CHICAGO (May 27, 2022) – Chicago Fire FC II earned its first road win of the season, defeating Toronto FC 6-2 at York Lions Stadium on Friday night. Lightning in the area just three minutes into the match caused the game to be delayed more than an hour, but the Fire came back strong after the restart, with forward Josh Penn scoring a first-half hat-trick.
Chicago opened the scoring in the 13th minute when Penn connected on a pass from Charlie Ostrem for his first goal of the season. Penn added a second goal in the 21st minute. Defender Andre Reynolds III stepped up to play the ball back into the mix after a corner kick was cleared out by Toronto, and the ball fell to Penn in the middle of the box. Penn read the play well, hitting it toward the back of the net with one touch.
Penn returned the favor to Glasgow in the 55th minute, taking the ball up the left side and sending a perfectly weighted pass into the box. Glasgow ran onto it, deftly turning to shake off his defenders and sending the ball past Toronto FC goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh for his second goal of the season. Toronto responded with a dangerous chance one minute later, but the shot was cleared off the line by captain Carlo Ritaccio.
Just three minutes after entering the match, Erik Kocs-Washburn connected with Richard Fleming III to make it 5-0 in the 68th minute. Four minutes later, Matteo Kidd would send in a corner kick that Missael Rodríguez sent past Ranjitsingh to make it 6-0.
Toronto would get on the board via Hugo Mbongue in the 87th minute, followed by a second Toronto goal from Themi Antonoglou in the 90+1st minute. In between goals, in the 89th minute, Chicago was reduced to 10 men after Kendall Burks was sent off for a foul just outside the box.
Chicago Fire II goalkeeper Aaron Katsimpalis made his MLS NEXT Pro debut, registering four saves.
NEXT GAME: Chicago Fire FC II will return to SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois next week on Saturday, June 4th to face Columbus Crew II. All MLS NEXT Pro regular season matches will also be streamed live on mlsnextpro.com.
Social: Twitter - @ChicagoFireNext (Hashtags: #ChicagoFireII) | Instagram - @chicagofirenext | Facebook
Box Score:
Chicago Fire FC II 6-2 Toronto FC II
Goals:
CHI - Penn (1) (Ostrem) 13’
CHI - Penn (2) 21’
CHI - Penn (3) (Glasgow) 34’
CHI - Glasgow (2) (Penn) 55’
CHI - Kocs-Washburn (1) 69’
CHI - M. Rodríguez (1) 72’
TOR - Mbongue 87’
TOR - Antonoglou 90+1’
Discipline:
TOR - Coello Camarero (Yellow Card) 37’
CHI - Kidd (Yellow Card) 48’
CHI - Ostrem (Yellow Card) 64’
CHI - Burks (Red Card) 89’
Chicago Fire FC: GK Katsimpalis, D Reynolds II, D Ritaccio, D Quintos (Burks, 75’), D Ostrem, M Oregel Jr., M Fleming III, M Kidd (A. Rodríguez, 75’), F Glasgow (M Monis, 65’), F V. Bezerra (M Kocs-Washburn, 65’), F Penn (F M. Rodríguez, 65’)
Subs not used: D Alvarado, D Baumgartner,
Toronto FC II: GK Ranjitsingh, D Antonoglou, D Curic, D Franklin, D Pearlman, M Yeates ((Cimermancic, 73’), M Coello Camarero, M Essoussi (Greenidge-Duncan, 46’), F Diaz (Karajovanovic, 65’), F Mbongue, F Altobelli (Goulbourne, 73’)
Subs not used: GK Gavran, D Mawoko, D Medeiros, M Accettola, F Walkes
Stats Summary: CHI / TOR
Shots: 18 / 13
Shots on Goal: 9 / 7
Passing Accuracy: 80.3% / 77.7%
Saves: 5 / 3
Corners: 3 / 4
Fouls: 1 /1
Offsides: 1 / 6
Possession: 56.1% / 43.9%
Referee: Renzo Villanueva
Assistant Referee 1: Travis Maclsaac
Assistant Referee 2: Twayne Anderson
Fourth official: Filip Dujic
Chicago Fire FC II Head Coach Ludovic Taillandier
On what he told the team during the rain delay and at halftime…
“We played just three minutes before the rain delay, then pretty much we reprepared them for a new game. That was it. We watched the video of the first three minutes with the players, so it gave us something to do. But no, nothing different than what we told them before the game. We just repeated that we want them to start strong. And we made sure, we tried to make sure, that they will restart strong because we know after a break like this, it's never easy to go back at it. I guess they reentered the field with the right mentality.”
On the team’s mentality during the week, coming back strong from a tough loss last week to a strong game against Toronto…
“Look, the mentality was good. We tried to speak with them as straight as possible and to watch the video of the last game. We wanted to stay positive but at the same time it was not a good one last week. It was important for the players to look at themselves and for us, also, as a staff to try to analyze what we did wrong because we didn't exist last week, for sure. And the most important was not to lose, that’s what we told the players, but the most important is the way we will rebound from the loss. I guess they had the right mentality today.”
On how he will keep the players focused as the team returns to Chicago next weekend…
“Today would have been a perfect night if we had ended the game with six-zero. That would have been better than conceding two late in the game. That's not the end we wanted but, at the same time, it's something that they need to keep working on. The subs coming in did well, in general. Again, that was not the end we hoped for, but it was still a good game and offensively, defensively, I would say before the last 15 minutes, it was pretty good on both sides of the ball. We wanted the team to push this backline a little higher and to try to play and be open up top as much as possible. It was not always possible, but we were able to resist. And that was a good game, defensively, if we, unfortunately, take out the last 15 minutes where we are not as sharp as we were during the first 75."
Chicago Fire FC II Midfielder Josh Penn
On scoring a hat-trick in the first half of today’s match…
“Yeah I think it showed what our team’s been working towards this entire season so far. We played a very aggressive style and when it works, we can score a lot of goals. And luckily, everyone was in tune today. They were able to find me a couple times and I was able to finish it. So it was a really great feeling. Great feeling to get a win as well.”
On what today’s game does to the confidence of the team moving forward…
“I think it’s really good for our confidence. Obviously, we’ve been inconsistent with scoring. We started the season not being able to score for a couple games and we’ve had performances on and off with finishing. So being able to finish this many opportunities in a game is a lot to build off of.”
Chicago Fire FC II Forward Erik Kocs-Washburn
On scoring his first goal for the club…
“It felt really good, it’s been a long time coming. I’m overall just happy about the team's performance, to be honest. It was nice to get my first goal.
On what the game plan and preparation heading into TFC II and executing the plan…
“Going off our last game in New York City, it was pretty bad overall. We definitely wanted to work on our press and take better control of the game and the ball, and I think we were able to do pretty well.”
