Wilmington Hammerheads 1-0 Chicago Fire

by Dan Gaichas

 

WILMINGTON, NC--The Chicago Fire are out of the US Open Cup after a 1-0 defeat by the Wilmington Hammerheads. It is the first time the Fire have been knocked out of the Cup by a team at least two tiers below them.

The only goal came in the 37th minute as Hammerheads midfielder Kenny Bundy collected a ball from Tim Karalexis and beat Fire keeper Andrew Dykstra.

The Fire had 15 shots against the USL-2 side, including two that went off the crossbar, but none would go in and the Fire would be eliminated for the fourth time by a lower-division opponent.

The Fire return to MLS action on the 4th of July at Colorado. Kickoff is at 8pm CT.

SCORING SUMMARY:

WIL-Kenny Bundy (Karalexis) 37

BOOKING SUMMARY:

WIL-Tweety Walters (caution) 6

CHI-Bakary Soumare (caution) 42

WIL-Mark Briggs (caution) 66

WIL-Jamie Watson (caution) 70

WILMINGTON HAMMERHEADS (3-5-2):  #1-Daryl Sattler, #4-Tim Karalexis (#16-Jeritt Thayer 82), #5-Colin Falvey, #6-Tweety Walters, #18-Graham Tatters, #9-Kenny Bundy (#17-Ryan Solle 75), #8-Mark Briggs, #15-Zeke Dombrowski, #13-Chris Murray, #33-Chris Bagley (#11-Phil Hufstadler 61), #77-Jamie Watson

CHICAGO FIRE (4-4-2):  #40-Andrew Dykstra, #6-Brandon Prideaux (#5-Tim Ward 29), #4-Bakary Soumare, #24-Daniel Woolard, #34-Austin Washington (#16-Marco Pappa 68), #18-Mike Banner, #9-Baggio Husidic, #29-Peter Lowry (#17-Chris Rolfe 76), #21-Justin Mapp, #14-Patrick Nyarko, #23-Stefan Dimitrov