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The Chicago Fire continue their three game homestand and welcome in Charlotte FC. The last time those two teams met a month ago, the Fire came away with an impressive 4-1 victory. Charlotte will be looking for payback.
Zinckernagel gets an opening in the box one-on-one with Kristijan Kahlina and puts one through him with a hand deflection into the net for a Chicago Fire lead in the 21st minute. It’s 1-0 Fire. Sometimes you just need to make the attempt for good things to happen. I kept saying it and will continue, Zinck is this teams MVP.
Those who looked away or celebrated the goal too long we’re in for another treat, just minutes later. Zinck worked his way down the left side near the box and laid it off to Brian Gutierrez so connects on a shot that is deflected by Andrew Privett and went right into the goal. 2-0, a fortunate deflection for the Fire, Kahlina had no chance on that one.
The Fire are off to a great start. Both goals were not pretty, but they counted. At this point they will take whatever they can get. They have been controlling the possession and the game to this point, and it shows.
Minutes after Guti scored, Chicago caught Charlotte napping. Adilson Malanda picked a bad time to make a weak and lazy pass to the goalie and Hugo Cuypers was there and ready to pounce. Cuypers gets in-between, intercepts the pass and taps it in to the back of the net, it’s a 3-0 Fire rout in the first half.
Charlotte offering little resistance to this point. Fire capitalizing on the mistakes and also getting rewarded with some lucky breaks for it. Chicago takes it to halftime with an impressive 3-0 lead.
Great alert and active first half for the Fire, the opposite for Charlotte FC. Their defense has been porous, offense lacking attack. This is where you’d expect Wilfried Zaha to step up and play to his billing, especially when the team is missing Patrick Agyemang, who is playing at the Gold Cup.
As expected, Charlotte opens up the second half playing more aggressive and attack minded. Two chances for Zaha and he doesn’t do much with either. Pep Biel on the other hand, gets the ball, creates some space and fires one past Gal to the near post. Charlotte gets on the board, it’s 3-1 Fire. Nice play and finish by Biel.
Looks like this was all that they needed to get that spark back, because less than three minutes later Charlotte puts another one into the net. Just like that, they are right back in the game with the Fire conceding two quick goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half.
Just as they were off to a great start in the first half, the opposite is happening to Chicago in the second half. The passing for the Fire isn’t connecting in the final third. Charlotte is a lot more alert and breaking up balls.
Ultimately an ambitious run by Charlotte wasn’t enough to hold off the Fire. Chicago holds onto a 3-2 home win and collect three important points. The Fire certainly must have expected Charlotte to come out more aggressive and attack minded in the second half, and they did. The key was that they didn’t let the game slip away and still ended up with a victory.
Notes:
- Winger Philip Zinckernagel recorded his eight goal and eighth assist of the season in his 17th match of the season, becoming the fastest to reach the mark in Club history (per MLS). Midfielder Roman Kosecki previously reached the mark in 22 matches in Fire’s inaugural 1998 season.
- Brian Gutiérrez recorded his seventh goal of the season, the most in a single season for the Homegrown midfielder. His previous high was set in 2024, when Gutiérrez scored his sixth goal of the year on August 24, in his 25th match of the season.
- Director of Football and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter recorded the 75th regular season victory of his career on Saturday night, becoming the 25th head coach in Major League Soccer history to reach the milestone.
- Defender Omar González entered the pitch in the 89th minute to record the 300th career appearance of his MLS career. González joins a list of 71 players in league history with 300 games, including just 13 active players in the league.
- Goalkeeper Chris Brady (international duty); defenders Carlos Terán (Lower Body) and Christopher Cupps (Lower Body); and midfielders Rominigue Kouamé (Lower Body), Chris Mueller (Not Due to Injury) and David Poreba (Lower Body) were unavailable for selection in the match.
NEXT MATCH:
Chicago will head to Cincy to face FC Cincinnati on Saturday, July 5. The Eastern Conference rematch will kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast globally on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
