Brian Gutierrez broke a scoreless deadlock in the 69th minute and the visiting Chicago Fire picked up just their second road win of the year, beating FC Cincinnati 1-0 on Wednesday.
Gutierrez entered in the 59th minute, then scored his fifth goal of the season 10 minutes later as the Fire (6-11-7, 25 points) shut out an opponent for the second straight match while improving to 2-6-4 on the road.
Cincinnati (15-6-3, 48 points), without Miles Robinson (red-card suspension) and leading scorer Luciano Acosta (ankle injury) in the lineup, has now lost consecutive league matches for the first time since April 6 and 13 while dropping to 6-5-2 at home. The club also saw defender Alvas Powell and head coach Pat Noonan sent off late in the match.
The Fire had the best scoring chance of the first half in the 20th minute, as Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano sloppily turned the ball over while pulled off his line but recovered to deny Chicago striker Hugo Cuypers an empty-net chance.
Cuypers had another opportunity to put the Fire in front in the 57th minute but was again denied by Celentano, this time at the near post.
But Chicago took the lead in the 69th minute. Cuypers pounced on a misplaced Cincinnati header and played it to Gutierrez, who fired it past a diving Celentano for the only goal of the night.
Ultimately, Cincinnati could not solve Chris Brady, who stopped all nine shots he faced, including a lunging save to deny Luca Orellano’s attempt in the 66th minute after a scramble in the box.
Along with the loss, Powell received a pair of yellow cards in quick succession in the 88th minute. Noonan was given his own marching orders in second-half stoppage time after protesting a call.
Celentano made six saves for FC Cincinnati.
–Field Level Media
