On Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn., the Chicago Fire will try to distance themselves from the bottom of the playoff standings against a Minnesota United side with eyes on the Supporters’ Shield.
The Fire (12-11-6, 42 points) sit in the ninth and final spot in the MLS Cup Playoffs, but enter Saturday’s road trip off the back of a difficult 3-1 loss at home to New York City FC on Sept. 13.
Despite opening the scoring with a goal from Philip Zinckernagel in the 20th minute, a late first-half goal in the 40th minute by NYCFC turned into two more in the second half, in a matchup that highlighted the increased intensity of matches that continues in the playoffs. For head coach Gregg Berhalter, the young Chicago team doesn’t need a lesson in intensity until it actually makes the postseason.
“For us, it’s really focusing on the five games that we have,” said Berhalter. “Putting together good weeks of training and going out and executing those five games. If we’re good enough to get into the playoffs, we will communicate that.”
Now, Chicago faces Minnesota United FC (15-6-9, 54 points), who sit three points back in the Supporters’ Shield standings, in a group of six teams that all have a realistic chance of lifting the trophy awarded to the top regular season team.
Unfortunately for the Loons, they head into Saturday’s matchup disappointed after the final seconds of Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup Semi-Final. In the 120th minute, the last minute of extra time, a loose ball off a save by Dayne St. Clair found the boot of Austin FC’s CJ Fodrey, ending Minnesota’s cup run.
“We’ve got to take that pain, we got to take that real difficulty that comes from losing in that way. We got to learn from it,” said head coach Eric Ramsay. “And I said that if we see that again, we might as well give up because we’ve conceded goals in a way in which I use the word unforgivable. They’re unforgivable because they’re controllable.”
Despite the recent cup result, Minnesota carries a four-match unbeaten streak of MLS regular-season form into Saturday’s matchup. Saturday is the first regular-season match of the campaign between the sides. In U.S. Open Cup play, Minnesota defeated Chicago 3-1 on July 8.
–Field Level Media
