Union win eighth straight over ten-man Fire

Chicago Fire FC 1-3 Philadelphia Union

CHICAGO, IL—For the second consecutive match, Chicago Fire FC went down to ten men, but this time, the outcome and run of play was the reverse of what happened on Saturday against NYCFC. Bruno Damiani got two goals and an assist as Philadelphia Union defeated the Fire, 3-1, for their eighth straight win and now unbeaten in 14 straight league matches. For the Fire, a three-match winning streak ends.

While both teams struggled for clear scoring chances in the first half, the one the Fire got in the 44th minute saw them ahead. Noah Allen kept a ball in play and fed Maren Haile-Selassie in front of goal for the finish. It’s Haile-Selassie’s eleventh goal of the year. Two minutes later, though, the Fire found themselves down a man again after Jack Elliott picked up his second yellow card in a span of four minutes.

The Union became ruthless in the second half and equalized four minutes into the second half. Frankie Westfield’s cross into the box was flicked on by Damiani and to Milan Iloski for his 18th goal of the year. Six minutes later, Cavan Sullivan found Damiani unmarked and he made it 2-1 to the Union. Damiani scored a third in the 67th minute just before the Fire could send fresh subs.

Elliott will now miss the next two matches at New England this Saturday and at Atlanta next Saturday as a result of the two yellows—the first triggering a suspension for yellow card accumulation and the second for the red card.

Fire head coach Gregg Berhatler had a couple words about the officiating when compared to the treatment he thought Robert Lewandowski was getting.

“I think first of all, the level of refereeing today was shocking. It was horrendous,” said Berhalter.

“You know, Robert [Lewandowski], our [designated player], is getting elbowed, is getting fouled, and they’re letting it play out. It’s really surprising how the referee doesn’t protect the star players and protect players that are attacking players. I’m really surprised at that.

“You know, the fouls, the amount of times Philadelphia broke the rhythm of the game and weren’t given yellow cards, and we have one fat, we get a yellow card. [Elliott’s] first yellow card, it’s really hard to see how that’s even a foul. It’s hard to see how it’s even a foul.”

Berhalter continued that when the league evaluate the officiating that they see what he saw on this night.

“I know they do a great job of evaluating the referees, and hopefully they evaluate this, evaluate this one and say the same thing that we’re saying.”

As for the goals that the Fire conceded, he felt the defending on the wings could have been better.

“We talked about a plan on how we’re gonna defend them,” said Berhalter. “I think the game was always going to be about what happens in the wings and we didn’t defend those situations well.

“You know, if you look at the first two goals, it’s purely wing defending. You know, that leads to, you know, good crosses that put the defense under pressure. They get a ton of numbers in the penalty box.”

The loss drops the Fire to fourth in the Eastern Conference with New England, the Fire’s next opponent away on Saturday (6:30pm CT, Apple TV), though a draw on Saturday will assure a playoff place for the Fire.

Photos by Len Cederholm

SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Maren Haile-Selassie (Allen) 44
PHI-Milan Iloski (Damiami, Westfield) 49
PHI-Bruno Damiani (C. Sullivan) 55
PHI-Bruno Damiani (Lukic) 67

BOOKING SUMMARY:
CHI-Mbekezeli Mbokazi (caution, reckless tackle) 34
CHI-Jack Elliott (caution, tactical foul) 42
CHI-Jack Elliott (sent off, second bookable offense) 45+1
PHI-Indiana Vassilev (caution, tactical foul) 85
CHI-Philip Zinckernagel (caution, reckless foul) 88’
PHI-Neil Pierre (caution, tactical foul) 90+3

CHICAGO FIRE (4-4-2): #1-Chris Brady; #32-Noah Allen, #4-Mbekezeli Mbokazi, #3-Jack Elliott, #24-Jonathan Dean (#2-Leonardo Barroso 68); #19-Jonathan Bamba (#21-Andreas Hanche-Olsen 46), #22-Mauricio Pineda, #6-Anton Saletros (#35-Sergio Oregel Jr. 72), #18-Johan Gomez (#12-Puso Dithejane 68); #7-Maren Haile-Selassie, #9-Robert Lewandowski (#11-Philip Zinckernagel 68)

Subs not used: #25-Jeff Gal, #44-Josh Cohen, #15-Andrew Gutman, #29-David Poreba

PHILADELPHIA UNION (4-4-2): #18-Andre Blake; #27-Kai Wagner, #26-Nathan Harriet, #44-Neil Pierre, #39-Frankie Westfield; #33-Quinn Sullivan, #4-Jovan Lukic, #8-Jesus Bueno (#19-Indiana Vassilev 46), #6-Cavan Sullivan (#16-Ben Bender 80); #9-Bruno Damiani (#23-Ezekiel Alladoh 80), #10-Milan Iloski

Subs not used: #76-Andrew Rick, #2-Geiner Martinez, #5-Japhet Sory Larsen, #11-Alejandro Bedoya, #14-Jeremy Rafanello, #51-Malik Jakupovic

EXPECTED GOALS: CHI 0.7-2.3 PHI
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 8-19 PHI
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 4-8 PHI
FOULS: CHI 12-16 PHI
OFFSIDES: CHI 3-1 PHI
CORNER KICKS: CHI 2-7 PHI
SAVES: CHI 5-3 PHI

Referee: Ricardo Fierro
Assistant Referees: Brian Dunn, Walt Heatherly
Fourth Official: Igor Bych
VAR: Daniel Radford
AVAR: Brian Marshall
Weather: Cloudy and 62º
Attendance: 21,265
Man of the Match: Bruno Damiani (PHI)