Toronto FC and the visiting Chicago Fire fought to a 4-4 draw on Saturday night.
Haitian international Derrick Etienne Jr. tied the action-packed affair for Toronto in second-half stoppage time with a curling shot from the edge of the box.
Josh Sargent scored a hat trick for Toronto (5-7-11, 26 points), while Maren Haile-Selassie scored twice for the Fire (11-6-5, 38 points), giving him four goals in his past three MLS matches. Robert Lewandowski contributed a goal and an assist for Chicago, while Djordje Mihailovic tallied two assists for Toronto.
Haile-Selassie opened the scoring by retrieving the ball off a corner kick and blasting it in from just outside the box in the 13th minute. Toronto goalkeeper Luka Gavran made an acrobatic save off Philip Zinckernagel to force the corner.
Goalkeeper Chris Brady denied Sargent off a close-range header in the 17th minute. Sprung on a counterattack, Puso Dithejane narrowly missed the target seconds later for the visitors.
Toronto’s Designated Players linked up for a speedy equalizer, Mihailovic feeding Sargent with a brilliantly placed ball over the top. TFC’s record signing sent Jack Elliott tumbling to the turf with a clever touch off his chest and blasted it past Brady in the 27th minute.
Sargent scored again following a failed Fire clearance in the 38th minute. The ball ricocheted off two defenders and fell into his path before he put Toronto ahead 2-1.
Zinckernagel danced around Matheus Pereira and played the ball to Robert Lewandowski at the far post in the 49th minute. Walker Zimmerman got to the ball first, but his botched clearing attempt only sent the ball into his own net.
Sargent bagged his hat trick in the 54th minute with a low, powerful attempt in the corner of goal to make it 3-2. Haile-Selassie nabbed his brace four minutes later when Gavran failed to handle a long-range cross.
Lewandowski put the Fire ahead in the 63rd minute after Haile-Selassie cleverly allowed Zinckernagel’s cross to run through to the Polish star.
Noah Allen and Johan Gomez made their Chicago debuts, as did Lewis Morgan for Toronto. Pereira, meanwhile, made his first start for Toronto since April. Both teams extended their unbeaten runs to six in MLS play.
–Field Level Media
