Chicago Fire beat Colorado Rapids 4-2 as Lewandowski ends eight-game goal drought

Chicago fight back from behind

Chicago Fire beat the Colorado Rapids 4-2 on Saturday, 31 October, at Commerce City. Morgan Whittaker gave the hosts the lead in the 22nd minute, but Jonathan Bamba levelled in the 41st minute and put Chicago ahead in the 56th, his first multi-goal game in MLS. Paxten Aaronson pulled Colorado level again in the 58th minute, and the decisive goals came in the second half from Lewandowski and Puso Dithejane. Nico Hansen was in goal for Colorado, and Lewandowski's winner came after a fast counter-attack.

Lewandowski returns from the bench

Robert Lewandowski started on the bench, and coach Gregg Berhalter later explained that the plan was built around three matches in eight days, along with travel and altitude. Berhalter said the staff had described the kind of match ahead and planned to bring the striker on once Colorado began to tire. Lewandowski came on in the 63rd minute with the score tied 2-2 and scored in the 74th after a pass from Philip Zinckernagel. He rounded Hansen, who had come off his line, and finished from close range. The goal was his seventh of the MLS season and his first since the 1-1 draw with Inter Miami in September, ending an eight-game run without a goal. He then set up Dithejane in the 88th minute to make it 4-2.

Lewandowski's season so far

Lewandowski joined Chicago in July after his contract with Barcelona expired. He started his time in the league strongly, scoring six goals in his first matches before his form dropped off. American fans and media had been pointing to his lack of finishing before the trip to Colorado. On 2 October he scored a hat-trick for Poland in a 6-0 win over Romania.

Standings and what comes next

Chicago have 55 points from 33 matches, one behind Inter Miami in the Eastern Conference with one round left, and have already clinched a playoff place. Colorado sit eighth in the West on 43 points, one ahead of 10th-place Real Salt Lake, and their five-game unbeaten run came to an end. Chicago host the Columbus Crew on Saturday, 7 November, in the final match of the regular season. Colorado's next match is at Dallas. Alex Calabrese, editor-in-chief of meninred97.com, calculated an 84.4% chance that Chicago and Charlotte FC meet in the first playoff round, after Charlotte beat Orlando City 4-0 in the same round of games.