Carlos de los Cobos didn’t mince words after the Fire’s most lopsided loss of the season on Wednesday.
“It was the worst game since I joined the Chicago Fire,” de los Cobos said after Monarcas Morelia routed the the hosts 5-1 in a first round SuperLiga tournament game before a crowd of 11,009 at Toyota Park.
“It was a bad night for us, not only because of the result, but because of our consistency,” he said. “We started in a bad way, we made mistakes like we’ve been doing week after week … and had only a few times where we had possession of the game.”
Just one year after reaching the SuperLiga tournament final, the Fire now need to win Saturday and Tuesday to have any chance to move on to the 2010 tournament semifinals.
It was the worst loss since a 4-1 MLS setback in Toronto on May 8 and fifth straight defeat in non-MLS games.
The Mexican side opened a 1-0 lead in the third minute. Midfielder Elias Hernandez lined an unassisted shot past Fire goalie Andrew Dykstra while positioned just outside the right side of the goal box.
In the 34th minute, a cross from forward Hugo Droguett sailed passed a diving Dykstra and forward Luis Gabriel Rey hit a short shot for a 2-0 lead. Forward Miguel Sabah then made it 3-0 six minutes later on a short shot directly on goal.
In the 49th minute Justin Mapp popped a feed to defender Steve Kinney, who broke the shutout with a shot past Morelia goalie Yair Urbina.
But the visitors restored a three-goal lead a minute later when forward Rafael Marquez Lugo sent a 25-foot rocket past Dykstra and Jaime Lozano ended the scoring in the 70th minute.
The Fire fielded a lineup that might appear in any typical MLS game — at least as typical as possible given recent injuries.
Regulars such as forward Brian McBride, midfielders Mapp and Marco Pappa, defender C.J. Brown and Dykstra all drew starting spots.
Morelia is making its first SuperLiga visit since 2007. It failed to advance out of group play that year.
