Dax McCarty steals the ball from Seattle’s Nicolas Lodeiro. (Mike DiNovo/USA TODAY Sports)
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — Don’t look now, but the revived Chicago Fire is trailing the Red Bulls by only a point in the Eastern Conference.
The once-lowly Fire (4-4-3, 15 points) moved into sixth place after a 4-1 win over the defending Major League Soccer champions Seattle Sounders at Toyota Park Saturday night.
Nemanja Nikolic recorded a brace while Luis Solignac and David Accam accounted for the Fire’s other two goals. The four-goal output was the first for Chicago since a 5-4 win against the Red Bulls May 10, 2014. The Red Bulls (5-5-1) host the LA Galaxy at Red Bull Arena Sunday at 6 p.m.
“These are big games for the club: national television, sellout crowd, bright lights, night game,” said Fire midfielder Dax McCarty, a former Red Bulls captain who was dealt to Chicago in January. “These are games that players should dream about. These are games that you should thrive in, you should really want to play in these big games.”
Chicago certainly did.
Asked if he thought it was the team’s most complete performance, McCarty replied: “I would actually say that some of our performances during this road trip, specifically the Red Bull game, I thought our performance was mainly a little bit more complete. I think we played a pretty good 90 minutes there and just came out on the wrong end of the result.”
McCarty was referring to a 2-1 defeat at the Red Bulls April 29.
“Tonight, unbelievable second half; the first half, it wasn’t perfect from us,” he added. “I think we created some pretty good chances, but we didn’t have possession. I thought we allowed them to dictate a little bit too much of the game. Once we got the ball back, we gave it away way too easily. We were rushing things, we didn’t have much composure going forward.
“I’d say no, it wasn’t the most complete performance, but I’d say the second half, probably the best half of the season. Really proud of the guys, it would have been easy to come back with our heads down in the locker room after Seattle played well in the first half, but I thought we fought well and got a deserved result.
