Bastian Schweinsteiger plays his second match with the Chicago Fire. Photo by Robin Alam for ISI.
On Saturday’s match with the Chicago Fire and Columbus Crew SC, Chicago won 1-0. It was their first win with new teammate, Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Crew SC were missing Federico Higuain due to an ankle injury, as well as Harrison Afful and Kekutah Manneh.
McCarty had an impressive performance overall. The Fire took the lead when Nemanja Nikolic took a pass by McCarty and scored in the 22nd minute for the winning goal. McCarty also had another long pass to Michael deLeeuw late in the first half. He tackled the ball off Justin Meram inside the box in the 31st minute and avoided a penalty.
Schweinsteiger, on the other hand, struggled a little more than he did on his debut a week ago. His free kick from just outside the box was intercepted by Crew SC keeper Zack Steffen in the 76th minute. Schweinsteiger was also pushed to the ground by Niko Hansen, but unfortunately saw no penalty against Hansen as a result.
Steffen made four saves total against Chicago, tying his season and MLS career-high number of saves.
Defender Hector Jimenez made his first appearance of the season. He started and continued to play for the entire game. This was his 73rd appearance (46th start) for Crew SC.
The two teams will face each other once more on August 12, 2017.
