Chicago Fire Comeback From 3-1 down, Defeat Philadelphia Union 4-3

The Chicago Fire overcame a 3-1 deficit at Soldier Field for the second time in 2024, scoring three unanswered goals after the 80th minute to defeat the Philadelphia Union 4-3 in an Eastern Conference clash on the lakefront.

The win is the first for Chicago over Philadelphia since June 29, 2022, and puts the Fire ahead of the Union on points 21-20 through 21 MLS matches.

Chicago also snapped a two-match losing streak after they started June with consecutive wins.

There was very little action in the early portion of the match but things began heating up in the 30th minute when Maren Haile-Selassie gave the Fire the early 1-0.

Fabian Herbers made a fabulous run from near midfield to the edge of the Union’s penalty area before playing a perfect pass to Allan Arigoni to his right. Arigoni hit a cross that was deflected right to Maren Haile-Selassie, who tapped in the point-blank shot.

The Fire’s party wouldn’t last and the Union leveled in the 38th minute after a nice run of possession in and around Chicago’s penalty area. Philadelphia recycled the ball around the exterior of Chicago’s 18 until it reached Leon Flach on the left side. The German midfielder hit a shot that deflected off the boot of teammate Chris Donovan and into Chicago’s net, tying the match at one with the hockey-style goal.

Chicago continued to unravel before halftime and went down 2-1 after a mistake from Chris Brady at the edge of the Fire’s penalty area. The Fire’s homegrown goalkeeper didn’t catch the loose ball cleanly and tackled Philadelphia’s Nathan Harriel as he tried to recover and claim the ball. The referee initially saw nothing wrong with the challenge but, after a VAR check, awarded the Union a penalty kick that Dániel Gazdag scored to send Philadelphia into the break with a lead.

Philadelphia continued to pile on after halftime and they even collected their own double doink to take the 3-1 lead.

Jack McGlynn hit a splendid strike in the 49th minute that deflected off of both goalposts and into the Fire’s net, leaving Brady with zero chance of stopping the near-perfect effort from the Philadelphia midfielder.

Chicago thought their comeback began before it did. Chris Mueller, who came on after halftime, appeared to have scored his first goal in over a year in the 54th minute with a lovely left-footed effort. After a lengthy VAR check, referee Abdou Ndiaye deemed that Maren Haile-Selassie was offside in the buildup to Mueller’s goal and the match remained 3-1.

Hugo Cuypers scored his fifth goal in six matches in the 82nd minute to cut Philadelphia’s lead to only one. Maren Haile-Selassie hit a lovely cross from the left side that Chris Mueller directed towards Cuypers in the middle. Chicago’s number nine had no problem heading the ball into the net to give his side a chance at a result.

Chicago tied it up in the 89th minute and it was Gastón Giménez, of all people, who scored with authority.

Rafael Czichos wasn’t able to deflect his header towards goal and the ball ended up floating to Giménez 14 yards from the Union’s net. Chicago’s Designated Played hit a half-volley for the first time with his left boot and unleashed a rocket that ripped off the back of Philadelphia’s net as the scoreline read 3-3 in the dying moments of regular time.

Cuypers scored his ninth goal of the year in second-half stoppage time and it was just what the Fire needed to complete their comeback. Brian Gutiérrez hit a perfect ball over the top of the Union’s defense that Haile-Selassie hit first time with his left boot back across the penalty area. Cuypers calmly passed the ball into Philadelphia’s net, sending the crowd at Soldier Field into a fervor as the home side scored their third goal in less than ten minutes.

Match Observations

After 16 minutes where they hardly had the ball in the attacking half of the pitch, the Fire generated a solid chance in front of Philadelphia’s net in the 17th minute. Kellyn Acosta started it all with a nice pass to find Brian Gutiérrez with space in the middle of the field. Gutiérrez took a couple of dribbles before pushing the ball out wide to Hugo Cuypers on the right, who then played it to Allan Arigoni. The Swiss right back hit a shot that deflected toward the endline before Jonathan Dean kept the ball in and hit a cross back across the penalty area. Arigoni got on the end of Dean’s cross but scuffed his shot wide, wasting a great scoring chance.

