Union go up a man in first half, but settle for 1-1 draw with Chicago Fire

The Philadelphia Union returning home to face the Chicago Fire looked on paper to be just what they needed to turn around their funk but that didn’t materialize in another disappointing draw Sunday night.

Rather than start out on the front foot with Andre Blake and Cory Burke back from international duty, Blake — through no fault of his own — was picking the ball out of the back of the net in the 10th minute after Przemysław Frankowski headed in a Boris Sekulic cross.

The Union were able to even the score in the 34th minute on a thundering free kick just outside the box from Kai Wagner but the bigger story was the red card that set up the free kick. Wyatt Omsberg was sent off after video review for a denial of a goal scoring chance on Burke, who had been played in, giving the Union a man advantage they were never able to capitalize on.

They outshot Chicago on the night 25-5 — five of those on target — but the final ball wasn’t there in part because of some impressive defense from the Fire, blocking shots and disrupting the Union attack. The biggest chance for a winner late came when Quinn Sullivan, a spark yet again off the bench, set up Alejandro Bedoya in the box, but his shot hit the face of Fire goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth.

The Union continued to attack through a lengthy amount of stoppage time but the Fire bunker held firm to deny the Union points for the third straight game and extended a disappointing run of form of 7 points in their last 7 games.