Fire savors three-game winning streak

Chicago Fire fans could get used to this.

The Fire returned from a 20-day layoff to claim its third consecutive victory, defeating New York City FC 1-0 Friday night at Toyota Park.

It's the first time the Fire (3-3-0, 9 points) has won three games in a row since 2013, and it's a nice turnaround from the three-game losing streak that opened this season.

"It's certainly different than last year," Fire midfielder Harry Shipp said, remembering 2014's six-win, ninth-place finish. "Just in the past three games we have half our win total from last year, so it's great."

The Fire started the game with its preferred attacking mindset firmly in place, causing all sorts of problems for NYCFC. David Accam scored the only goal in the 20th minute when goalkeeper Ryan Meara tried to prevent a ball off a teammate from going out for a corner kick. Meara kept the ball in play but couldn't control it, and Accam swooped in, stole it and put his first Fire goal in the open net.

"For me you just have to gamble on the pitch, and that's that I did," the Ghanaian midfielder said.

But the Fire never could put the game away with a second goal, in part because Meara was excellent the rest of the way. He finished with 6 saves. He got a little help from the post also.

"From our point of view, I think our attacking play, without the finishing touch, was very good," Fire coach Frank Yallop said. "The creation of chances, the manner of how we played the second half was excellent. I was very pleased with the overall performance other than getting a few more goals."

Last year that inability to put away another goal and build a comfortable lead would have come back to bite the Fire. The Fire was known for giving up killer goals in the waning minutes.

But with a man advantage after NYCFC (1-4-3, 6 points) lost Andrew Jacobson to a red card in the 23rd minute and with injured striker David Villa a no-show, the Fire held on for 3 points.

"Yeah, you'd like to (score an insurance goal) obviously, but I think we had chances, for sure," Shipp said.

"I think we should have scored three or four because we worked really hard and created chances," Accam added.

As long as the Fire gets the win, fans will forgive the lack of insurance goals, especially if the Fire keeps playing attacking, entertaining soccer. The Fire travels to Sporting Kansas City on May 3 looking to extend its winning streak.

"I think the fans tonight enjoyed what they saw, and I think that's the main thing I'm trying to get to is where we're a team that the fans want to watch," Yallop said.

The fans could get used to that, too.

Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz