TOYOTA PARK, Bridgeview, Illinois
July 1, 2016 (Week 17, MLS Game #162)
8 pm ET (UniMás, MLS LIVE)
A pair of clubs who begin the second half of the MLS campaign below the red line meet in a critical match as the Chicago Fire play host to the San Jose Earthquakes on Friday evening at Toyota Park. The Fire return to league play and return home after seeing their MLS-record road winless run extended in a 4-3 loss at Philadelphia Union, leaving them at the foot of the Eastern Conference. The Quakes now sit in a tie for seventh place in the West, their winless stretch now at five games despite another dramatic late draw in a 1-1 result with the LA Galaxy last weekend.
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- The Fire equaled their season high with three goals, but lost for a second consecutive match last time, dropping a 4-3 decision at Philadelphia Union on June 22. The defeat extended the Fire’s all-time MLS-record road winless streak to 32 games.
- Chad Barrett scored his second goal in as many games as the Earthquakes scored a dramatic equalizer for a 1-1 draw with the LA Galaxy at a sold-out Stanford Stadium on Saturday evening. It was a second consecutive draw for the Quakes, who have now gone five games since their last win.
- The Earthquakes have won the last two meetings in the series, both played in northern California, winning 2-1 on March 22, 2015 in the only meeting between the teams a year ago in the first-ever encounter at Avaya Stadium.
- Neither team has won on the road in the series since 2010, when each team won away in the two meetings that year. This is the only league meeting between the teams this season.
REFEREE: Jose Carlos Rivero. AR1 (bench): Kermit Quisenberry; AR2 (opposite): Eric Boria; 4th: Younes Marrakchi
MLS Career: 61 games; FC/gm: 26.6; Y/gm: 3.8; R: 17; pens: 28
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: CHI: Matt Polster … SJ: Anibal Godoy, Fatai Alashe
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: CHI: Joao Meira
DISABLED LIST: none
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (34 meetings): Fire 13 wins (0 shootout), 49 goals … Earthquakes 10 wins (0 shootout), 42 goals … Ties 11
AT CHICAGO (16 meetings): Fire 8 wins (0 shootout), 30 goals … Earthquakes 2 wins (0 shootout), 17 goals … Ties 6
LAST YEAR (MLS)
3/22: SJ 2, CHI 1 (Alashe 5; Harden 21 – Shipp 29)
- Coaches record: Veljko Paunovic vs. SJ: first game … Dominic Kinnear vs. CHI: P26 W10 L7 T9
