Fire give up too many goals early, lose season opener
The general manager, coaching staff and a majority of the players are new, but the Chicago Fire earned the same old result in Sunday's season opener at Toyota Park.
Proving change won't come easy, the Fire struggled throughout Sunday's match and lost 4-3 to New York City FC in front of 17,768 fans. The Fire was the worst team in MLS in 2015 with an 8-20-6 record.
The revamped defense, with newly signed goalkeeper Matt Lampson starting in place of the benched Sean Johnson, looked disorganized and uncertain. The attacking players created good scoring chances but failed to capitalize. NYCFC led 3-1 by halftime.
"I think he did his best," Fire coach Veljko Paunovic said of Lampson, giving no indication he might turn back to Johnson, the starter since the Fire drafted him in 2010. "I think he worked for the team. He tried to develop the plan that we prepared. We're happy with him."
Thomas McNamara got NYCFC off to a good start by curling a shot around Lampson in the 10th minute. Razvan Cocis evened the match in the 19th off an Arturo Alvarez assist. But Tony Taylor and Khiry Shelton put the visitors ahead to stay with goals in the 29th and 36th minutes.
Lampson, to his credit, didn't shy from the media after a rough Chicago debut.
"I don't think it was my best game," Lampson said. "Definitely the first half was not good. That third goal is on me, and it's something I just need to learn from and get better."
Fire midfielder David Accam had a penalty kick goal and an assist, to Kennedy Igboananike, both in the second half.
"It's tough to learn from a loss, because obviously you want to learn from a win, but the pieces are there," Lampson said. "We had an opportunity to score a lot of goals today. I think that's good going forward.
"I think it's going to take time for us to jell. I thought the second half was a lot better. Going with the wind made it a lot easier to play out of the back. It's a work in progress. First game of the season, we've just got to move on to the next one and have a good week of training and learn from all of our mistakes. And I think we will."
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