Brian Gutierrez scored his third goal of the season in the 78th minute on a finish of Xherdan Shaqiri’s service to lift the Chicago Fire to a 2-1 victory over the visiting Houston Dynamo on Saturday night.
Shaqiri also scored the opening goal from the penalty spot for Chicago (2-3-2, 8 points), which won its second at home in three attempts.
It was the Swiss international’s first match with multiple goal contributions since he scored twice in a 4-1 win on Oct. 4 against an Inter Miami side that played without Lionel Messi.
Ibrahim Aliyu scored his team-leading third goal of the season for Houston (3-2-1, 10 points), which had its three-match win streak halted in just its second away match of the campaign.
The Dynamo, who began a stretch with five of seven matches away, conceded multiple goals for the first time since a 2-1 home defeat to the New York Red Bulls on March 2.
Chicago struggled to create chances in the second half, but suddenly had an excellent one when Shaqiri took a pass right at the midfield stripe and sprayed a through ball across his body onto Gutierrez’s vertical run.
Goalkeeper Steve Clark charged off his line, but Gutierrez reached the ball first and extended his leg to send a long, gentle looping finish over Clark that eventually came down and bounced across the goal line.
The Fire were sloppy in giving up the equalizer, with Aliyu making a relatively simple interception in Chicago’s defensive end.
But the Nigerian still had a lot to do, and he did so, unleashing a perfectly placed right-footed finish from the edge of the penalty area that sailed into the top right corner beyond the diving Chris Brady.
Chicago went in front 10 minutes after earning a penalty from a foul drawn by center back Rafael Czichos coming forward on a corner kick, committed by Houston fullback Franco Escobar.
Shaqiri stepped up, got Clark to guess to his right, then smashed a finish into the opposite half of the net in the 10th minute for his second goal and second from the penalty spot.
–Field Level Media
