An early red card to Johan Kappelhof sabotaged any positive result Chicago Fire could have mustered. Atlanta’s offense took advantage, looking every bit of dangerous as MLS pundits have predicted.
Here are the takeaways, including, setbacks, stat extrapolations, roster needs and TREMENDOUS TRANSFER NEWS.
Setbacks
The Fire entered the match missing Michael de Leeuw.
An early own goal followed closely by the aforementioned red card saw the Fire on the back foot by the 11th minute. Missing their best defender for 80 minutes, in addition to being down a man, proved too much for the Chicago Fire.