Atlanta United fell to Chicago Fire FC 3-0 Saturday night at Soldier Field. Ronald Hernández made his MLS debut while Tyler Wolff and Mikey Ambrose each made their first appearances of the season.
After an evenly played opening half hour, Chicago opened the scoring in the 34th minute on a goal from Ignacio Aliseda. The play started from Fire midfielder Alvaro Medrán, who sliced through midfield before feeding Aliseda near the edge of the top of the box. Mo Adams made a diving effort to block Aliseda’s shot, but he was a fraction late as the ball ricocheted off his right foot and into the back of the net.
Chicago then doubled its lead late in first-half stoppage time. Miguel Navarro intercepted an attempted clearance, with his ball ultimately finding Aliseda again on the edge of the box. The Argentine midfielder then took a couple of touches and unleashed a right-footed shot into the top right corner of the net for a 2-0 lead.
Przemyslaw Frankowski made it 3-0 in the 58th minute. Off a counterattack, Aliseda played Frankowski through the middle of the pitch. Frankowski dribbled into the penalty area and beat Brad Guzan with a shot to the far post.
Atlanta (2-3-6, 12 points) returns to action Thursday to take on Nashville SC at Nissan Stadium (8:30 p.m., Bally Sports Southeast, Sports Radio 92-9 The Game, La Mejor).
MATCH RESOURCES
- Post-match interviews with Gabriel Heinze, Machop Chol, Anton Walkes
- Match Photos
- Full Time Stats
- Quote Sheet
MATCH INFO
Chicago Fire FC 3, Atlanta United 0
Soldier Field
Chicago, Illinois
STATS
Shots: 14-11 Chicago
Shots on Target: 4-2 Chicago
Corner kicks: 7-4 Chicago
Fouls committed: 16-10 Chicago
Offside: 5-1 Atlanta
Possession: 64-36 Atlanta
Passing Accuracy: 86-74 Atlanta
SCORING SUMMARY
CHI – Ignacio Aliseda (Alvaro Medrán) [HIGHLIGHT] 34’
CHI – Ignacio Aliseda (Miguel Navarro) [HIGHLIGHT] 45+6’
CHI – Przemyslaw Frankowski (Ignacio Aliseda) [HIGHLIGHT] 58’
DISCIPLINARY SUMMARY
CHI – Jonathan Bornstein (yellow) 26’
ATL – George Bello (yellow) 27’
CHI – Przemyslaw Frankowski (yellow) 31’
ATL – Tyler Wolff (yellow) 52’
ATL – Anton Walkes (yellow) 69’
ATLANTA UNITED STARTING LINEUP
Brad Guzan ©; George Bello (Ronald Hernandez – 85’), Anton Walkes, Miles Robinson, Brooks Lennon; Mo Adams (Mikey Ambrose – 75’), Tyler Wolff (Jackson Conway – 75’), Ezequiel Barco; Jake Mulraney (Marcelino Moreno – 56’), Erick “Cubo” Torres, Erik Lopez (Machop Chol – 56’).
Substitutes not used: Ben Lundgaard, George Campbell, Alex De John.
CHICAGO FIRE FC STARTING LINEUP
Bobby Shuttleworth; Boris Sekulić, Jonathan Bornstein © (Wyatt Omsberg – 83’), Johan Kappelhof, Miguel Navarro, Mauricio Pineda; Ignacio Aliseda (Elliot Collier – 90’, Alvaro Medrán (Luka Stojanovic – 90’), Przemyslaw Frankowski (Brian Gutierrez – 83’), Fabian Herbers; Robert Berić (Chinoso Offor – 72’).
Substitutes not used: Gabriel Slonina, Jhon Espinoza, Elliot Collier, Javier Casas, Alex Monis.
OFFICIALS
Baldomero Toledo (referee), Eric Boria (assistant), Brian Dunn, (assistant), Luis Arroyo (fourth), Daniel Radford (VAR), Craig Lowry (AVAR).
TEAM NOTES
- Atlanta United had seven players unavailable for selection: Santiago Sosa, Franco Ibarra, Jürgen Damm, Alan Franco, Emerson Hyndman and Matheus Rossetto missed the match due to injury. Josef Martinez (fitness) was also unavailable.
- Alec Kann also missed the match, staying back with ATL UTD 2 to start it’s USL Championship match against Memphis 901 FC Saturday night.
- Tyler Wolff and Mikey Ambrose made their season debuts and Machop Chol made his first appearance since April 17.
- Ronald Hernández made his MLS debut.
- Atlanta United’s Unified team also kicked off its 2021 season today, playing against Chicago Fire’s Unified team. The match, played at CIBC Fire Pitch, ended in a 2-2 draw. See match photos here.
