Fire weather storm to defeat St. Louis

Chicago Fire 3-2 St. Louis City SC

BRIDGEVIEW, IL—This was the kind of match for Chicago Fire FC where if they lost, this would be the match people would remember if they miss the playoffs. It would also be remembered if they won and eventually make the playoffs. The Fire did win this match after coming from 2-1 down to win 3-2. For now, it keeps the Fire above the playoff line in eighth place ahead of Red Bulls on goal difference and one point ahead of 10th place NYCFC who play Sunday.

The match was delayed 81 minutes due to severe weather passing through the area. Once play finally got underway, the Fire absorbed from early pressure and took the lead in the 16th minute. Brian Gutierrez found Andrew Gutman on the wing and Gutman would send a dime of a low cross to Hugo Cuypers for his 15th goal of the year.

St. Louis hardly mustered an attack the remainder of the first half, but came out like gangbangers in the second. It helped that the Fire’s backline was suboptimal at times. Unable to clear a ball in the 47th minute in their area, the Fire let the ball fall to Tomas Ostrak who scored from close range to equalize. Then just before the hour mark, A cross from Ostrak is not dealt with and an unmarked Marcel Hartel is there to put the visitors ahead.

This was a match the Fire needed to keep above the playoff line. Enter Phillip Zinckernagel. Zinckernagel would collect a ball in the attacking third and make a run into the box and put the ball into the net past a wrong-footed Roman Burki in the 67th minute.

“Obviously, it brought some feelings to us,” said Zinckernagel. “We didn’t want to lose points again and we didn’t want to miss opportunities at home. Yeah, it maybe turned some fire inside of us and maybe that gave us a little bit of energy to come back and score that 2-2 goal. I think the crowd was with us too, and it helped us to keep
going, even though they scored.”

Both teams were looking for the winner, and it would be the Fire who would get it after Zinckernagel laid the ball off for Brian Gutierrez who struck it just inside the near post in the 87th minute to put the Fire ahead. The Fire then had to withstand eleven minutes of stoppage time—and a Simon Bechel shot off the goalpost—to preserve the three points and move to eighth in the Eastern Conference table.

Despite going down 2-1, the Fire stuck to the game plan and kept plugging away according to head coach Gregg Berhalter.

“I think it really took some confidence inside of the group,” said Berhalter. “I think the most important thing was that we didn’t quit, we didn’t give up, we stuck to the plan of making them run, trying to play between their lines, and trying to threaten them. We created a number of chances that didn’t go in, but thankfully got the goals to win.”

The Fire travel to Philadelphia next Saturday to take on the Union. Kickoff is at 6:30pm ET on Apple TV.

SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Hugo Cuypers (Gutman, Gutierrez) 16
STL-Tomas Ostrak (unassisted) 47
STL-Marcel Hartel (Ostrak) 59
CHI-Phillip Zinckernagel (D’Avilla) 67
CHI-Brian Gutierrez (Zinckernagel) 87

BOOKING SUMMARY:
STL-Marcel Hartel (caution, tactical foul) 36
STL-Tomas Ostrak (caution, reckless foul) 61
STL-Eduard Löwen (caution, tactical foul) 90+1
STL-Roman Burki (caution, dissent) 90+4

CHICAGO FIRE (4-3-3): #1-Chris Brady; #15-Andrew Gutman, #4-Carlos Teran, #3-Jack Elliott, #2-Leonardo Barroso (#24-Jonathan Dean 78); #42-Dje D’Avilla, #17-Brian Gutierrez, #35-Sergio Oregel (#23-Kellyn Acosta 69); #19-Jonathan Bamba (#7-Maren Haile-Selassie 79), #9-Hugo Cuypers, #11-Phillip Zinckernagel

Subs not used: #25-Jeff Gal, #22-Mauricio Pineda, #34-Omar Gonzalez, #12-Tom Barlow, #5-Sam Rogers, #47-Sam Williams

ST. LOUIS CITY SC (4-3-3): #1-Roman Burki; #2-Devin Padelford, #5-Henry Kessler (#95-Fallou Fall 57), #32-Timo Baumgartil, #91-Jaziel Orozco (#6-Conrad Wallem 57); #8-Chris Durkin (#12-Cello Pompeu 68), #77-Sang Bin-Jeong, #10-Eduard Löwen; #7-Tomas Ostrak (#27-Alfredo Morales 68), #9-Joao Klauss (#11-Simon Becher 85), #17-Marcel Hartel

Subs not used: #39-Ben Lundt, #22-Kyle Hiebert, #14-Tomas Totland

EXPECTED GOALS: CHI 2.6-1.5 STL
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 19-14 STL
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 5-3 STL
FOULS: CHI 8-11 STL
OFFSIDES: CHI 1-2 STL
CORNER KICKS: CHI 6-2 STL
SAVES: CHI 1-2 STL

Referee: Jair Maruffo
Assistant Referees: Gerard-Kader Lebuis, Tyler Wyrostek
Fourth Official: Alexis Da Silva
VAR: Daniel Radcliff
AVAR: Eric Weisbrod
Weather: Cloudy and 80º
Attendance: 17,485
Man of the Match: Phillip Zinckernagel (CHI)