Chicago Fire falls in Philadelphia 3-1
CHESTER, Pa. (Sept. 23, 2017) – A second-half comeback attempt fell short on Saturday night as the Chicago Fire (14-10-6, 48 pts.) were undone by a 3-1 score against the Philadelphia Union (9-12-9, 36 points) at Talen Energy Stadium.
Chris Pontius got the Union on the board in the 10th minute, finding himself on the end of a Keegan Rosenberry service into the 18-yard box and headed home the opener at the near post.
Pontius got a second in 55th to extend the Union lead. Philadelphia’s Fabrice-Jean Picault found himself with space to shoot at the top of the box and tested Fire goalkeeper Matt Lampson with a low effort to his right. Lampson parried, but Pontius made the run in to finish the rebound and push the score to 2-0.
C.J. Sapong scored the Union third in the 64th. Philadelphia’s Fabinho played a low cross into the box from the left, where an on-running Sapong was able to get a foot to it and push it past Lampson.
The Fire would pull one back just three minutes later courtesy of Luis Solignac. The sequence began with a Matt Polster run down the right sideline. Polster played a ball in that found a waiting Nemanja Nikolic, who flicked the pass behind him to a waiting Solignac. The Argentine beat Andre Blake for his sixth goal of 2017 to bring the score to 3-1.
Despite good late looks from second half substitute Djordje Mihailovic on a free kick attempt and Nikolic from a close-range header, the hosts ultimately claimed full points with a 3-1 scoreline.
Veljko Paunovic, Chicago Fire Head Coach, thoughts on the game…
“Congratulations to Philadelphia on three points. I don’t think it’s a moment now to go back and analyze too much, go too deep, we have to move forward. Obviously we’re not happy with the performance nor the result, but credit to our guys for pushing hard until the end. I think this team never gave up and tried, after we scored the first one, we tried to push and score the second which would have helped us obviously in order to get the point at least but it didn’t happen, the second goal was a must be but I think we weren’t sharp enough, we didn’t push enough and the team just has to get better. Now we have to think about the next game, recover the guys and think about San Jose.”
On the quick turnaround before the next game… “We think it’s good for us to have a game in such a quick span and I think it’s a good opportunity for us to get better.”
The Fire road trip resumes next Wednesday with a visit to San Jose to take on the Earthquakes on Sept. 27. Kickoff is set for 9:30 p.m. CT with coverage on CSN Chicago Plus and Univision Chicago 12:00AM.
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