Chicago trailed for 41 minutes, then won on far better chances

Chicago Fire won 4-2 at Colorado Rapids from a goal down, creating more valuable chances than they usually do away while Colorado gave up more than their home norm.

Chicago Fire trailed at Colorado Rapids from the 22nd minute until the 41st, when Jonathan Bamba levelled. From there they scored four times, with Bamba again on 56, Robert Lewandowski on 74 and Puso Dithejane on 88, and won 4-2. Morgan Whittaker had put the home side ahead early, and Paxten Aaronson's goal on 58 had briefly brought them level. The turnaround is easiest to understand through the chances behind the goals.

Expected goals, or xG, scores each shot by how likely it was to go in, based on where it was taken from and how it was struck. Add those values up across a match and you can see how good a side's chances were, separate from how many it had. Chicago took 14 shots, close to their usual 14.8 on the road, but they had only 43% of the ball against a usual 53.8%. Their chances added up to about double their away average of 1.19, and 11 of those shots came from inside the box.

Colorado held the ball more than usual, 57% against a home norm of 55%, and their own chances were ordinary, 1.45 against a usual 1.55. The trouble lay at the other end. Their defence allowed chances worth 2.37, where at home they usually concede 0.85. That gap, more than the scoreline, is why this was not simply a home side having a poor day.

Bamba was the man who settled much of it. He scored twice from five shots, three of them on target, and his performance earned a rating of 9.3, the highest of the match. Whittaker's opener came from a pass by Georgi Minoungou, and Whittaker finished the afternoon with five shots of his own. Lewandowski added a goal and an assist, and Dithejane's late finish sealed the win.

Four goals is well above Chicago's usual 1.6 on the road. Six goals in the match also beats the league's usual 3.3 per game, so this was a busy, open afternoon rather than a tight one. Colorado had shown they could create, but they could not stop Chicago creating too.

The late stages were where Chicago took control of the scoreboard. Colorado equalised two minutes after Chicago went ahead, and then Chicago found the two goals that decided it within the final 30 minutes. For a home side that had levelled, the failure to hold on was the decisive part of the night.

Colorado remain seventh in the table, with 43 points from 32 matches, 12 wins, 7 draws and 13 defeats. Their goals scored and conceded stand at 44 and 43, a goal difference of one. Chicago's result leaves them still in the contest, and this is a defeat that the chance numbers suggest Colorado may have taken more personally than the table does.

Player of the matchJ. Bamba2 goals9.3

M. Whittaker1 goal8.2

R. Lewandowski1 goal · 1 assist8.1

P. Aaronson1 goal7.9