Chicago Fire relish playoff return with "surreal" Wild Card win | OneFootball

By Alex Calabrese

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – At long last, Chicago Fire FC have won a postseason game. And they did it in style.

Making their first Audi MLS Cup Playoffs appearance since 2017, the Men in Red cruised to a 3-1 victory over Orlando City SC in Wednesday's Eastern Conference Wild Card clash at SeatGreek Stadium, dominating the match from start to finish.

The result didn't just put Chicago through to Round One, where they'll face off with Supporters' Shield-winning Philadelphia Union in a Best-of-3 Series. It also marked Chicago's first playoff victory since November 2009.

“We know it’s not going to be done overnight, but we want to put a product on the field and be a type of club that all of Chicago can admire,” head coach Gregg Berhalter said postgame.

“I’ve lived here for six years. I know how big a sports city Chicago is. When you see this kind of an atmosphere tonight, just think about that.”

Hometown hero

Brian Gutiérrez grew up as a boyhood Fire fan in nearby Berwyn, just a few minutes down the road from Bridgeview. It was fitting that the 22-year-old homegrown talent was the one to score the Fire’s first playoff goal since 2012.

Shortly after halftime, with the Fire dominating but still yet to score, “Guti” collected a Jonathan Dean cross mid-air and knocked the ball past Pedro Gallese.

The youngster then jumped into the crowd, celebrating with the fans he was once a part of in a truly special postseason moment.

“It was like reliving when I was a fan,” Gutiérrez told Jillian Sakovits on MLS Season Pass. “Sharing those moments with the fans, me being a fan. It was something surreal that I always dreamed of.”

“I always wanted to do that growing up,” the midfielder said of jumping into the crowd. “I was picturing it that way as a kid, and I finally did it today and it was incredible.”

Gutiérrez had a near-perfect outing, coming close to two more goals with a pair of second-half attempts that rattled the woodwork.

Chicago’s dynamic No. 10 is getting hot at the right time, and the Fire are a much better team when he’s at the top of his game.

“He so badly wants this club to be successful,” Berhalter said of Gutiérrez. “The conversations we have, he really wants to push and do all he can to help the team.

"You saw that in the last month, Guti hasn’t always started the games. And you can think that a player might get dejected and lose motivation, but every time he came in, he made an impact, and he kept being positive, and that’s why he had that impact today.”

WATCH: Hugo Cuypers brace powers Chicago to first playoff win in 16 years!

Leading from the front

Hugo Cuypers has emerged as a top No. 9 in his second MLS season, and stayed hot on Wednesday night with one of his best performances in a Chicago shirt. The Belgian Designated Player topped off an incredible all-around performance with two second-half goals to put the game out of Orlando’s reach.

“Since our result last Saturday, we were fully focused,” Cuypers said. “I think from the start, we felt that everybody just gave a little but more output.

"Every time someone did something positive, the one next to him gave a high five throughout the whole game. We kept our emotions under control; we didn’t panic when we didn’t get our goal in the first half. We came out for the second half and we got rewarded.”

Cuypers describes himself as an “obsessive” player, and says the fact his manager is the same way is what has made them so successful as a team.

His preparation for Orlando was one of the keys to his performance, and exposed the opposition’s frailties playing out of the back, particularly on his first goal.

“We like to prepare as much as we can and go into a lot of detail,” Cuypers said. “We tried to do a job as well as we could and get these connections between the players. The staff gives us a lot of information and everything we can that helps us on the field.”

Next stop Chester

After cruising through the Wild Card, the Fire are officially into the playoffs proper. Their reward for the victory? A test against the Union, with Game 1 of the Best-of-3 Series set for Sunday at Subaru Park (5:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass; FS1).

Philadelphia have given the Fire plenty of trouble this season, winning both matches between the sides, so finding a way to advance will be a monumental task.

“Philly was the best team in the league this year,” Berhalter said. “They kicked our butt in the first two games we played them. I think all we can do is better than that, right?”

“So we’ll put together some things and we’ll be working in the next couple of days to recover and prepare to go there.”

WATCH: Philly up next! Chicago thump Orlando in Wild Card match