FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — An own goal in the ninth minute of stoppage time gave the Chicago Fire a 2-2 draw with the New England Revolution on Saturday in a wild finish to the regular-season finale.
The Fire (15-11-8) settled for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference and will play host to No. 9 Orlando City in the wild-card match at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview.
The Fire secured their first playoff spot since 2017 under first-year coach Gregg Berhalter, the former U.S. men’s national team coach. The winner of Wednesday’s match will take on the top-seeded Philadelphia Union in a best-of-three first-round series starting next weekend.
Dor Turgeman flicked a header, off a free kick played into the area by Carles Gil, from near the penalty spot into the net to give the Revolution (9-16-9) a 2-1 lead in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Three minutes later Joel Waterman ran onto a loose ball along left end line and flicked a first-touch shot that was redirected into the net by Turgeman for an own goal that capped the scoring.
Alhassan Yusuf gave the Revolution a 1-0 lead in the first minute when he dispossessed the Fire’s Dje D’Avilla at the top of the penalty area and then chipped a short shot over goalkeeper Chris Brady and inside the back post.
Zinckernagel put away a rising first-touch finish off a feed from Hugo Cuypers to make it 1-1 in the 82nd.
The two goals gave the Fire a franchise-record 68 on the season, one more than the 2000 team.
A win Saturday would have given the Fire the No. 6 seed in the East and a first-round matchup against Lionel Messi and No. 3 Inter Miami. But without the late own goal, the Fire would have lost and dropped to the No. 9 seed, moving the wild-card match to Orlando, Fla.
