Chicago Fire extend undefeated streak to 9
If attending Chicago Fire games the past seven seasons felt like going to a funeral, the first half of 2017 has been like a full-on frat party.
The Fire kept the party going Saturday night at sold-out Toyota Park, blasting Orlando City SC 4-0. The second-place Fire (10-3-4, 34 points) remains undefeated at Toyota Park this season, and its overall undefeated streak is at nine MLS games.
"I think everybody was enjoying," forward/midfielder Michael de Leeuw said of the 20,000 fans. "We also on the field were enjoying. It was a win-win today."
Seventeen games into the 34-game season - and with the All-Star Game coming to Soldier Field on Aug. 2 - the Fire is the toast of MLS. It's a startling turnaround considering how long the club had been roasted by its league foes, including two straight last-place seasons in 2015 and 2016. The Fire hasn't joined in the MLS playoff fun since 2012 and hasn't celebrated a playoff win since 2009.
"This team in the past hasn't been good, hasn't made the playoffs," midfielder Dax McCarty added, "but the best part about this year is that we have a lot of guys who weren't here and really don't care about last year or five years ago. It's totally out of our minds. We have a lot of winners here and we have a lot of guys who are hungry for more wins and more success."
The partyer-in-chief Saturday was speedy forward David Accam. Accam scored a hat trick - including 2 goals in the game's first eight minutes - and added an assist on league scoring leader Nemanja Nikolic's 14th of the season. Accam has 10 goals and 6 assists.
Just don't think for a minute the Fire is satisfied. The party took a break when the game ended, the focus on the next game and the second half of the season.
"Of course you celebrate a win," de Leeuw said. "You're happy that you won. But the season is still long. We have nothing. We only have a win today."
Hard to believe, but the Fire has two double-digit scorers at the midpoint of the season. No wonder there's a bash going on at Toyota Park.
And this might be only the beginning.
"This club has a proud history," McCarty added. "It has a rich history of winning championships, and that's something that the Fire needs to get back. ... The mentality in preseason was we can be a good team, we can be a better team. There was only one way to go from and that was up in terms of how bad they were last year. But the mentality is certainly now, OK, let's not just make the playoffs. That's not good enough. Sure we want to make the playoffs, but we want to win the (U.S.) Open Cup. We want to win the MLS Cup and we want to compete for the Supporters Shield.
"Now is that realistic to compete for all three? Why not? Why not us?"