Fire Hold Off Nashville for Third Win in Four
CHICAGO, IL—The first of a three-match homestand started on a positive note with a 1-0 win over second in the East Nashville SC. Nashville remain second in the East, while the Fire are one of five teams level on 26 points in a tie for the ninth and final playoff spot.
CF Montreal holds that spot based on having the most wins from the five, followed by New York Red Bulls who have a better goal difference than the Fire and Charlotte FC, and New York City FC in 13th with the fewest wins of the five teams.
The match’s only goal came in the 34th minute when Fabian Herbers intercepted a pass from Jack Maher and then scored after a give-and-go with Maren Haile-Selassie. It was the Fire’s lone shot on target of six. Nashville had 18 shots, but just two on target, both saved by Chris Brady including on a free kick from Hany Mukhtar.
The Fire survived another nervy sequence in the 72nd minute after Mukhtar shot one off the post and Teal Bunbury’s rebound shot was blocked, and Luke Haakenson’s shot went wide.
Mauricio Pineda had a chance to double the Fire’s lead late, but grazed a shot off the crossbar. Still, the Fire were superb defensively to hold on for the three points in front of a season-high crowd (for the Fire) of 22,348.
Having the fans behind you can prove to be a difference as Chris Brady notes.
“It helps a lot, that’s our twelfth man right there,” said Brady. “You know when they’re getting loud, getting passionate, you really feel it as a player trust me. You feel that presence behind you and all around you. In tough times and in good times they’re there to support and shout out to our Supporter Section as well, they’re with us through all of it. It’s extremely important and it’s good to get the win, because that’s essentially what attracts people back for the next game and then the game after that and so on. That’s what we like doing, is winning in front of our home fans.”
For Fire head coach Frank Klopas, the team showed extraordinary resilience after last week’s loss at Orlando.
“I think it was a really good performance from the team overall,” said Klopas. “I think we had some really great individual performances, but from a collective standpoint, it was excellent. And we talked about the importance of the homestand now and obviously the second half of the season, how important these games at home are and finding ways to get results on the road. And I think this was huge because this is the first game from the three-game homestand. Having dropped the game in Orlando and not having such a good performance in the second half, I felt, it was huge and the guys showed a lot of character today.”
The Fire continue their homestand on Wednesday night against CF Montreal. Kickoff is at 7:30pm on Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass.
SCORING SUMMARY:
CHI-Fabian Herbers (Haile-Selassie) 34
BOOKING SUMMARY:
NSH-Randall Leal (caution, tactical foul) 37
CHI-Kei Kamara (caution, reckless foul) 82
NSH-Daniel Lovitz (caution, tactical foul) 87
CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1): #34-Chris Brady; #24-Jonathan Dean (#27-Kendall Burks 77), #22-Mauricio Pineda, #5-Rafael Czichos, #6-Miguel Navarro; #21-Fabian Herbers, #30-Gaston Gimenez (#4-Carlos Teran 64); #7-Maren Haile-Selassie (#20-Jairo Torres 77), #10-Xherdan Shaqiri (#3-Alonso Aceves 90+1), #17-Brian Gutierrez; #19-Georgios Koutisas (#23-Kei Kamara 64)
Subs not used: #25-Jeffrey Gal, #11-Kacper Przybylko, #36-Justin Reynolds, #32-Missael Rodriguez
NASHVILLE SC (4-3-3): #1-Joe Willis; #18-Shaq Moore, #3-Lukas MacNaugton, #5-Jack Maher, #2-Daniel Lovitz (#23-Taylor Washington 87); #54-Sean Davis (#10-Hany Mukhtar 46), #6-Dax McCarty, #19-Alex Muyl (#24-Jan Gregus 71; #12-Teal Bunbury, #8-Randall Leal (#11-Ethan Zubak 87), #7-Fafa Picault (#26-Luke Haakenson 71)
Subs not used: #30-Elliot Panicco, #27-Brian Anunga, #22-Josh Bauer, #16-Laurence Wyke
EXPECTED GOALS: CHI 0.7-1.4 NSH
TOTAL SHOTS: CHI 6-18 NSH
SHOTS ON GOAL: CHI 1-2 NSH
FOULS: CHI 8-12 NSH
OFFSIDES: CHI 1-1 NSH
CORNER KICKS: CHI 2-10 NSH
SAVES: CHI 2-0 NSH
Referee: Pierre-Luc Lauziere
Assistant Referees: Jason White, Adam Wienckowski
4th Official: Alexandra Billeter
VAR: Kevin Stott
AVAR: Emma Richards
Weather: Sunny and 71º
Attendance: 22,348
Man of the Match: Fabian Herbers (CHI)
