The Chicago Fire are at the point in the season where they need to go on a sustained run.
Coming off a humbling setback, Chicago will attempt to get moving in the right direction when it hosts New York City FC on Saturday night.
The Fire (5-11-6, 21 points) are in a tie for 13th in the Eastern Conference after falling 1-0 at San Jose, the team with the worst record in the league. It marked Chicago’s third loss in the past four matches.
“It was a missed opportunity for us to go pick up points,” Fire coach Frank Klopas said Thursday. “Probably not a game that we came out with the highest level of intensity.”
The Earthquakes scored the match’s lone goal four minutes into the second half and Chicago couldn’t land an equalizer.
The slump comes after the Fire put together a four-match unbeaten stretch (2-0-2).
“We’ve got to sharpen up our ability to take control of games,” Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady said. “We didn’t do that and we got punished. When games are going to be difficult ones, we have to make our chances count and hold it down as a unit.”
New York City FC (11-9-2, 35 points) are in fifth place in the East but have struggled lately with four setbacks in their past six matches.
NYCFC took an early lead in their last match on a fifth-minute goal by Andres Perea before succumbing 2-1 to host Austin FC.
“We created many chances, but we just fell on the wrong side of the result, but ultimately, that is the most important thing, the result,” NYCFC coach Nick Cushing said Thursday. “We have to take the positives out of the performance and we have to improve in the areas where we don’t get the result and ultimately that is executing in the final third.
“We missed chances that we created and we gave two moments that in this league you will be punished for.”
Alonso Martinez and Santiago Rodriguez lead NYCFC with eight goals apiece. Hugo Cuypers leads the Fire with nine.
NYCFC is 11-3-6 all-time against Chicago.
–Field Level Media