves by Brady would come in the second half, including a deflected chance from Prince Owusu and a rocket shot from Brayan Vera.Brady is clearly making his case for inclusion into the US World Cup squad.

“Yeah, I thought today was one of his better games, if not the best game of the season,” said Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter. “Just for his calmness and his poise and then the fact that he bailed us out with some great saves when he needed to.Really happy with his performance. It comes at a great moment for the team.”

Shortly after that save, the Fire went down the pitch and Zinckernagel found Hugo Cuypers, who beat Giller far post to make it 2-0. Cuypers became the third players in MLS history to score in ten consecutive matches (Josef Martinez, Carlos Vela). He also leads the Golden Boot race at the time of this post with 13. Two more saves for Brady and three more points for the Fire who moved into third before Saturday night’s action.

The Fire will host Toronto FC in their last match before the World Cup break next Saturday at 7:30pm CT on Apple TV.