It wasn’t necessarily aesthetically pleasing, not the best example of the beautiful game. But when a team goes 19 consecutive matches without a road victory, it hardly matters how three points are accrued.
That was the case for Chicago Fire FC Saturday night in a 1-0 win over the New York Red Bulls. They rode a 32nd-minute goal by Robert Beric that was awarded following Video Review and left Red Bull Arena with their first road victory since Oct. 6, 2019.
“We had, for sure, prettier games on the road. We had, for sure, games where we played much better football, where we created way more chances,” Fire FC coach Raphael Wicky said. “But this was just a great team fight and the team showed a great mentality and spirit. And I think it was very hard to break down and that's why it's a deserved win.”
The win's broader significance surfaced in the standings. Chicago jumped the Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference table and are seven points below the playoff line in 10th place with 12 games remaining. Inter Miami CF and the Red Bulls, the two teams just below the Fire in the playoff chase, both have two games in hand.
Understandably, there were no bold statements about this win being a catalyst for a playoff push afterward.
“Let’s just try to keep going from game to game,” Beric said. “It’s difficult to think about playoffs now. I would like to say that we have to try to fight every game like that, like we (fought) today, and let's just make points every game. And we will see where we are going to finish the season.”
While it's not quite taken so long for Beric to score, there are certainly parallels to draw.
The club’s Designated Player No. 9 tallied just his third goal of the season and first since a 3-1 home win over Orlando City SC on July 7. His up-and-down form follows a 12-goal introduction to MLS, all after the Slovenian forward arrived in 2020 from Ligue 1's Saint-Étienne.
“I try to do my best every game and I try to score every game. That's my job at the end of the day,” Beric said. “But you know how it is, sometimes when you fall in this gap, and you simply cannot score, it also becomes a mental thing. It's not easy but let's hope with this win and with this goal that we try to keep the momentum.”
The Fire recorded their fifth clean sheet of the season, and goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth only needed to make two saves on the Red Bulls’ 20 shot attempts.
While the hosts were punished for not being clinical in the attacking third, the Fire ably handled the Red Bulls' pressure.
"Obviously in games where it's 1-0 on the road, the home team is going to come with a lot of pressure, a lot of attacking moments,” defender Jonathan Bornstein said. "And I thought we did a great job of absorbing that pressure, winning a lot of the crosses that came in, being tuned in at all the right moments, and so you've got to shake the hands of all the defenders and all the forwards.”
Bornstein was the only player in Saturday's starting XI from the squad that started in that 5-2 win over Orlando on Decision Day presented by AT&T on Oct. 6, 2019 – the date of Chicago's last road victory. Francisco Calvo would have been the second starter, but the Costa Rican international was on the bench at RBNY.
“That was a tactical choice of mine, nothing else,” Wicky said. “I chose tonight to go with some other players, and Francisco accepted that, was very positive and was a good captain in the locker room before the game, during the game, and nothing else. I just chose to go with some other players tonight.”
After the international break, the Fire will look for a second straight road win when they face Sporting Kansas City on Sept. 11 (8:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+). It's the first of a dozen games remaining, a critical stretch if the Fire are to return to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017.
“The most important thing is that we limit our mistakes. This league is so tight and really anyone can beat anyone. You go into a game and you know you have a chance, but you also know going into every game if you are not 100 percent and you make more mistakes and silly mistakes that you may lose this game. That doesn't happen in many leagues, back in Europe, for example. So this league is different,” Wicky said.
"So for us, we had many good road games where we played decent football and where we create a lot of chances and where we were up games but at the end of the day it's about limiting mistakes, and I think that's going to be crucial for us. How good of a balance can we find of playing good football and attractive football with some risk, but also then in certain moments say, 'Ok it’s not about being pretty.' I think that's going to be crucial in the future.”
