Fire give another strong performance at home

It's doesn't take advanced mathematics to be able to put into numbers how good the Chicago Fire has been at Toyota Park this season. Saturday, the Fire defeated Atlanta United 2-0 before a crowd of 18,453 and improved their record at home to 7-0-2.

That means the Fire have as many wins at their Bridgeview bastion as they managed all season last year, and more overall than they had in 2016. Overall, Chicago is 8-4-3, has 28 points and remains in second place in the Eastern Conference.

"It wasn't a great game, the game that we're used to playing," Fire coach Veljko Paunovic said. "It was a game to win three points. We were a mature team and you could see the character we have been looking for for a long time."

The victory, through goals by Luis Solignac and a Nemanja Nikolic penalty kick, provided redemption for the team's heaviest defeat of the season, a 4-0 drubbing in Atlanta (5-3-6, 18 points) on March 18.

"When you play at home, you want to feel that you're playing in your fortress," Paunovic said.

The loss at Bobby Dodd Stadium was the last this season before Bastian Schweinsteiger arrived, and the German star performed in a number of roles in Saturday's victory.

For the first two-thirds of the match, he played in such a deep-lying midfield role that he could have been mistaken for a sweeper, helping to stifle Atlanta's potent attack. From the midpoint of the second half, he moved further forward to help ignite the team's offense.

"It was not easy against a good opponent," Schweinsteiger said. "They have structure and know how to play soccer. We are very pleased with the three points."

The Fire was without defender Dax McCarty, who is playing with the national team and Matt Polster moved from midfield to defense to take his spot while Juninho started in the midfield.

"I think (Paunovic) believes that we're very versatile in the kind of formations that we can play. Today we played something a little different and then we switched it during the game. Versatility as a team can keep the other teams on their toes and help you be unpredictable," Polster said.

Atlanta's Paraguayan star Miguel Almiron was on the bench after playing for his country on Thursday, but did not play for the visitors (5-3-6, 18 points.)

"We had issues with playing four in the back, so we had (Schweinsteiger) dropping back deep so our fullbacks could go wide. That helped us a lot and we scored a goal after that," Paunovic said.

In the 29th minute, Schweinsteiger broke Atlanta's offside trap with a long pass forward. David Accam took that pass, dribbled into the penalty area, seemed to have lost his chance, but then found Solignac free 6 yards from goal for a one-time, right-footed shot that gave the hosts a 1-0 halftime lead.

In the 70th minute Schweinsteiger passed to Nikolic, who sent Polster free on the right wing. Polster's shot was saved, but on the ensuing corner kick, Atlanta's Tyrone Mears handled the ball and Nikolic converted the resulting penalty kick to conclude the afternoon's scoring.