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After getting a draw against the first place New York Red Bulls in NJ last weekend, the Chicago Fire returned home to Soldier Field on Saturday night. The visiting Real Salt Lake has been off to a hot start this season, currently sitting in fourth place in the western conference.
Entering the game the Fire were banged up with several injuries on the roster and they received more bad news prior to kickoff when Brian Gutierrez was injured during warmups. Real Salt Lake jumped on the Fire from kickoff. Pushing the ball and attacking the shorthanded Fire.
The Fire defense finally caved in the 24th minute when one of the league leading scorers Andres Gomez put one away to give RSL he first goal of the game. It’s one of those goals where you see coming. The Fire didn’t mark one of the best scorers in the league in the box and they paid for it dearly.
Things just kept getting worse as Fire captain Xherdan Shaqiri was substituted in the 28th due to injury. Add another one to the mix.
“With Shaq coming out early, it kinda disrupted out rhythm” said Fire head coach Frank Klopas.
Disrupting rhythm it did, as 9 minutes later RSL center forward Cristian Arango intercepted a lazy pass to the keeper and put away a nice shot between keeper Chris Brady’s legs for a 2-0 RSL lead. Minutes later it was Arango again with another goal in the 37th, seemingly putting the game away before halftime.
The Fire were off-the-mark all game long. Even though they managed to get 12 shots on goal and had 50% possession, they struggling mightily completing passes all night. Long balls were way off and missing the mark. Sloppy, uninspired play doomed them on this night.
Fire’s Kellyn Acosta commented about the teams performance, “It’s about communication, sticking together, in moments like this, now more than ever, the blame game and pointing fingers doesn’t get you anywhere.”
RSL’s Diego Luna put the Fire out of their misery, just before the final whistle, with a goal in the 93′. The Fire fell to RSL 4-0 in what was their worst performance of the season. The fans were silent for the majority of the night and you couldn’t blame them since the team gave them nothing to cheer about.
With a lopsided loss like this at home and the team hanging around the bottom of the table, postgame a reporter asked Frank Klopas about any pressure he might be feeling.
“I don’t think about pressure, I don’t feel pressure,” said Klopas in response to the question.
It’s still seems too early to question the coach about job security with 20 games to go, but if losses like this one become a more frequent occurrence, questions like this one will become the norm.
Fire have a chance to bounce back again at home next weekend against the Atlanta United FC on Saturday, April 27 at Soldier Field at 7:30 pm
