A wild affair and a comeback from behind victory, D.C. United secured all three points in Chicago

The last 25 minutes plus of Saturday night's match between the Chicago Fire and D.C. United inside Soldier Field can best be described as hectic.

Matti Peltola scored his first goal as a D.C. United player in his team's come-from-behind victory against Chicago Saturday night. Photo Credit: D.C. United

In a game that had three VAR reviews, two penalty kicks awarded, a disallowed goal, and an unsavory incident involving a fan and a player, it would be D.C. United, which walked away as the victors in this chaotic affair. It would be the visiting side walking away with all three points, thanks to two late goals, D.C. United would walk away with a 2-1 victory from their visit to the "Windy City."

"I think we played a very good game. [It was] well-deserved, at least to take out one point," said D.C. United head coach René Weiler "We played well against the strengths of Chicago, because they want to play immediately [into] the final zone. They don't like to play in the middle zone. We defended very well. I had the feeling that we had the better chances in the first half to score, and open the score ourselves, but at the end, I'm happy for the win, and from my perspective, well deserved."

Stoppage due to discriminatory language

During the 74th minute of the match, D.C. United striker Tai Baribo ran over to referee Sergii Demianchuk and alerted him to something. Demianchuck briefly paused the game and ran over to the sideline to talk to both Weiler and Chicago Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter before restarting play.

During Major League Soccer's Spanish-language broadcast of the match, it was reported that discriminatory language was used toward Baribo. When responding to the pool reporter's question about the stoppage post-game, Demianchuck confirmed that play was stopped due to "a reported discriminatory slur, made by an unidentified spectator, directed toward D.C. United No. 9, Tai Baribo."

During his post-game press conference, Weiler confirmed that the stoppage of the game was due to a fan saying something negative towards Baribo.

"It was an incident with somebody who mentioned something negative from the stands," Weiler said, but did not elaborate further. The 52-year-old Swiss head coach added that he wanted play to move on. "I don't like to give it the focus or a stage, so it's better to speak about soccer. And I told [Demianchuk], 'Maybe we don't have to stop. We have immediately to go on, and don't give it the power and a scene.'" Weiler said.

Baribo was not made available for comments post-game.

Chaotic ending

The final 15 minutes plus of this game brought a chaotic ending where VAR would play a key role. It all started in the 78th minute when a Philip Zinckernagel corner kick would bounce off Jackson Hopkins wrist. Demianchuk went to VAR to check for a potential handball. After a quick review, the referee awarded Chicago the penalty kick. It would be Hugo Cuypers who would step up to take the penalty in the 82nd minute. The Belgian striker put his shot down the middle past a diving Sean Johnson to give the Fire a late 1-0 lead, but that lead would be short-lived.

D.C. would have a response of its own just two minutes later. After a series of challenges, the ball would land at the feet of Brandon Servania, who swung the ball to the wing to Hopkins, who sent a cross into the box intended for Baribo, but his cross would go over his head and be cleared awkwardly by Leonardo Barroso. The ball found its way to Keisuke Kurokawa, who sent another cross into the box, which was cleared by Mbekezeli Mbokazi, but the short clearance would find Matti Peltola at the edge of the box, as the Finnish international settled the ball and shot towards the direction of the goal. The ball took a deflection off a Chicago defender as the ball scurried past Chris Brady and into the back of the net for Peltola's first goal as a member of The Black-and-Red.

"He's a young player, [and] especially for young players, for newcomers, it's not so easy to come to a new country, with a new culture, new teammates, new system," said Weiler. "Maybe the start was a little bit difficult, but now he's a very important player for our team... He's more the player for the duels, and he runs a lot. But yeah, I think he will be really happy that he's scoring this goal today."

VAR would come into play once again in the 88th minute. Off a long Peltola free kick, the ball would find its way into the box, bouncing off defender Johnathan Dean and cleared out for a corner kick. Several D.C. players, including captain Lucas Bartlett, called for a penalty for a handball from Dean inside the box. After a few minutes of consulting with the VAR officials, Demianchuk went over to the screen to review the play. After a couple of minutes of review, it was determined to be a handball, and Demianchuk pointed directly to the spot, awarding D.C. a late penalty.

Baribo would be the one to step and take the penalty in the 95th minute, and he would bury his opportunity in the left corner of Brady's net to get the game winner and his 3rd goal of the season. Despite guessing the right direction of the shot, the Chicago was unable to stop Baribo's chance from going into the back of the net.

Other Actions throughout the game

D.C. would have the first goal-scoring opportunity of the game just two minutes in as a Baribo shot from distance would just go over Brady's goal and out of play.

Chicago would have an opportunity of its own several minutes later when Djé D'Avilla played the ball to Barroso, who sent a cross to Cuypers, who got to the end of the cross, but his shot went wide.

In the 42nd minute, D.C. thought they had taken the lead. Off a corner kick, João Peglow would find Baribo inside the box. Baribo headed the ball down, and the ball trickled past Brady and settled in the lower left corner of the net. However, the referee would go back to VAR for a possible offside from Hopkins and determined that, in fact, the D.C. academy product was indeed offside and the goal was nullified.

With this result, the Chicago Fire fall to 7th place in the Eastern Conference with 4 points, while D.C. United move up to 5th place in the Eastern Conference with 6 points.

D.C. now travels to Atlanta when they take on Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, March 21st. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 pm.