By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Winger Jonathan Bamba scored twice and forward Robert Lewandowski added a goal and an assist as Chicago Fire FC defeated the Colorado Rapids 4-2 on Saturday night in Commerce City, Colorado.
The four-goal output pushed Chicago’s season total to 61, marking the first time in club history the Fire have reached 60 goals in consecutive seasons, according to the team’s match recap. The victory kept Chicago in fourth place in the Eastern Conference at 16-10-7 with 55 points and one regular-season match remaining.
Colorado’s Morgan Whittaker opened the scoring in the 22nd minute. Chicago equalized shortly before halftime when Bamba tapped home a deflected cross from right back Jonathan Dean for his second goal in as many games, according to the recap.
The Fire took the lead early in the second half in similar fashion. Bamba dribbled through the left side before switching the ball to fellow winger Philip Zinckernagel on the right. Zinckernagel found an overlapping Dean, whose cross found Bamba for the tap-in and his second goal of the night.
Colorado equalized seconds later, but Chicago regained the lead for good after Lewandowski entered the match as a substitute shortly past the hour mark. Forward Johan Gomez held off a defender and played the ball to Zinckernagel, who spotted Lewandowski making a run on the left. Lewandowski rounded the goalkeeper and finished for a 3-2 advantage.
The final goal came from substitute Puso Dithejane, who scored just 36 seconds after entering the match. Midfielder Andre Franco dispossessed an opponent near the center circle to send another substitute, Andrew Gutman, on a run up the left. Gutman centered to Lewandowski, who turned and fed Dithejane a wide-open pass in the box for the finish, according to the recap.
Zinckernagel recorded two assists, his fourth multi-assist performance with the Fire. The contributions moved him into ninth place on the club’s all-time lists for both assists and goal contributions, the team said.
The match was Bamba’s first multi-goal game with Chicago. After scoring three times in his first 24 appearances this season, the winger has matched that total in his last two matches for six goals in 2026.
Lewandowski’s goal was his seventh of the regular season. He also assisted on Dithejane’s goal, giving him his fourth match this season with multiple goal contributions.
The seven road victories in 2026 are two short of the club record set last year. The 16 combined road wins over the past two seasons are the most in any two-year stretch in Fire history, surpassing the 15 combined victories from 1998 and 1999, according to the club.
Saturday’s attendance of 15,031 at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park brought the Fire’s final road attendance total for the season to 420,840, the most in club history.
Chicago returns to SeatGeek Stadium for the regular-season finale against longtime rival Columbus Crew on Decision Day, Saturday, Nov. 7. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m.
