To say that Raheem Edwards’ red card turned the tide would be an understatement. Especially since this is literally what allowed the Chicago Fire to win.
Kellyn Acosta took advantage of Éole’s escapades to score the winning goal in the final moments of the match and the Fire defeated CF Montreal 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field.
Chicago doesn’t call itself “the Windy City” for nothing. With only a few minutes remaining before the final whistle of the clash, Acosta made a long clearance that Jonathan Sirois misjudged. The goalkeeper touched the ball, but it slipped behind him and into the back of the net.
Acosta’s goal was the one that made the difference, but let’s take a step back about twenty minutes if you wish.
CF Montreal (2-1-1) appeared to be heading for a third straight victory, but Edwards elbowed Georgios Koutsias in the penalty area and he was ejected from the game in the 82nde minute.
His foul led to a penalty, which Brian Gutierrez converted, and the Fire (1-2-1) then took advantage of the extra player to create the tie in stoppage time, through Hugo Cuypers.
The head coach of the Bleu-blanc-noir, Laurent Courtois, obviously had reason to be disappointed with the final result, but he recognizes that his men had offered quality soccer abroad before Edwards’ red card.
“I’m proud of the guys. To get to 3-1 the way they did in the 82e minute, that was already huge in itself, he analyzed. I want us to be aware of the things that we want to master and improve on, but we also have to be aware that there are going to be some particular elements that make this a really tough loss to digest today. »
Of course, the wind is one of those special elements, but it also seems that the refereeing has irritated the 45-year-old head coach. In fact, he is not the only one to have shown impatience with certain decisions.
Montreal took a 2-0 lead thanks to two penalties converted by Matias Coccaro. Already there, it was Frank Klopas, the head coach of the Fire, who was furious. Then, the local favorites reduced the gap in the many minutes of stoppage time, thanks to Maren Haile-Selassie. The incomprehension then came from the CF Montreal bench, who thought they had seen an offside in the sequence, but there was no review.
Dominic Iankov gave the Bleu-blanc-noir a priority of two goals, in the 70the minute, but Gutierrez’s goal caused a little chaos in the Montreal defense. The latter held the fort, but a somewhat controversial decision to grant a corner kick to the Fire, when the ball had not touched a CF Montreal player before leaving the field, set the table for Cuypers’ equalizing goal.
It should be noted that regular MLS referees have been on strike for several weeks already.
“It happens that we make mistakes… Afterwards, I don’t want to go any further because I don’t want it to come back against us,” Courtois said. It’s piling up. Their first goal is offside. You don’t know what elements make them review games or not. I feel like something was taken away from my guys and they work too hard for it. »
The Montrealers will enjoy a week off due to the international break and will return to action on March 30, against DC United.
In the meantime, they will look to use this defeat as a benchmark to learn from what happened.
“We learn from a game like that. This is a scenario that was a first for us. Plus, it was abroad. I talked to a few guys in the locker room. There’s a lot of frustration after a match like that, but there’s some good to come out of it. Maybe if we had won, but we hadn’t played our best football, what good would we take out of that except the three points? “, argued Samuel Piette.
Furthermore, Quebec midfielder Nathan Saliba entered the match at the start of the second half, playing his first minutes of the campaign.
Everything changes
The madness started well before the red card.
In the second minute, following an action by Ariel Lassiter and Ruan, Coccaro drew a penalty due to a foul by Chase Gasper. After treating his pain, the Uruguayan opened the scoring.
Coccaro continued to cause headaches for the Fire defense. Moments later, he caused another foul in the penalty area, this time at the expense of Tobias Salquist. “El Zorro” got a second penalty and a second positive result.
Trailing 2-0 after just 12 minutes of play, the Fire picked up the pace and finally reduced the gap before returning to the locker room. Rafael Czichos made a long pass to Haile-Selassie, who surprised Sirois on the near side.
The Chicago squad continued its momentum at the start of the second half, but CF Montreal stopped its momentum when Iankov completed a superb backheel from Josef Martinez to make it 3-1.
Afterwards, everything changed.
Gutierrez first reduced the gap by beating Sirois with a good shot from the right side. The visitors still had plenty of time to secure their victory, but they started to play nervously.
The Fire settled into the penalty area and fired several shots at the net. Sirois and the defense held on, but the pressure became too much and Cuypers hit the target while huddled between two players.
Acosta’s bizarre and improbable goal eventually allowed the Fire to win.