After surviving scare, Union looking to put out Fire

The Philadelphia Union survived some late heroics from the visiting Chicago Fire before winning the opening match of their first-round best-of-three MLS Cup Playoff series.

On Saturday, the Union will travel to Bridgeview, Ill., looking for a win to secure passage to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Philadelphia, the Supporters' Shield winners and the East's top seed, struck for a pair of goals five minutes apart on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead in the 75th minute.

But eighth-seeded Chicago scored twice in the closing minutes -- including a dramatic stoppage-time equalizer from former Union defender Jack Elliott -- to make it 2-2 before the Union won the subsequent penalty shootout.

"Credit to them. They gave us a really good game. I think they took some space late in the game and we gave away two silly set-piece moments," Union coach Bradley Carnell said on Thursday. "We should have or could have done a better job on that, and for sure it's a topic for us going into the next game."

Will Saturday's match take the same feel as the series opener?

"I'm not sure. All I know is we have one advantage in the series, so we have a massive moment to tie it up in two matches," Carnell said. "So this is our full focus."

The Fire, in the playoffs for the first time since 2017, hope to have star Philip Zinckernagel (15 goals, 15 assists) back in the lineup after an oblique injury sustained during warmups made him a late scratch last weekend.

Chicago coach Gregg Berhalter said it would be "hard to tell" the status of the Danish winger until closer to kickoff.

"He did warm up with the group today and wasn't able to continue, but we'll see how the game goes," Berhalter said on Thursday. "We still have 48 hours till the game time, so we'll go down to the wire."

After nearly a decade away from the playoffs, there's renewed interest in the Fire across Chicagoland ahead of Saturday's match, Berhalter noted.

"I've mentioned this before of (the) Chicago Fire being a sleeping giant, and I really believe that," he said. "There's a lot more attention. Tickets are selling a lot quicker than before. And that needs to be the standard."

Chicago will be without starting midfielder Sergio Oregel, who was shown a red card late in Sunday's match and saw his appeal for an overturn denied by MLS's Independent Review Panel.

A third match, if necessary, would be held on Nov. 8 in Chester, Pa.