The Chicago Fire had hopes of distancing themselves further from New York City FC and keeping the pressure on Supporters' Shield leaders Toronto FC Saturday afternoon, but saw their 11-game unbeaten streak (8-0-3) end with a 2-1 road defeat to NYCFC. Below is a look at the postgame notes from the match:
- Chicago's just-completed unbeaten streak (11) landed them level with the club record for a single season, achieved two times prior to 2017:
- 5/16/1998-7/4/1998
- 3/21/2009-5/24/2009
- The Fire record for longest MLS regular season unbeaten streak is 12, spanning the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
- Chicago fell to 1-3-2 all-time against the third-year MLS club based in the Bronx. The Fire's lone win over NYCFC came in their first-ever meeting, a 1-0 win at Toyota Park on April 24, 2015.
- In addition to taking their first loss since April 29 (also a 2-1 scoreline in the New York metropolitan area, a defeat to the New York Red Bulls), the Fire saw their string of five unbeaten road matches come to an end. New York City FC, meanwhile, extended their home unbeaten streak to seven games.
- David Accam entered the game as a halftime substitute and scored Chicago's lone goal in the 54th minute, beating former teammate Sean Johnson in net with his effort from well outside the 18-yard box.
- It was a milestone goal for Accam, who now has 30 career MLS goals in 66 games played (57 starts). Accam stands just two goals behind Josh Wolff (1998-2002) for third place on the club's career MLS goal-scoring list.
- In all competitions, Accam now has 35 goals, moving him ahead of Dema Kovalenko (1999-2002) for sole possession of fourth place on the club's all-time list.
- Accam has now scored in each of the last two games in which came in off the bench. In addition to Saturday, Accam also turned the trick at Toronto FC on April 21, his most recent reserve appearance.
- NYCFC was reduced to 10 men in the 12th minute of the game when Yangel Herrera was shown his second yellow card for a challenge on Bastian Schweinsteiger. It was the sixth time in 20 MLS matches that a Fire opponent was unable to finish a game with 11 men on the field, and the third time a Fire foe was issue an ejection before halftime.
- Schweinsteiger was playing for the first time since July 1 against Vancouver, when he left the game in the first half with a hip injury. After missing the July 5 road match at Portland, Schweinsteiger went the full 90 minutes in his return on Saturday.
- Left back Brandon Vincentmissed his first competitive minutes of 2017 (MLS or U.S. Open Cup) as a late scratch from the starting lineup due to a quad strain suffered during warm-ups. He was replaced by Michael Harrington, who played his first MLS minutes since April 29 and went the full 90 minutes.
- 18-year-old Homegrown midfielder Djordje Mihailovic played the longest shift of his MLS career, entering in the 54th minute for his seventh appearance of 2017.
- NYCFC's David Villa (14) inched closer to Chicago's Nemanja Nikolic (16) in the Golden Boot race, scoring for the third time in five career games against the Fire.
- Up a man for nearly 80 minutes of the match, the Fire came away with a 65%-35% edge in possession for the game.
- Former Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson turned in a seven-save performance to help preserve three points for his new club, while Matt Lampson turned in four for the Men In Red.
- The Fire remain on the road for a third consecutive game when they travel to Sporting KC next Saturday (July 29). Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Children's Mercy Park.
