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Gamethread & Preview: Chicago Fire v Philadelphia Union

The Fire look for their first win of the season as they welcome a hot Philadelphia squad to a freezing, snowy and windy Bridgeview.

By Jeff Engelhardt
The Fire will look to win their first game of the season in difficult conditions.
The Fire will look to win their first game of the season in difficult conditions.
Derik Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

April 2, 2016 (WEEK 4)
4 p.m. CT (CSN-Chi, TCN-Phi)

Brace yourselves. Winter is coming. Apparently.

It is going to be a snowy, windy day in Bridgeview which means the Fire and Union will very likely play a sloppy game that will be difficult to watch. I prefer my soccer aesthetically pleasing, but after picking up only one out of six points at home so far, I will take three points anyway they come.

It will be a difficult day for the Fire attack not only because of the conditions, but because of the absence of David Accam. This team has already struggled to show an offensive identity without its Ghanian cornerstone, so it could be another long, frustrating outing for the offense. Hopefully the experience of missing Accam already will have the club better prepared this time around.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia is hot and has already proven capable of picking up points on the road. Andre Blake has shown the potential to be a wall in net while C.J. Sapong remains one of the more dangerous strikers in the entire league. Newcomer Chris Pontius has already helped improve the squad with his veteran savvy and the team is deep enough to have the likes of Sebastian Le Toux coming off the bench.

The Fire NEED home points and a little revenge for last year's U.S. Open Cup semifinal is in order. It won't be pretty, but the Fire survive a 1-0 mess of a game to get their season on track.


REFEREE: Silviu Petrescu. AR1 (bench): Philippe Briere; AR2 (opposite): Gianni Facchini; 4th: Kevin Terry Jr.

MLS Career: 107 games; FC/gm: 27.6; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 14; pens: 21


OUT: David Accam (injury), Sean Johnson (injury)


LAST YEAR (MLS)

3/29: CHI 1, PHI 0 (Adailton 37)

8/16: PHI 3, CHI 3 (Aristeguieta 21; Fabinho 31; Le Toux 90 – Igboananike 9, 92+; Nyarko 54)

Join the discussion below during the game!

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