Philadelphia Union draw with Chicago Fire to stretch unbeaten streak to eight

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:06 am

Kacper Przybylko applied the pressure that led to a game-tying own goal, and the visiting Philadelphia Union salvaged a 3-3 draw at the Chicago Fire in a wet and wild affair on Saturday evening.

Quinn Sullivan added his first career MLS goal on a sensational bicycle kick that tied it at 1-1 in the 28th minute and Cory Burke took the team lead with his fourth goal to give the Union a 2-1 lead in first-half stoppage time.

The Union extended their unbeaten run to eight matches despite conceding three goals for the first time since March 8, 2020 at Los Angeles FC before last season was halted due to the pandemic.

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Alvaro Medran contributed his first assists of the season on Chicago's second and third goals on a night in which the Fire nearly doubled their season total to seven goals.

Boris Sekulic and Mauricio Pineda each scored their first goals of the season as the Fire snapped a three-match losing and scoreless streak, but remained in last place in the Eastern Conference.

Chicago also took the lead through an early own goal off Philadelphia defender Jakob Glesnes.

Przybylko nearly scored his fourth goal of the season to tie with Blake on the sequence that led to Philadelphia's equalizer.

After tangling with Chicago defender Fabian Herbers, the Union attacker reached the ball down the right, cut into the penalty area and unleashed a shot that required a diving stop from Bobby Shuttleworth.

But the ball went only as far as the shoulder of a retreating Sekulic, then bounded across the goal line to tie the match for the third time in the 79th minute.

Cory Burke and Kacper Przybylko
Cory Burke and Kacper Przybylko
Jon Durr-USA TODAY Sports

Both sides had chances to win it late, but the best fell to Philadelphia's Jamiro Monteiro, whose drive was saved brilliantly by Shuttleworth low to his right.

Medran's first two assists of the season came only minutes apart.

In the 56th minute, he served a long, diagonal free kick toward the right side of the penalty area, where Sekulic met it unmarked and headed it past Philadelphia's Andre Blake from close range.

Then he curled a 67th-minute corner kick from the right toward the penalty spot. Burke couldn't quite reach it for a defensive clearance and it fell to Pineda, who side-footed a first-touch finish beyond Blake's dive and inside the right post.