Chicago Fire 1, Real Salt Lake 1 | 2019 MLS Match Recap

The Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake exchanged a pair of set piece goals in the first half in a 1-1 draw Saturday night at SeatGeek Stadium.

The Fire raced in front five minutes after kickoff when Aleksandar Katai slipped his low 24-yard free kick around the Real Salt Lake wall and inside the far post for his fourth goal of the season.

After Damir Kreilach narrowly missed an immediate equalizer when his open header from eight yards out skimmed off the post and out, Albert Rusnak leveled from the penalty spot in the 33rd minute after Mo Adams handled the ball in the box. Rusnak rolled his sixth goal of the year into the net with Fire goalkeeper Kenneth Kronholm diving the other way.

Adams, who was booked in the 15th minute, was off at halftime with Przemyslaw Frankowski coming on in an offensive substitution by Veljko Paunovic.

In the 73rd minute, Katai came inches from netting a brace, played in well by Brandt Bronico, but Katai fired wide of the far post. It was more of the same from Katai nine minutes later. One minute from full time, Frankowski forced Nick Rimando into an important save. 

Goals

• 5’ — CHI — Aleksandar Katai | WATCH
• 33’ — RSL — Albert Rusnak | WATCH

Three Things

THE BIG PICTURE: The Fire pressed for the winning goal and will be disappointed not to take all three points with their chances late, but they extended a home unbeaten streak to seven games. One point was the minimum RSL said they wanted to take from their third consecutive road contest against Eastern Conference opposition.

MOMENT OF THE MATCH
: Rimando was pressed into making just one save, but what a save it was to deny Frankowski of the sure late winner.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Bronico was the playmaker in just about every Fire scoring chance in the run of play. He had 16 successful passes in the RSL half, 11 in the final third and played a pair of key passes

Next Up

• CHI: Friday, June 28 at New York Red Bulls (8 pm ET | UniMás, Twitter, MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada)
• RSL: Saturday, June 29 vs. Sporting Kansas City (10 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US, on DAZN in Canada)