Katai provides the spark as Fire respond from "disappointing" start at Colorado

Put simply, the opening 15 minutes of the Chicago Fire’s Wednesday night trip to Commerce City did not play out as head coach Veljko Paunovic envisioned.

“Starting poorly and allowing two goals early is just too much,” he said following the conclusion of the 2-2 drawat Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

Paunovic’s side went down a goal inside the first 10 minutes, surrendering the opener to Rapids’ forward Dominique Badji in the 7th minute. After defender Tommy Smith headed in Colorado's second eight minutes later, things were looking dour for the visiting Men In Red.

But there was a prompt and positive response from a group that's proven resilient on several occasions this season, and attacker Aleksandar Katai provided the spark. First, Katai forced a Colorado own goal after dribbling to the touchline and sending a low pass across the goalmouth that deflected off Rapids defender Danny Wilson and into the net in the 21st minute.

Three minutes later, the Serbian received a ball over-the-top from midfielder Brandt Bronico, cut in from the right at the top of the Colorado 18, and beat goalkeeper Tim Howard with a looping lefty hit from distance.

The equalizing goal made it six straight MLS matches with either a goal or an assist for the Serbian creator. In addition, the assist given to Bronico was his third in his first three MLS starts.

“It’s a very nice goal but it’s not enough because we are going home with only the one point,” Katai would later say. “It would have been nicer if we had gotten the three points.”

The Fire controlled much of the play over the remaining 75 minutes – winning the possession battle 65-35 on the night -- and created several chances to take the lead as the match waned, but were ultimately left with just the point taken on the night.

It was a frenetic end to the match as defender Johan Kappelhof was shown a red card in the 84th minute for a high-booted challenge -- snapping Kappelhof's string of 31-straight 90 minute performances in MLS -- and goalkeeper Richard Sánchez delivered a clutch save in stoppage time to preserve a draw for the shorthanded visitors. 

“It’s disappointing,” Paunovic added. “It’s disappointing for many reasons. This is not the image that we want and we have to make changes. We have to make changes technically, with our attitude, and with our behavior on the road, especially early in the game.”

While the team will remain steadfast that they shouldn’t have been in the situation in the first place, battling back from a 2-0 deficit on the road is an area of encouragement following the match and one they can take into their next outing, a Round of 16 visit to Atlanta United FC in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (Wednesday, June 20, 6:30 PM CT).

In league play, a few favorable midweek results coupled with the Fire's draw allowed Chicago to keep pace in the chase to stay above the Eastern Conference playoff line. 

“I think a positive that we can take away from this game is that we started to get that possession soccer back at times," Bronico said, "and I think that coming back from two goals shows a lot of strength from the team to not give up."