The Chicago Fire failed to measure up in its visit to the Philadelphia Union and came away defeated by a fair and resounding score of 3-1 at Talen Energy Stadium on Saturday, September 23.
The Philadelphia Union went ahead 3-0 with two goals from Chris Pontius (At the 10th and 5th minutes) and one from C.J. Sapong (64th), while Argentinian forward Luis Solignac, who had just entered the match as a substitute, scored his sixth goal this season for the Fire at the 67th minute to close out the final score.
It was a bad game by a Chicago Fire that looked overmatched at all points of the matchup, and that was barely able to rattle the modest Philadelphia side that sits second-to-last in the Eastern Conference.
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The Fire suffered, once again, the absences of Brazilian midfielder Juninho and German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger due to injury, two important absences in the middle of the field that could be taking a toll on the team’s functionality.
“It is not the moment to analyze this loss in depth, but instead to keep going forward,” said Fire manager Veljko Paunovic.
“Obviously we are not happy with our performance or the result, but I give my players credit for continuing to work hard until the end. I think this team never gave up and tried. After scoring our goal, we looked for the second one to at least salvage a point, but we could not do it. I think we were not dangerous enough and could not push forward enough to get a better result. The team must improve. Now we have to think about the next match (Wednesday the 27th), have the guys recover and think about the visit to San Jose,” said the Serbian manager.
With four matches left in the regular season, the Fire is not yet mathematically qualified for the playoffs, although it does have the qualification practically assured. Currently, the Fire sits third in the Eastern Conference with 48 points, four points from second-place New York City (55), and 14 from leader Toronto FC (62).
According to the playoff format in MLS, the two first teams do not play in the first round, while the teams third from sixth face each other in a single-elimination format. Thus, the Fire is currently battling for second place, although it must improve its form a lot if it does not want to fall even lower in the table, where behind it sit Columbus (47), Atlanta United (4), and New York Red Bulls (42).