The Chicago Fire’s winless run continued Saturday when Patryk Klimala’s two late goals rallied the New York Red Bulls to a 2-1 victory at Soldier Field.
The Fire (2-3-4, 10 points) are winless in their last five Major League Soccer matches — and six overall when counting their quick exit from the U.S. Open Cup.
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Meanwhile, the Red Bulls (5-2-2, 17 points) became just the second club in MLS history to open a season with five straight road wins. The LA Galaxy opened the season with five straight road wins in 1996 and 1998.
Xherdan Shaqiri gave the Fire the lead — and ended their 385-minute goal drought — in the 17th minute when he nailed a penalty kick after Ashley Fletcher was called for a handball in the box.
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Klimala netted the game-winner on a penalty of his own in the first minute of second-half stoppage time after scoring the equalizer in the 75th minute.
“A lot of the goals that we’ve given up have been set pieces, tonight we gave up a PK goal,” Fire coach Ezra Hendrickson told reporters after the game. “So for us, it doesn’t matter how we get the goals, we just know that we need to get more goals.”
The match was delayed for 80 minutes because of heavy rain and lightning, and the Fire went down to nine players in the second half after forward Jhon Durán and defender Rafael Czichos each picked up second yellow cards.
“It was not a normal day, right?” Fire defender Jonathan Bornstein told reporters. “Yes, it was difficult to make that pause for the weather, the rain and the lightning, but we stayed focused and I think we still came out of the pause really well.
“Of course, playing with nine men on the field is difficult. I applaud my teammates. Nobody put their arms down and everyone gave their all to the very end.”
Carlos Coronel had two saves for the Red Bulls. Gabriel Slonina saved two for the Fire.
Associated Press contributed.
