Victory remains elusive
Four matches into a 34-game season might be a small sample size, but the Fire’s sluggish start to the 2021 Major League Soccer season could be a cause for concern.
The Fire lost 2-0 to the Philadelphia Union on Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field, continuing a winless streak that sits at 10 dating to last season.
Cory Burke scored in the 51st minute and Jakob Glesnes doubled the Union’s lead nine minutes later, ensuring the Fire’s 0-3-1 start with just one point of a possible 12.
A smattering of boos was audible at the final whistle.
“Nobody steps on the field and tries to lose,” Fire captain Francisco Calvo said. “We don’t want to lose. We just want to give everything to the fans.”
Coach Raphael Wicky made a handful of changes to the starting lineup, dropping midfielder Álvaro Medrán to the bench for the first time in his tenure and inserting Wyatt Omsberg at center back.
Mauricio Pineda, who started in last week’s 2-0 loss at the New York Red Bulls, also was benched. Medrán and Pineda were second-half subs.
But those switches didn’t spark the type of change needed by the Fire, who at times were overrun in midfield and down their left side Saturday.
“Those were tactical changes,” Wicky said of tweaking his lineup. “(W)e have a pretty competitive roster when everyone’s back. Everyone will be back hopefully soon besides Stanislav Ivanov, who is out for longer. But after that, this is the norm.
That’s the only way a team can get better: if you have this competition and have possibilities to change players, to rotate players.
“These were tactical changes. No other reason, that’s it. And I think that’s the norm in every football team. You don’t play every time with the same 11 guys.”
The Fire, who have lost three straight, are 0-12-4 under Wicky when conceding the game’s first goal. They have been outscored 9-1 since taking an early 2-0 lead in the season opener against the New England Revolution.
“I can’t give you right now an answer to that,” Wicky said when asked what’s behind the trend. “It’s true that we struggled after the New England (start) to actually lead and put our chances away and be in front.
“At one point it’s a little bit of a mental thing, probably, if it’s in your head. But we just have to put this out. You start every game 0-0, you have the same chances, the same possibilities. We just have to go in there and believe that we are the team who could lead.”
The Union (1-2-1, 4 points), coached by former Fire player Jim Curtin, picked up their first victory after winning the Supporters’ Shield last year for having the best regular-season record.
“It’s a tough loss, a frustrating loss,” Wicky said. “We’ve got to clean things up.
“We need to look at what we need to change because we probably need to change things. Not everything, but (we) probably need to change certain things.”
The Fire next play Thursday night when they travel to D.C. United, which also lost Saturday, 3-1 to the Columbus Crew.