Fire Defenseless against Sounders

Chicago Fire 2-4 Seattle Sounders FC

The last two matches for the Fire provided some hope that they would be better than last season even though neither resulted in a win. Saturday’s match against Seattle Sounders FC provided little of that as defensive breakdowns early in both halves resulted in a 4-2 defeat for the Fire. 

For the Sounders, it is their best start since 2009 while the Fire have amassed two points or fewer in their opening three matches for the sixth time in seven seasons. All the Sounders needed was eight minutes to open the scoring as Raul Ruidiaz, Jordan Morris, and Victor Rodriguez went tic-tac-toe past the Fire defense who were stuck in neutral. 

Seven minutes later, Nicolas Lodeiro sent a precision pass to Morris who got behind the Fire defense and scored from point-blank range to make it 2-0. The Fire then changed its shape to a 3-5-2 and subbed in Raheem Edwards in the first half for acting left back Nicolas Hasler. Also, Bastian Schweinsteiger dropped back to center back.

It initially did not work as three minutes into the second half, Rodriguez was tripped by Marcelo in the area and Lodeiro converted the spot kick. The Fire did pepper Stefan Frei’s net throughout the match and were finally rewarded in the 57th minute as Edwards headed in CJ Sapong’s cross. Substitute Fabian Herbers gave the Fire more hope after scoring off a rebound of his own shot six minutes from time. 

However, despite 25 shots and 12 on target, Stefan Frei would make ten saves and the back four for Seattle would prove too formidable when it needed to be which appeared opposite the case at the other end. The end came two minutes from time on a counter where Ruidiaz beat an oncoming Ousted to a ball outside the box and shot it into an empty net. 

A contrite Veljko Paunovic was blunt with his assessment of the match.

“I think today we were beaten by a better team,” said Paunovic. “We conceded a couple of opportunities that they converted, some mistakes that cost us the game again and it’s pretty much the outcome we had. I think actually today, when you look at our last three games in this season, today we did deserve, because of our mistakes, to lose the game, unlike the previous two games. Unfortunately, we don’t get points for what we deserve; it’s for what we achieve. It’s a hard loss today.”

There is still a lot of time in the season for the Fire, but the Fire need these upcoming two weeks to fix the defensive mistakes.

“We need to fix it,” said Fire goalkeeper David Ousted. “As I said in the beginning of all this, we need to find each other as a unit and back each other up that way and right now it’s a little disjointed. But it’s early in the season and this is part of what we need to work on and we know that now so going forward there has to be an emphasis on that.

The Fire will have two weeks before hosting New York Red Bulls (noon CT, ESPN+) and could well use that time to get Nicolas Gaitan (who did not play on Saturday) acclimated to Chicago as well as get the lead out. Seattle will travel to Vancouver in two weeks. 

SCORING SUMMARY:

SEA-Victor Rodriguez (Morris, Ruidiaz) 8

SEA-Jordan Morris (Lodeiro) 15

SEA-Nicolas Lodeiro (penalty kick) 49

CHI-Raheem Edwards (Sapong) 57

CHI-Fabian Herbers (unassisted) 84

SEA-Raul Ruidiaz (Smith) 88

BOOKING SUMMARY:

CHI-Raheem Edwards (caution, dangerous play) 64

SEA-Cristian Roldan (caution, tactical foul) 77

CHI-Fabian Herbers (caution, reckless foul) 90+2

CHICAGO FIRE (4-2-3-1):  #1-David Ousted; #17-Diego Campos (#13-Brandt Bronico 46), #2-Marcello, #4-Johan Kappelhof, #22-Nicolas Hasler (#7-Raheem Edwards 35); #6-Dax McCarty, #31-Bastian Schweinsteiger; #11-Przemyslaw Frankowski, #14-Djordje Mihailovic, #9-CJ Sapong, #23-Nemanja Nikolic (#21-Fabian Herbers 71)

Subs not used: #45-Richard Sanchez, #15-Grant Lillard, #18-Cristian Martinez, #12-Amando Moreno

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC (4-2-3-1):  #24-Stefen Frei; #18-Kelvin Leerdam, #20-Kim Kee-hee, #14-Chad Marshall, #11-Brad Smith; #4-Gustav Svensson, #7-Cristian Roldan; #13-Jordan Morris (#19-Harry Shipp 86), #10-Nicolas Lodeiro (#29-Roman Torres 72), #8-Victor Rodriguez (#5-Nouhou 90); #9-Raul Ruidiaz

Subs not used:  #35-Bryan Meredith, #21-Jordy Delem, #16-Alex Roldan, #70-Handwalla Bwana

TOTAL SHOTS:  CHI 25-10 SEA

SHOTS ON GOAL:  CHI 12-7 SEA

FOULS:  CHI 16-10 SEA

OFFSIDES:  CHI 0-3 SEA

CORNER KICKS:  CHI 3-3 SEA

SAVES:  CHI 3-10 SEA

Referee:  Joseph Dickerson

Assistant Referees:  Frank Anderson, Eric Boria

4th Official:  Baldomero Toledo

VAR:  Kevin Stott

Weather:  Sunny and 37º

Attendance:  10,032

Man of the Match:  Stefan Frei (SEA)