Alex Campbell

A strong Chicago Fire lineup rolled through to the Round of 16 with a 4-0 victory at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois over a well-supported Detroit City team that couldn’t generate much against a front line containing Chicago’s two designated players backed up by no shortage of supporting talent.

“Overall I think they tried to play hard,” said Fire winger Maren Haile-Selassie, who contributed to three of the four goals, of the USL Championship side. “But obviously in the end I think the quality was higher on our side”

Within four minutes, the Fire leveraged that quality. As Detroit city attempted to play the ball out from the back on a goal kick, Haile-Selassie charged in on the press to poke the ball to Hugo Cuypers, who was all alone near the penalty spot and smashed a shot with the outside of his right boot into the top left corner of the net to give the hosts the lead on his eighth goal in all competitions.

“To come out and press, be aggressive and put the opponent on the back foot was really impressive,” said Chicago head coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter of the way his team began the match. For Berhalter, it was his first coaching win in the tournament since 2016. In fact, as head coach of the Columbus Crew from 2014-2018, Berhalter was eliminated three times by the Chicago Fire.

The rest of the first half proceeded in second gear, as the Fire were in no hurry having taken the early lead and Detroit struggled to string passes together on the rare occasion they managed to establish possession.

A Detroit striker was the next player to score, but just not how the visitors and their large cadre of traveling fans would have hoped. A Fire corner kick was flicked on at the near post by Cuypers, only for it to be met by Darren Smith who volleyed into his team’s net. The net should have rippled again late in the half, but Cuypers was denied by Detroit City goalkeeper Carlos Saldana charging out from his goal and Maren Haile-Selassie then saw his rebound effort cleared off the line.

Though it was getting quite cold after sunset in Bridgeview, there was a moment to feel warm inside about for the Fire and their fans early in the second half as 21-year-old Omari Glasgow scored his first goal for the Fire first team after a 40-yard dribbling run by Jonathan Bamba.

“Playing with the first team has been a dream I’ve been working (towards) since I first came to Chicago,” said Glasgow, who has now made 14 appearances for the Fire between Major League Soccer and the Open Cup. “I think the work has been shown and it’s paid off.”

The Fire’s substitutes weren’t interested in turning down the temperature, as wave after wave of attack eventually produced another goal when Haile-Selassie passed into an open Detroit goal following good passing by Kellyn Acosta and Brian Gutierrez.

Detroit recorded just two shots on target and never looked likely to match last season’s club-best result of reaching the Round of 16. The dominant display from the Fire earns them a trip to Foxboro for a date with the New England Revolution later this month.