Brian Gutierrez scored the tiebreaking goal in the 87th minute, and the Chicago Fire rallied for a 3-2 home victory over St. Louis City on Saturday night in Bridgeview, Ill.
Some 20 minutes after All-Star Philip Zinckernagel’s goal tied the match at 2-2, Gutierrez got the ball at the top of the St. Louis box, found an opening and bent a grounder around the visitors’ back line and by late-reacting goalkeeper Roman Burki for the eventual winner.
Hugo Cuypers scored his team-leading 15th goal for Chicago (11-9-6, 39 points), which improved to 3-0-2 over the last month and remained in playoff position within the Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile, the loss was particularly devastating for St. Louis (5-15-6, 21 points), which overcame a 1-0 hole with second-half goals from Tomas Ostrak and Marcel Hartel to lead 2-1 at the hour mark. After stunning Nashville SC on Aug. 9, St. Louis (now 1-10-2 on the road) was looking to win back-to-back matches for just the second time on its disappointing 2025 campaign.
Though St. Louis was the aggressor early, Chicago struck 16 minutes into the match. On the push, and off a brilliant cross from Andrew Gutman, a streaking Cuypers converted into the bottom right corner.
Moments later, St. Louis finally registered a shot on target, but Joao Klauss’ right-footed grounder was easily grabbed by Fire keeper Chris Brady.
However, the early portion of the second half belonged to St. Louis.
Just two minutes out of the break, Ostrak possessed amid a pinball scenario within the Chicago box, composed himself and found the top left corner of the net to level the contest. Then 12 minutes later, Hartel’s athletic strike amid more box congestion gave the visitors a 2-1 lead.
However, the Fire regained their fight and equalized in the 67th minute. Five minutes after Gutierrez went over the bar off an open, up-close look, Zinckernagel weaved his way through traffic and successfully grounded the ball past a frozen Burki.
The start of this match was delayed nearly 90 minutes due to severe weather.
–Field Level Media
