Moments after the visiting New England Revolution broke a scoreless contest, the Chicago Fire’s Alex Monis recorded his first MLS goal in extra time, as both teams ended disappointing regular seasons with a 1-1 tie Sunday at Bridgeview, Ill.
New England (10-12-12, 42 points) looked as if it was headed to victory when Dylan Borrero delivered a stellar right-footed strike across the penalty area into the far-left corner of the net in the 88th minute.
Just four minutes later, the 19-year-old Monis came through when Revolution keeper Djordje Petrovic (four saves) couldn’t handle a long throw-in by Carlos Teran, and his teammates failed to clear the box. Monis pounced on the loose ball to finish off the close-range strike.
Homegrown 18-year-old Chris Brady also recorded four saves in his MLS debut for Chicago (10-15-9, 39 points).
Brady proved his worth in the 52nd minute, when he punched away Gustavo Bou’s drive from just inside the box to keep the match scoreless. Some eight minutes later, Brady was able to get his boot on the ball to thwart another Bou strike.
Meanwhile, Petrovic made a sharp point-blank stop on Chicago’s Xherdan Shaqiri in the 66th minute. Roughly five minutes later, Petrovic came through when he secured a diving save on Chris Mueller’s side-winding attempt.
New England nearly struck within the first minute of the contest. Off a Chicago turnover, Giacomo Vrioni missed over the bar while shooting on an open net.
Chicago’s best early chance came through a Shaqiri chance in the 14th minute. In the 21st minute, the Revolution came out of a scrum in front of their net unscathed. A minute later, Petrovic dove to push away a Jhon Duran strike.
A header by the Fire’s Kendall Burks off a perfectly struck free kick from Shaqiri, went well over the crossbar on 35 minutes. When the first half concluded, Chicago held a 7-4 advantage on shots with each team recording one on target.
New England became the eighth team in league history to miss the playoffs the year after winning the Supporters’ Shield. The Revs did improve their unbeaten run over the Fire to eight games (3-0-5).
–Field Level Media
