That looks awfully familiar from Xherdan Shaqiri.
In style, Chicago Fire FC's star midfielder completed a 3-0 win over CF Montréal on Wednesday evening. He stood over a 33rd-minute free kick, passed into Maren Haile-Selassie for a layoff and then curled home a top-corner golazo past goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois, benefitting from the improved angle.
The strike, which gave Shaqiri 3g/4a in 17 games this season, was reminiscent of highlight-reel moments he's accumulated across an acclaimed career. The four-time World Cup veteran with Switzerland, before joining two winters ago as Chicago's club-record signing, played for European clubs like Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan.
With Shaqiri's virtuoso performance, Chicago have now won four of their last five games (4W-1L-0D). They'll hope to keep this good form intact on Saturday when hosting struggling Toronto FC (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass), currently holding the Eastern Conference's ninth and final Audi MLS Cup Playoffs spot.
"I think a key thing for us is going to be to not acknowledge that at all," goalkeeper Chris Brady said of the playoff line. "I know that sounds weird. But if you remember back to the last time this season, we went above that playoff line, I think, not that we let it get through our heads, but there was a little bit too much hype around the fact that we were above the playoff line."
