Chicago Fire Steal a Win on the Road, Defeat FC Cincinnati 1-0

The Chicago Fire took advantage of an FC Cincinnati side that was without Luciano Acosta and Miles Robinson, defeating their conference rivals 1-0 at TQL Stadium on Wednesday .

Brian Gutiérrez, who came off the bench for only the fourth time in 2024, scored one of the easiest goals of his professional career in the 69th minute after Hugo Cuypers made an amazing run down the left side to secure Chicago’s sixth win of the MLS season.

Chris Brady collected his second consecutive clean sheet after making seven saves, six of which came after halftime.

The Fire were the better team in the first half but required some heroic defending from Gastón Giménez to keep the match level entering halftime.

Yuya Kubo had the ball in Chicago’s penalty area in the 26th minute with time to line up a shot that Giménez blocked to Kipp Keller on his right. Giménez then slid over to block Keller’s effort and subsequently blocked the follow-up shot from Ian Murphy before Pavel Bucha skied the net with his follow-up.

The Fire came out, well, firing in the second half and finally started testing Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano. Maren Haile-Selassie created a great chance right in front of goal in the 46th minute but Allan Arigoni missed the net completely with his effort from close range.

Chicago finally took the lead for good in the 69th minute thanks to an assist from Cincinnati’s Kipp Keller.

Keller hit a dreadful header back toward his own goal that Hugo Cuypers collected before bolting toward Cincinnati’s penalty area. Cuypers looked up and found Brian Gutiérrez, who tapped the ball into the net to give Chicago the 1-0 lead with just over 20 minutes remaining.

Cincinnati was firing until the end but went down to ten men in the 89th minute after Alvas Powell was sent off after receiving his second yellow card.

Match Observations

The Fire didn’t have a lot of the ball in the attacking third early on but managed a nice chance in the sixth minute. Maren Haile-Selassie created space down the right side before playing the ball to Hugo Cuypers in the middle of FC Cincinnati’s penalty area. Cuypers turned and hit a goal-bound shot but Kipp Keller deflected the ball out for a corner, one that the Fire subsequently did nothing with.

Arnaud Souquet, of all people, nearly put the Fire on the board in sensational fashion in the 10th minute. The French defender lined up a shot from 25 yards that was heading into the corner of the net before Roman Celentano dove to his left and parried the ball away from danger. It was a delightful strike from Souquet but the Naperville native did well to deny the long-distance effort.

Chicago should’ve taken the lead in the 14th minute. Hugo Cuypers played a quick ball to Maren Haile-Selassie in Cincinnati’s penalty area and the Swiss winger subsequently played his first touch to Chris Mueller sprinting toward goal. Mueller hit his shot a half-second too late, allowing Ian Murphy to slide in and deny the fabulous goal-scoring opportunity.

Yamil Asad created FC Cincinnati’s first on-target effort in the 19th minute all on his own. Asad had the ball on the left side in Chicago’s penalty area near the end line before cutting to his right to avoid multiple Fire defenders. Asad finally hit a shot but it went right at Chris Brady, who had no problem making the easy save.

Gastón Giménez got the captain’s armband once again for the Fire in Cincinnati and showed why in the 26th minute when he blocked three shots in a 10-second sequence. Yuya Kubo had the ball in the middle of Chicago’s penalty area and hit a goal-bound shot that was blocked by Giménez right to Kipp Keller. Giménez blocked Keller’s shot to Ian Murphy and subsequently blocked his shot before Pavel Bucha skied the net with his effort. Cincinnati would have seriously tested Chris Brady had any of those shots made it through but Giménez did an amazing job of preventing anything dangerous from reaching goal.

Cincinnati outshot the Fire six-five but Chicago had two on-target efforts to only one for the hosts.

The Fire created a fabulous chance within sixty seconds of the restart. Maren Haile-Selassie made a long run with the ball before cutting to his right in Cincinnati’s penalty area and finding Allan Arigoni. The on-loan wingback lined up a left-footed shot but he hit his effort into the upper level at TQL Stadium, nowhere near the goal.

Cincinnati finally tested Chris Brady again in the second half through Luca Orellano multiple times on the right side of Chicago’s penalty area. Sergio Santos played the ball to Orellano in the 54th minute but the attacker’s shot was saved with relative ease by Brady. Orellano made another run down the right side and beat Jonathan Dean before hitting a shot that required a kick save from Brady to keep the match scoreless.