The Union had two great chances within moments of one another and Dániel Gazdag was unable to capitalize on either of them. Gazdag had a tap-in goal in the 19th minute that was waved off as he was offside, denying the Union what felt like a deserved goal. The Union had an even better chance in the 21st minute but Chris Brady intervened before Philadelphia could direct a shot on goal. Nathan Harriel hit a lovely cross from the right side that Brady punched away just as Gazdag was sliding in with his challenge, denying another great chance from the Union.

Maren Haile-Selassie needed to do better with his breakaway chance in the 26th minute. Brian Gutiérrez hit a ball that resembled an NFL punt over the top of the Union’s defense that Haile-Selassie collected after a perfectly timed run. The Fire’s Swiss winger had a one-on-one against the Union’s Oliver Semmle but he couldn’t get the ball out of his own feet fast enough to get a proper shot off against the ‘keeper. Chances like that from Haile-Selassie need to be buried.

Fortunately for Haile-Selassie, he made up for his mistake in the 30th minute. Kellyn Acosta found Fabian Herbers in the midfield and the Fire’s captain made a long run before hitting the ball to Allan Arigoni on the right. Arigoni’s cross was deflected by Jack Elliot but Haile-Selassie found the loose ball in front of goal and tapped it in to give his side the 1-0 lead. It was a solid follow-up from Haile-Selassie that secured the goal but it all began with the long run from Herbers. The goal is the fifth of the season for Haile-Selassie and he has now scored in four consecutive matches for Chicago.

Chicago kept the pressure on the Union and had a great chance to double their lead in the 33rd minute. Jonathan Dean hit a lovely cross from the left side that found a wide-open Brian Gutiérrez on the opposite side of the penalty area. Gutiérrez had plenty of time but missed wide of the net with his shot.

Arigoni combined again with Haile-Selassie in the 35th minute and they nearly created another goal. Arigoni’s ball from the right side found the open Haile-Selassie in space but Oliver Semmle was there to deny the effort from Chicago’s number seven.

The Union tied the match with a goal that was more hockey than soccer in nature. The Union recycled the ball around the right side of Chicago’s penalty area before it made its way to Leon Flach on the left. Flach hit a shot that deflected off the foot of Chris Donovan and into the Fire’s net, sending Chris Brady in the other direction as the ball trickled over the goal line. The Union did well in the build up to the goal but the deflection was, frankly, a lucky bounce.

The Union took the lead in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time after the referee awarded a penalty kick to Philadelphia. Chris Brady mishandled a ball at the edge of his penalty area and, as he tried to recover, he took down Philadelphia’s Nathan Harriel before claiming the ball. Referee Abdou Ndiaye spent over two minutes reviewing the challenge before overturning the on-field decision and awarding the penalty to Philadelphia. Dániel Gazdag subsequently scored from the spot on the final action of the fire half, sending his side into halftime with a 2-1 lead.

Philadelphia’s Jack McGlynn put his side up 3-1 with a gorgeous goal that Chris Brady had zero chance of saving in the 49th minute. Dániel Gazdag had the ball in the middle of the pitch before playing the ball to McGlynn on the right side. McGlynn took two dribbles before cutting to his left and hitting a left-footed strike that bounced off each goalpost and into the Fire’s net, doubling the Union’s lead less than five minutes into the second half.

The Fire scored in the 54th minute but the goal, after a VAR check, was waved off and their two-goal deficit remained. Chris Mueller appeared to have scored his first goal since March 25, 2023, after collecting a lovely cross from Allan Arigoni, but it was determined that Maren Haile-Selassie was offside in the buildup to the goal, nullifying the goal.

Chicago should have scored in the 63rd minute but Hugo Cuypers wasn’t able to hit the target after a rebound got away from Oliver Semmle. Maren Haile-Selassie played a nice give-and-go with Brian Gutiérrez before the Swiss winger hit a right-footed shot that Semmle parried away to his left. Chris Mueller collected the loose ball on the right and hit a perfect cross across the penalty area but Hugo Cuypers’ sliding shot rang off the side-netting, bailing out the Union.

Gastón Giménez came off the bench and clearly wanted to boost his transfer value. The Fire’s Designated Player at defensive midfielder stole the ball at the edge of Philadelphia’s penalty area in the 73rd minute and hit a powerful effort that Semmle pushed out for a corner kick at the near post. Chris Mueller had a chance on the follow-up but his right-footed effort completely missed the target and flew out harmlessly for a goal kick.

