Chicago Fire squeaks by in OT
The Chicago Fire nearly had its crutch kicked out from under it Tuesday night at Toyota Park.
Entering U.S. Open Cup play in the tournament's fourth round, the Fire slipped away with a 1-0 overtime victory against Louisville City FC of third-division USL.
Quincy Amarikwa got the goal in the 116th minute, deflecting a Guly do Prado shot from 3 yards out.
"It wasn't pretty. When you play everybody that's maybe not played a ton of minutes and you put it all together, it doesn't always come out well," Fire coach Frank Yallop said. "What I will say is we kept going. We won the game and we're in the next round."
For a team struggling in first-division Major League Soccer action, another good run in the Open Cup might be the only thing the Fire can hang its hat on. The Fire is ninth in the Eastern Conference of MLS, three spots from a playoff berth nearing the season's midway point. It has lost its last three MLS games.
"Our bleak position, I don't really look at that and say we have to do well in the Open Cup," Yallop said. "We want to do well in both the league and the Cup. We just have to sort our league play out."
The Fire wasn't the only MLS club to struggle Tuesday, but few MLS clubs needed the morale boost of a victory more.
The Fire struggled to generate much of an attack against the lower-division club. Louisville City, led by forward Matt Fondy, a Fire player in 2014, had just as many shots on goal as the Fire did.
Nothing seemed to click for the Fire. Crosses rarely found Fire heads. Shots went high or wide when they came at all. The Fire seemed to lack a sense of urgency or passion throughout.
Adding injury to insult for the Fire, designated player Shaun Maloney, just back from international duty for Scotland, left the game in the first overtime with back spasms, Yallop said. Maloney had entered the game at halftime.
"I challenged them at halftime," Yallop said. "I didn't think our first half was up to standards of a team trying to win a Cup. This is Round 1, but you're trying to win a trophy. I thought we were sleepwalking through it and not really applying ourselves, and I told them that. I think I saw a response, not in our general play but in our desire."
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