The Chicago Fire fell 3-1 to Real Salt Lake on Saturday, but “the most important game of the season” put the loss quickly into the rear view.
“We look forward,” said Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic. “For us this game is already behind us.”
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Chicago still have yet to win a road game since July 12, 2014 and gave up two goals to RSL before the half. While they snuck one back to make it 2-1, the game was of little importance just minutes after it finished.
The Fire take on the New England Revolution on Tuesday in a U.S. Open Cup semifinal. They will leave Salt Lake City after a morning practice and head to Foxborough,Massachusetts ahead of Tuesday night's game.
“With all the good things and bad things we can take from it, we have to look forward,” Paunovic said. “We have to leave this game behind and we have to recover and look ahead.”
With the time crunch from a Saturday-Tuesday turnaround, moving ahead as quickly as possible is both figurative (overcoming a 3-1 loss) and literal (three days of rest). Needing extra rest, Paunovic still started four of the eight regulars who have started each U.S. Open Cup game, including David Accam. Accam has accounted for four of the six goals scored by Chicago in the Open Cup and he assisted on one of the other ones.
Accam and Michael de Leeuw were subbed at halftime and Arturo Alvarez came off in the 68th minute to get an early start on their rest. Perhaps a day off for his captain and his new attacker could have been higher priorities, but he went with his lineup still hoping to get a win on the road.
“We always want to win,” Paunovic said. ”We have to start with the best lineup. We had enough [in the starting lineup] that we wanted to win the game. The next game is something we have in our mind.”
Recovering mentally from Saturday is something else the Fire would need to deal with before Tuesday.
“We have to recover the spirit and positive energy to prepare well,” Paunovic said. “I’m very excited because it's the most important game this season for us so far. We believe that we will have, if we do well in that game, we will have another important game, like the final of Open Cup.”
