Chicago Fire kick 2 own goals, lose 3-2 to Orlando City
On a night set up for success, the Chicago Fire finished with an epic failure.
Again.
The Fire allowed expansion club Orlando City to come from behind and steal a victory away Saturday night at Toyota Park. The final score was 3-2, with Orlando City taking advantage of 2 own-goals from Fire defender Adailton and leaving an energetic crowd announced at 20,124 in disbelief.
"Obviously, kind of stunned and shocked at the result," Fire coach Frank Yallop said. "It's pretty similar to last year, to be honest. At 2-1 I thought, OK, they're going to see the game out. But we self-destructed. It was a tough thing to take, to be honest. Tough one."
"It's pretty frustrating," forward/midfielder Harry Shipp added. "It reminds you what happened last year a lot of games."
The Fire (4-7-2, 14 points) sank to ninth place in the Eastern Conference of MLS after its second consecutive loss. The club has given up 3 goals in each of its last two games. Now the team has to figure out how to stop giving up late goals, especially, and start winning games consistently.
"We have to," Yallop said. "We had enough chances tonight to score more goals, but we've conceded now 6 goals in two matches, and at any level, that's not good enough."
The Fire goals were fun to watch, each a result of speed and good technical ability.
Kennedy Igboananike gave the Fire its first lead in the ninth minute off a David Accam assist. After Adailton's first own-goal in the 40th minute, Accam gave the Fire the lead again off a picture perfect pass from Shipp.
But as has happened so often the past two seasons, a collapse came in the game's final minutes. Cyle Larin struck from 24 yards to tie the match in the 82nd minute, and Adailton's second own-goal arrived in the 86th.
"In the end it's going in the net," Yallop said. "It doesn't matter who scores it."
Yallop couldn't recall seeing two own-goals in a game.
"If we concede 3 goals at home, I'm not sure we deserve to win," Yallop said, adding moments later, "at some point we've got to put a line in the sand and say, you know, we've got to be a team that wins games. We've lost 7 matches."
The loss overshadowed the long-awaited return of Mike Magee from hip and knee surgery last fall. He came on in the 83rd minute for rookie Matt Polster.
"Everything felt fine except for the result, obviously, which is all that matters," Magee said.
More challenges lie ahead of the Fire next week. The club travels to New England, the No. 2 team in the East, and will have to play without Accam, left back/midfielder Joevin Jones and Shaun Maloney due to international duty. Maloney also missed Saturday's match.
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