Fire jump to an early lead, hold on to beat Sporting KC 1-0

After falling behind early, Sporting Kansas City was not able to find an equalizer in a frustrating effort as they fell to the Chicago Fire 1-0.

Chicago got the scoring started in the 13th minute. A cross sent in from Anibaba was tipped by Duka to the waiting Hunter Jumper in front of goal, who pushed the shot in to give the Fire a 1-0 advantage. It was Jumper's first goal in MLS play and the Fire were rolling to start the game.

Chicago had an amazing chance in the 64th minute. Rolfe was able to beat Aurelien Collin near the midfield line and breakaway towards the goal. He shot wide left, which kept the score within one after a well defended play from Nielsen.

Peterson Joseph earned a yellow card for a foul in the 62nd minute, which meant he would be suspended for next Saturday's match with the Colorado Rapids. While it didn't have too big of an effect in this match, it pretty much guaranteed him minutes against Olimpia since he'll miss the Rapids' match.

After subbing into the match, Anangono took a semi volley off a loose ball in the box and fired towards a diving Nielsen, who made a tremendous save with his fingertips to knock the ball off the bar and out of immediate danger. The save was a vintage Nielsen save, and Sporting KC remained down to Chicago 1-0 in the 72nd minute.

Despite subbing on Dom Dwyer and several late chances, Sporting Kansas City was not able to put an equalizer in the net as they fell to the Chicago Fire 1-0. It was their fourth loss in five matches and, depending on the results around the league this weekend, Sporting may end up falling to fourth place in the conference by the end of the weekend.

Sporting KC statistically dominated the match once again, attaining 81% passing accuracy and 59% possession. Similar to other games, however, their statistical excellence was not able to translate on the scoreboard.

Sporting will head to Honduras on Wednesday to take on the Olimpia side that just gained three points this past week in Champions League play. After that, they host the red-hot Colorado Rapids to close out the month of August.

Chicago moved up to sixth in the Eastern Conference and put themselves in a decent position to jump into a playoff spot with two matches in hand against several teams.