Former Harambee Stars captain Victor Wanyama was once again on the losing side as his CF Montreal was handed a 3-0 thumping against Chicago Fire in their Round 22 Major League Soccer (MLS) match staged at Soldier Field Stadium in Chicago on Thursday morning.
Heading into the match, Wanyama’s side had not managed any victory since their 1-0 victory against Nashville back on 22 June and were looking to end that three match winless streak where they drew one and lost the other two.
A poor start to the game against Chicago however set them against the cosh early on after 20 year old midfielder Brian Gutierrez struck just nine minutes into the clash.
It all started when goalkeeper Chris Brady hoofed a clearance up front without any measure of control. Fortunately, the ball fell kindly to Greek teenager Georgios Koutsias who did all the hard work by dragging his defenders wide before squaring the ball to an unmarked Gutierrez who scored the opener.
One would soon turn to two for Chicago as they capitalized on their early momentum to double their lead just two minutes after landing the first punch in the bout.
The industrious Koutsias was once again at the center of things as his solo run from the left ended up with another cutback into the area that found its way to Maren Haile-Selassie who rifled into the back of the net.
Twelve minutes to the half time break, former Liverpool man Xherdan Shaqiri scored a goal of the season contender to hand his side a healthy 3-0 advantage.
From a free kick, the diminutive attacker played a clever one two with Haile-Selassie before rifling the ball past Montreal custodian Jonathan Sirios and into the back of the net in some style to all but get the job done.
Nine minutes to the breather, Montreal were handed a perfect chance to at least reduce the deficit when they were awarded a penalty but Costa Rica international Ariel Lassiter missed the chance to pull one back.
There was no looking back for Chicago as they held onto their lead all through the second half to seal all the three points and the win that took them three points clear of Montreal in ninth place.
