Atlanta United forced the visiting Chicago Fire into an own goal in the ninth minute of second-half stoppage time to pull off a dramatic 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon.
Juan Jose Purata was the last Atlanta player to touch the incoming corner kick after a glancing header off Purata’s teammate Machop Chol at the near post.
From there, the ball bounded off the back of the Fire’s Maren Haile-Selassie and across the line to lift Atlanta (5-1-3, 18 points) to a victory after it had nearly sabotaged itself with a late giveaway that led to Chicago’s equalizer.
Long before the late drama, Giorgos Giakoumakis scored his team-leading fifth goal in the 13th minute for Atlanta, which remained unbeaten at home through five games. But after a pair of second-half collisions with Fire defender Rafael Czichos and goalkeeper Chris Brady, Giakoumakis left the game in the 58th minute.
Thiago Almada also picked up his team-leading sixth assist on the opener after both he and Giakoumakis entered the game questionable with leg injuries. And Atlanta goalkeeper Quentin Westberg left at halftime with an apparent leg issue as Clement Diop entered as a replacement.
Substitute Kacper Przybylko scored a deserved 90th-minute equalizer for Chicago (2-2-4, 10 points), which saw its five-match unbeaten run snapped.
Przybylko’s second goal of the season came after he was played into a one-on-one break against Diop by an errant backward Atlanta pass.
Diop made the first save, but Przybylko made no mistake on the second attempt. Chicago retained possession on the sequence and Brian Gutierrez found him in prime shooting position again with Atlanta’s defense still scrambling.
Giakoumakis has now scored once in each of his first five MLS starts. This time he found his goal on a play that began when Almada sprayed a ball down the right flank from his own half.
Brooks Lennon raced to reach it just before it ran over the touchline, then dragged a low cross back toward the center of the penalty area.
Czichos got his footing wrong and fanned on a clearance attempt. And that allowed Giakoumakis to reach the cross, take a touch to control, and then hammer a low finish past Brady.
–Field Level Media
