New England Suffers Critical Loss to Chicago Fire
Despite a late comeback, New England fall short on the road.
Saturday evening saw Caleb Porter and the New England Revolution fight to keep their playoff hopes alive as they traveled to SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, to take on 10th-placed Chicago Fire.
New England found themselves down a few names once again as Leo Campana, Dor Turgeman, and Mamadou Fofana were away on international duty. Matt Polster was also unavailable due to a knee injury.
Matt Turner started in net behind the backline of Peyton Miller, Tanner Beason, Brayan Ceballos, and Ilay Feingold. Luca Langoni, Alhassan Yusuf, Jackson Yueill, and Carles GIl comprised the midfield four behind the attacking duo of Tomás Chancalay and Ignatius Ganago.
Due to the lack of depth in the attack, the Revolution called upon Revolution II forward Sharod George, whom the Revs signed to a short-term loan agreement ahead of the match and featured on the bench.
Things got off to a horrific start for New England just 90 seconds into the match. After getting the ball at midfield, Brian Gutierrez turned goalward and sprung a ball forward into the path of Jonathan Bamba. Turner raced off his line and attempted to get onto the ball, but Bamba got to the ball first as he evaded Turner and sent it goalward to give Chicago an early 1-0 lead.
It went from bad to worse in the 10th minute for New England. After regaining possession, a series of passes led the ball to Philip Zinckernagel, who sent a bouncing shot to the bottom-left corner that evaded the reach of a diving Turner and over the goalline to give Chicago a 2-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game.
Chicago came close to finding a third goal in the 24th minute when a series of give-and-go passes between Hugo Cuypers and Andrew Gutman led Gutman to a one-on-one opportunity. Turner came up big to make a save on Gutman’s close-range effort to prevent Chicago’s lead from growing.
Turner came up big again in the 36th minute when a poorly cleared corner kick led the ball to an open André Franco atop the box. Franco attempted to rip a shot, but it was deflected and fell right to Jack Elliot, who looked to head the ball from close distance that Turner got his hands to.
New England’s first real chance came in the 42nd minute when Luca Langoni dished the ball to Carles Gil, who attempted a shot from distance, but directed it right at Chris Brady, who made the save.
Controversy arose in the closing minutes of the first half as New England booted the ball downfield. Ignatius Ganago attempted to run onto the ball but was wrapped up from behind by Jack Elliot as the ball bounced to Chris Brady, who cleared it away. Despite the hold, Video Assistant Referee Michael Radchuck did not intervene as Guido Gonzalez Jr. blew the whistle for halftime
It was a rough opening 45 minutes of action for New England as it entered the locker room down 2-0.
If the nail wasn’t in the coffin already, Hugo Cuypers hammered it in the 68th minute when a counterattack opportunity led Franco dishing the ball to Cuypers on the left, who slotted it to the far post and in to give Fire a 3-0 lead.
New England’s first changes came in the 69th minute when Wyatt Omsberg and Allan Oyirwoth replaced Ilay Feingold and Jackson Yueill. It marked Oyirwoth’s MLS debut.
New England stopped the bleeding in the 78th minute when Tomás Chancaly slipped a ball forward to Peyton Miller on the left flank. Miller blew past his defender and found himself one-on-one with Chris Brady and capitalized as he sent the ball into the lower-right corner and in to shrink Chicago’s lead to two.
Another change came New England’s way in the 79th minute as Brandon Bye replaced Luca Langoni. New England’s final change came in the 86th minute as Will Sands replaced Tanner Beason.
Things got interesting in the third minute of stoppage time when former Rev Omar Gonzalez got a high boot on Will Sands inside the box as Guido Gonzalez Jr. awarded New England a penalty kick. Gil looked to inject some life back into the game as he stepped to the spot. Something he did when he curled a shot to the upper-left corner and in to shrink the deficit to one.
Despite the late effort, New England fell short as Chicago walked away with all three points following a 3-2 victory.
While not mathematically eliminated, New England’s already slim chances thinned as it now finds itself 11 points behind ninth-placed Chicago Fire with five games left on the year.
New England will look to get back on track when Toronto FC comes to town next Saturday.
Whenever the Revs pull this s***, going down early, the TV feed cuts to Porter and he has this look like, “But the System, it’s not supposed to happen, I have this System.” And the fans are like, “we’ve heard about the System for 2 years, why can’t we have the same System all the other clubs use, the one where they get the ball and shoot and score?”
At least we see the season coming up very soon.