BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – Veljko Paunovic challenged his Chicago Fire squad to take another step forward and become a “winning team” after their comprehensive 3-0 US Open Cup quarterfinal victory over the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers on Wednesday night.
The Men in Red were well worth the win that advances them to their fifth Open Cup semifinal in six years, this time against old adversaries the New England Revolution, with the venue to be decided in a draw on Thursday morning.
Goals from Man of the Match David Accam, Michael de Leeuw and Khaly Thiam ensured the Fire’s safe passage to the last four, and rewarded Paunovic’s decision to start a nearly full-strength starting XI against the NASL side.
“This is what we are looking for, to become a winning team,” head coach Paunovic said at his postgame press conference. “Today was a game where we could, at least for 45 or 30 minutes, feel like a winning team. First time for me this year where we were comfortable and we didn’t suffer that much, but that’s just one small step. Next game, as I said, New England, and then we move forward. This competition is very important for us.”
The night couldn’t have gone much better for the Fire, who are now just two games from a record fifth Lamar Hunt trophy in the MLS era. The speedy Accam drew a foul from goalkeeper Diego Restrepo just minutes after the opening whistle and converted the resulting penalty to send the home side on their way.
“I am very happy with how we started,” Paunovic said. “We started with a goal, we scored that very important opening goal, then we moved forward, we scored the second goal, and even in the first half we went to score the third goal so that we could manage substitutions ... the third goal, that was the trigger for us to start with Plan B, which was to rest guys and prepare for the next game.”
That next game is a league visit to cup semifinal opponents New England on Saturday (7:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE). Paunovic hopes the confidence and momentum garnered from Wednesday's impressive performance can pave the way for an improved run in the weeks ahead.
“For us, this was a must-win game and I think we managed it very well,” he added. “We executed the plan perfectly today. Very happy, very motivated and excited about what we are achieving right now. Semifinals, it’s not a small thing, and we’re looking forward to our next game.”
