The Chicago Fire's streak of futility at New York's baseball stadiums continues as the team lost 3-1 at Yankee Stadium in a game where the Fire spent the majority of the match looking listless. A late momentum shift was ultimately for the Fire
The Fire were without Mbekezli Mbokazi for the second game, but the hosts were without nine players including Alonso Martínez, who, like the Fire's André Franco, has missed all season after an ACL injury in 2025. New York's Maxi Martínez also suffered an ACL injury earlier this year.
Faced with the second game in a week after his squad had nearly nearly two months off, Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter rotated off several key pieces, starting with team-record signing Robert Lewandowski. Andrew Gutman also gave way for Viktor Radojević and right back Leonardo Barroso, nominally the team's starter, returned to the more than three months after being injured against Detroit City.
Berhalter did, however, retain the 4-4-2 shape that allowed the Fire to play two strikers, with Robin Lod serving in the spot vacated by Lewandowski.
The Fire went behind early as Nico Fernández was able to get on to a clearance from Fire captain Jack Elliott before Anton Salétros could close down the space. Fernández unleashed a cannon past Chris Brady, sending New York up 1-0 in the 10th minute.
Salétros made amends just 11 minutes later, serving a great ball off a corner to Joel Waterman who leveled it for the Fire.
The comeback wouldn't last, however. Andrés Perea was able to carry the ball most of the way across New York's short pitch, laying it off for Augustín Ojeda who had time, space and a virtually empty net as Chris Brady was still working his way to the right side of the pitch, making it 2-1 in the 29th minute.
A dozen minutes later, Ojeda was again involved in a goal as he set up Malachi Jones for New York's third goal of the game. A bad giveaway by Barroso gave New York a good look at a fourth goal in first-half stoppage time, but the effort sailed wide.
Down 3-1 in a game where precious little had gone right for the Fire, Berhalter went to his bench, giving Lewandowski 45 minutes to try to salvage a result for the Fire. The move was greeted by cheers from the thousands of red-clad fans in the stadium, the lion's share of whom were wearing Poland jerseys.
Barroso also gave way for Jonathan Dean.
Lewandowski had his first look at net less than three minutes into the half, but he was ruled off side and he couldn't quite connect with Philip Zinckernagel's service.
That would be one of a handful of looks on net that the Fire had through the bulk of the second half, but they at least stemmed the bleeding, with New York's attack struggling to create in the second half as well.
As the half wore on, with the Fire still looking for the spark that eluded them, Berhalter brought on Mauricio Pineda for Djé D'Avilla, ending a poor outing for the Fire midfielder. Less than 10 minutes later, took Radojević and Lod for Gutman and Puso Dithejane.
The changes finally saw the momentum shift for the Fire, with the team generating chances, but the few that resulted in a shot on frame were handled aptly by New York's Matt Freese in net.
The match is the Fire's second multi-goal loss of the season and marks just the second time this year that the Fire have lost multiple league matches in a row.
The loss sees New York City, who were seven points behind the Fire at the start of the week, close to within a single point of the Fire who fall to fourth in the Eastern Conference.
The Chicago Fire are at home next, taking on Charlotte FC next Saturday in what will be Robert Lewandowski's home debut with the Chicago Fire.