Hugo Cuypers hit a great on-target effort in the 57th minute but Roman Celentano made the save, allowing Cincinnati to create an attack of their own. Yamil Asad ended up with the ball on the left side and he cut to his right before hitting a shot that Chris Brady had to dive to his left to save.

Arnaud Souquet had one of his better performances in a Fire shirt in Cincinnati and created the turnover that nearly generated a Fire goal in the 65th minute. Souquet intercepted a pass in the midfield and immediately played the ball to Gastón Giménez near Cincinnati’s penalty area. Giménez was looking for Hugo Cuypers but Chicago’s No. 9 let the ball go through to Tom Barlow. Unfortunately for the Fire, Barlow hit his shot right at Roman Celentano for an easy save.

Luca Orellano forced Chris Brady into another sprawling save in the 66th minute. There was chaos in front of Chicago’s goal and the ball bounced around before falling back to Orellano on the right side of the penalty area. Orellano’s shot was heading for the back of the net before Brady came up and made the big save.

Chicago took the lead in the 69th minute thanks to a massive hustle-play from Hugo Cuypers. The Fire’s club-record signing collected the loose ball near midfield after a dreadful turnover by Cincinnati’s Kipp Keller in his own half of the pitch. Cuypers brought the ball all the way to the end line before hitting a cross to a wide-open Brian Gutiérrez on the right, who had no problem tapping in the goal to make it 1-0 at TQL Stadium.

Sergio Santos wasted a golden opportunity to tie the match in the 79th minute and it was Luca Orellano who set it all up. Orellano played a gorgeous ball from the right side that found Santos in stride but he couldn’t hit the target with his open effort.

Alvas Powell doomed FC Cincinnati in the 88th minute. The defender shoved Arnaud Souquet into the advertising boards along the end line and subsequently hit Wyatt Omsberg in the face, making it easy for referee Filip Dujic to assess a second yellow card to Powell and leaving Cincinnati with ten men for stoppage time.

Aaron Boupendza put Chris Brady to work in the first minute of second-half stoppage time. Boupendza had the ball in space in Chicago’s penalty area and hit a shot that was heading into the goal before Brady leaped and parried the shot out of play.

To add insult to injury, FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan was sent off after receiving his second yellow card in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time.

Fabian Herbers made his 100th start for the Fire in Cincinnati but was removed at halftime after receiving a yellow card in the first half.

Reaction

Frank Klopas was thrilled to see his side come out and play with such desire against Cincinnati.

“I think it's just the way we came out and played,” said Klopas. “They played in a 5-2-3 and we wanted to match. You could see we played with a front three with Chris and Maren starting really narrow, pressing from inside out and trying to create a strong side.

“They tried different things, and at moments we had to step up and be aggressive in between the pockets with the center backs. We had to be in 1v1 situations, and if you need to be aggressive, there are moments you have to be like that. We won our duels, and everything starts from there.

“So hats off to the guys. I think they executed the game plan really well, and look, we had really good effort from everyone. You guys saw the performance. I think when you come on the road and you get a result like this, it's a great team effort. Certain guys are playing really well at the moment, but I still feel that everyone can give more. There's a lot more potential with the group, and that's why game Saturday is so massive for us before this break. Because we are so close with getting guys back healthy with (Andrew) Gutman and Carlos (Terán) and Fede (Federico Navarro), that we can have this break and with the Leagues Cup and get those guys minutes and get sharp, and hopefully we go very deep so they can get games and get ready for the final push in the League.”

Wyatt Omsberg thinks the result is massive for this team.

“We knew it wasn't going to be easy,” Omsberg said post-match.” It's a good team. I'm sure they are missing a couple players but we are, too. So I think we knew it was going to take a full commitment from everybody, at times not going to be super pretty.

“I think at times we were not great with the ball, but good teams find ways to win games like this – a midweek game, away from home, a good team – so it’s a huge statement win from us. And the commitment to defending was for all 90 minutes, especially late in the game, just doing whatever it takes to win the game. So it's a big boost for us.”

What’s On Tap Next?

The Fire will be in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday to face Inter Miami at Chase Stadium. The match is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 PM CT and will air on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.

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