Joaquin Torres scored the game’s lone goal in the 90th minute to lift the Philadelphia Union to a 1-0 win over the visiting Chicago Fire on Saturday in an Eastern Conference match in Chester, Pa.
Chicago played the final 40 minutes and added time with 10 men after Fabian Herbers was assessed his second yellow card of the rough-and-tumble match in the 50th minute.
Torres took a pass from Jose Martinez just outside the box and unleashed a left-footed shot into the bottom-right corner for the game winner over a Fire team that had controlled the match until Herbers’ dismissal.
Any chance of a Chicago comeback was doomed by Kai Kamara’s second yellow card three minutes into second-half stoppage time that put the Fire at a two-man disadvantage.
The win allowed the Union (2-1-0, 6 points) to build on their league-leading streak of wins at home. Philadelphia has now captured 13 straight home matches (including the playoffs) dating back to June 2022. The only team with a longer home winning streak (including the playoffs) was San Jose, which captured 14 consecutive home games from Aug. 2001 to July 2002.
The Union ended up with 14 shots, 10 of them in the second half when they sent two on goal and finished with advantages in possession (54.4 percent to 45.6 percent), in total passes (439-369), passing accuracy (75.4 percent to 70.5 percent) and corner kicks (6-2, with five of those corners after halftime).
The Fire (0-1-1, 1 point) had the two best scoring chances in the first half as Rafael Czichos’s shot in the 19th minute and Kacper Przybylko’s header to the bottom-right corner in the 30th minute needing saved by Andrew Blake.
Blake injured his leg on the latter, leaving the match in the 33rd minute in favor of Joe Bendik.
The Fire amassed four yellow cards in the first half, one of them by Herbers. He picked up his second yellow, and the subsequent red card for accumulation, when he fouled Philadelphia’s Kai Wagner.
–Field Level Media
