The Chicago Fire bounced back and squeaked out a late goal Wednesday to defeat the Montreal Impact, 1-0, at Toyota Park.
The match's only goal came from an unlikely suspect: In the 89th minute, Chicago defender Kevin Ellis snuck a ball past goalkeeper Evan Bush. The goal was Ellis's second across the last two matches.
The first half of Wednesday's match was back-and-forth, while the Fire dominated the second half. Chicago continued its pressure late into the match, adding fresh legs with young players like Diego Campos and Daniel Johnson in the last 20 minutes.
Goals
- 89' – CHI – Kevin Ellis | WATCH
Three Things
- THE BIG PICTURE: Chicago has endurance lead by a bench of talented, youthful players. The Fire is in good shape with its reserves and proved that it has enough fuel in the legs of players like Campos and Johnson to turn on the afterburners late in games. This will be huge come summertime.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: Now overshadowed by Ellis' goal, midfielder Aleksandar Katai's first half chance is my moment of the match. In the 34th minute, Katai took a shot on goal that clanked off the post only to be rebounded by Katai himself. Impact defender Daniel Lovitz made a heroic goal-line clear to keep the score even in the first half. The moment showed just how evenly matched these two teams are as they battle in the middle of the Eastern Conference table.
- MAN OF THE MATCH: Chicago defender Kevin Ellis had a big week, scoring back-to-back goals for Chicago over two matches. The game-winner against Montreal probably tasted a little sweeter than the lone goal in the previous 1-2 loss to Atlanta.
"I said, you know what, you're inside the box, just hit it and see what happens."
— Chicago Fire (@ChicagoFire) May 10, 2018
We're happy you did, @Kev_Ellis4 👏 #cf97#CHIvMTLhttps://t.co/XJkJzrSzgN
Next Up
- FIRE: Saturday, May 12 at Columbus Crew SC (7:30pm ET | full TV & streaming info)
- IMPACT: Saturday, May 12 vs. Philadelphia Union (3pm ET | CTV, TVAS - full TV & streaming info)