The Fire gave themselves a lifeline in the final portion of the match when they scored in the 82nd minute to make it 3-2 on the lakefront. Maren Haile-Selassie took the corner that he won short and hit a cross to Chris Mueller on the opposite side of Philadelphia’s penalty. Mueller headed the ball back into the middle of the Union’s box and Hugo Cuypers subsequently headed the ball into the net to halve the Union’s lead with less than ten minutes of regular time remaining. The goal is the eighth for Cuypers since joining the Fire as their club-record signing in the offseason.

Giménez has been the subject of international transfer rumors for a while and he only fanned those flames with his performance against Philadelphia. A cross was played toward Rafael Czichos that was half-cleared right to Giménez in Philadelphia’s penalty area. Giménez took a lovely half-volley with his first touch and hammered the ball into the net, sending the Soldier Field crowd into a frenzy as the match was tied on an absolute banger.

Hugo Cuypers proved why he was so highly sought after in the transfer market as he scored the match-winner in second half stoppage time. Brian Gutiérrez hit a lovely ball over the top of Philadelphia’s defense to Maren Haile-Selassie in the Union’s 18. Haile-Selassie hit a cross first-time with his left boot back across the penalty area, setting Cuypers up for the easy tap-in to give the Fire the 4-3 lead with minutes remaining. The quality from Haile-Selassie on the cross was exceptional but Cuypers remained so calm during his finish despite Oliver Semmle bearing down on him.

Frank Klopas decided to add a little spice to the end of the match and he was sent off after receiving a red card in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time. According to the Pool Report, Klopas was sent off because he “entered the field of play to confront the match official.” The Fire’s head coach had this to say about the red card post-match:

“I'm a very emotional person. You know, there's a lot into the game. I felt I got a little bit, I've learned over the years really not to argue anything. But you can just see, I think for me, the referee with every goal kick, you know, there was 17 to 25 seconds. And for me, it's about speeding up, give a yellow card and push the game. And I was following the play and I stepped on the field, I took one or two steps. I didn't realize, I felt like I was a player running to or tracking back to tackle someone, or get to the ball. And then I told the fourth official, Lukasz [Szpala], I said, ‘I apologize.’ My emotions, it's not like I wanted to run on the field. And I apologized for that. There's nothing I can do but it was nothing, I'm not like that. It's just, I stepped on the field, my emotions got the best out of me. But I'm glad that I was able to celebrate afterwards and pump the crowd up, you know?”

Klopas was exceptionally excited after his side completed their second comeback from 3-1 down of the season, though he knows that isn’t a sustainable practice.

“It's great when it goes your way, but I think the one with Montréal was enough; I don't know how many more we can keep doing this. But you know, the crowd got into it. I felt the first half, look, we created, with the runs behind, two or three really good chances to put the game away. We didn’t do that. And then we came out the second half, we adjusted some things, we fell behind. But then I felt that we made really good moves. We pushed the game. We pushed the game with the changes we made and then we found a way to come back.

“And I think with every goal, there was a lot of momentum. We gained a lot of confidence and energy and I think the crowd got into it, which [was a] huge help and I felt that they dropped. But it was still a very good team and we had to be very focused, but at some point we pushed the game in such a way that we were going to give chances away; that's just normal by the amount of numbers we were committing forward.

But it's a great win for the team. And like I told the guys, I think it was important because I think, forget what's happened in the past. I think with this game before the match, when they went out, I just said we can change everything one game at a time. And at some point, it looked bleak, but never give up on this team, the character is strong.”

Maren Haile-Selassie was encouraged by the resiliency his side showed against Philadelphia.

“I think overall, it was a very tough game for us,” said Haile-Selassie. “Especially the first half. But nonetheless, I think we went 1-0 and then you have to keep the score at least until halftime, which we weren't able to do. So even in the second half, the penalty against us, and then the goal that didn't count. We had a lot of things going against us, but the team showed, once again, great character. The crowd pushed us and at the end, a very important win.”

What’s On Tap Next?

The Fire will be in California to take on the San Jose Earthquakes on July 7. The match is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.

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