Fire 2-2 Red Bulls: White strikes late again to earn draw in Chicago

The New York Red Bulls once again found a way to earn points on the road in this four-match unbeaten streak as they got another late draw in second-half stoppage time. Brian White saved the day once again with another magical moment to steal a point from the Chicago Fire at Soldier Field.

Marc Rzatkowski ripped a long ball that deflected off Mauricio Pineda but still traveled towards the Chicago net. Then after unsuccessful attempts by Tom Barlow and Florian Valot to get the ball over the line, it was White who tapped in the loose ball.

“It is something I learned at a young age, which is to follow everything up” said White. “The ball fell to Tommy [Barlow] and I was expecting him to score but there was a little bit in my mind that it could fall to me so I just try to follow it up and luckily enough for me it was right at my foot. All I had to do was tap it in.”

“I think it shows a lot of resilience, never give up, even when we go down. We fight to the very last whistle and shows that we’re able to score two goals [over the last two matches] in the final minute of the game.”

“Unfortunately, it came down to that kind of situation where we want to win these games instead of just tie, but it shows the character of this team to always fight no matter what.”

It was an excellent opening 45 minutes for the Red Bulls as they were attacking without the ball and forcing the Fire to make some mistakes as Kyle Duncan would score in the 39th minute to open the scoring. After receiving the ball at the outside corner of the box, Duncan controlled and lashed the ball into the Chicago net with his secondary left foot.

At halftime, Chicago made some adjustments to bolster their attack and were able to do so when Robert Beric leveled the match in the 51st minute after service from Boris Sekulic. In the 72nd minute, Chicago took the lead as Przemyslaw Frankowski took advantage of a loose ball surrendered by Ryan Meara.

But the Red Bulls had some bad luck in this one as the referee and VAR ignored a potential penalty that should’ve been-called as Aaron Long was fouled inside the Chicago area when he tracked a free-kick inside the 59th minute.

The draw ends as a fair result to an even game where both sides played tough. Interim head coach Bradley Carnell was pleased but, he hopes that the late heroics to snatch points ends with three next time.

“We knew is going to be a tough matchup. We know they have certain principles that are well aligned with in terms of style of play. We knew we were in for a tough matchup and an interesting match. I think everyone could see it was a real tussle, back and forth” said Carnell. “It’s just an enjoyable game of soccer. I really enjoyed the first half as we go a goal up, and then we kind of put our foot on the brake instead of foot on the accelerator. Then, a little bit sluggish at the second half so it was a tale of two halves.”

“We show great resilience, we show great fight, courage, and you can see the culture is strong within the team. It was disappointing to have conceded the two goals, which fit along the lines of our style of play by having to come back in the game.”

“Second balls and all these types of things and we have a couple of talking points and things to look at. I thought Brian White had good energy and all the subs have some good energy and we walk away with a point. Disappointed we couldn’t earn more after going ahead but great fight back from the boys.”