BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – With scenes both Frank Yallop and Harry Shipp said were reminiscent of last season, it’s clear that this latest defeat for the Chicago Fire hurt deeper than most.
The Fire looked to be heading towards their fifth win of the season following goals in either half from Kennedy Igboananike and David Accam, but a late rally from Orlando City saw the visitors emerge 3-2 victors on the back of two Adailton own goals and a Cyle Larin wonder strike. The loss consigned Yallop’s men (4-7-2, 14 points) to their seventh defeat in 13 games.
“I’m kind of stunned and shocked with the result, it felt pretty similar to last year to be honest,” head coach Yallop told reporters at the post-match press conference. “At 2-1 I thought we were going to go on and see the game out and we self-destructed and it was a tough thing to take.”
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The Fire rarely looked like a playoff team last season as they stumbleed from draw to draw with a record-setting 18 ties in regular-season play. Still, they only lost ten games all season; a figure they are fast approaching with only a third of the season gone.
“I think we’ve got some exciting players, we’re still growing, but at some point we’ve got to put a line in the sand and say we’ve got to be a team that wins games,” Yallop insisted. “We’ve lost seven matches, I don’t know how many we lost last year, but it’s getting close to that and we weren’t very good last year.”
Shipp, who laid on the second goal for Accam with the kind of precision pass that is becoming his trademark, also spoke of last year’s frustrations when summing up his side’s latest reversal. He was also one of very few players left in a dejected and subdued locker room where it was obvious the players were reeling from this latest setback.
“It’s pretty frustrating, it reminds you of what happened last year in a lot of games,” Shipp said. “We came out second half and thought we played pretty well and got the goal and stopped playing. You look at a team like Barcelona, no matter what the score is they’re going to continue playing the same way, they have that identity and for us there’s so much fluctuation between playing long and keeping the ball and I think any time you’re switching it up in the course of a game it’s probably not going to go well for you.”
Despite the Fire appearing to be quite comfortable until their late collapse, Orlando actually finished the game with 63.1 percent possession; the most enjoyed by a visiting team at Toyota Park in some time. Chicago did manage to create more chances, outshooting the Lions 19-11.
The only statistic that truly counts is the score at the final whistle, and once again Yallop lamented his side’s inability to put a full 90-minute performance together.
“It’s a weird thing where we’ve got a pretty exciting team going forward but we’re not a team that can see games out or win them like you should win games,” he conceded. “At 2-1 we should have won the game. The goal by Larin was a great finish, so maybe you can accept that with a terrific finish, but to go and lose the match after that and give a Conference opponent three points, and we get none, is not good.”
Shane Murray covers the Chicago Fire for MLSsoccer.com.
