The start couldn’t have been much worse Saturday night for the Chicago Fire.
Three first-half goals by the Philadelphia Union, two by Tai Baribo, and a missed Fire penalty led the Union to a 3-0 win, the top seed in the Eastern Conference winning the best-of-3 first-round series in two games.
The Union now await the winner between No. 4 New York City FC and No. 5 Charlotte. Charlotte survived in penalty kicks Saturday to push the series to a clinching Game 3. With the international break, the Union are off until Nov. 22 or 23.
The win is just the second road playoff win in club history, joining Game 2 of the 2023 best-of-3 series in New England. The Union are 2-5-1 all-time in road playoff games. They won’t have to leave Subaru Park the rest of the postseason.
Saturday’s game was over pretty quick, arguably as soon as Fire goalie Chris Brady was ruled out with an injury suffered in training this week and Jeffrey Gal had to step in.
Baribo picked a ball off of Gal’s foot at the top of the box in the 8th minute and rolled it into the open cage to get things going.
He doubled the advantage in the 16th by nodding home the second ball off a corner from Kai Wagner, Baribo beating old mate Jack Elliott to the spot. Baribo is just the second Union player with a multi-goal playoff game, joining Elliott in the MLS Cup final in 2022.
It was 3-0 in the 31st minute when Milan Iloski pressured Gal in possession and deflected a pass straight to Bruno Damiani, who one-timed a volley into the open cage.
That was more or less that, with a few wrinkles.
In the 29th, for instance, Elliott — ever the protagonist after the game-tying goal and a missed penalty in Game 1 — was tugged down in the box by Jovan Lukic. Brian Gutierrez stepped to the spot and put forth a flaccid effort that Andre Blake corralled.
For Blake, who stopped a PK in the Game 1 shootout, it’s his first stop of a penalty in the run of play since the start of the 2023 Leagues Cup and the first against an MLS opponent since July 3, 2022.
Three minutes later, Damiani delivered the backbreaker.
Gutierrez had the ball in the back of the net in the 51st when he charged down a Blake goal kick, but it went off his arm and referee Jon Freemon immediately waved it off.
In addition to the Brady change, the Fire shifted from a back three that handled the Union for 60-plus minutes in Leg 1 to a back four.
Midfielder Romingue Kouame went off injured in the 26th. That’s in addition to the venue shifting from their usual home of Soldier Field to SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, which they had vacated as a full-time tenant in 2019 and have played only five games at this year. Soldier Field was booked for an international rugby match.
The second half continued with little incident on the field, though it was delayed twice due to homophobic chants from Fire fans, requiring coach Gregg Berhalter and players to beseech the supporters section to stop.
Source: Berkshire mont