Reigning MLS player of the month Nemanja Nikolic is the front-runner for Major League Soccer’s Golden Boot, and in order to stay in that position he needs every single goal that he can get. However, the league’s leading scorer had no hesitation at all about letting his Chicago Fire teammate David Accam take the penalty kick in in the 63′ minute, enabling Accam to accomplish his first career hat trick.
That speaks volumes about the selflessness of this Fire team, and that spirit of putting the unit above the individual is a huge reason why this team in undefeated in their last nine.
Accam said there was no argument whatsoever about who would take the PK in the Fire’s 4-0 rout of visiting Orlando City SC.
“We share responsibilities with penalties every time,” Accam said after the game.
Accam’s 10th scoring strike, coupled with Nikolic’s 14 on the campaign, marks the first time that the Fire have had two double figure scorers in the same season since 2003. Accam, who leaves to join the Ghana national team tomorrow, has already surpassed his scoring total from last season, and we’re only at the midpoint of the 2017 campaign.
The Ghanian is not at all surprised by how fast the Fire have been able to coalesce all their new pieces this season, nor is he shocked by how quickly the team has made just a drastic turnaround.
“Not really, because I know the players we have here and I train with them everyday and one thing I notice from everyone is they want to win,” he said.
Accam is one of the biggest beneficiaries of all the added talent in the central midfield. Dax McCarty and Bastian Schweinsteiger are two big name talents who provide opportunities in the final third.
“I’m so glad he could score that third goal, it was important for him, but also important for the team,” said Fire Coach Veljko Paunovic in postgame.
“We have to work it give David the opportunities and we should expect performances like this will come even more.”
The Fire attack is looking much stronger than it has in a very long time, and leading the way is Nemanja Nikolic, a Hungarian international who will almost certainly become a MLS All-Star.
This year, the All-Star game is coincidentally in Chicago, and the opponent is Real Madrid, a club recently named the world’s most powerful football/soccer brand. The two sides clash August 2nd at Soldier Field.
“I played against Real in group stage Champions League last year, it was an incredible feeling,” Nikolic said after the game.
“And to be in the MLS All-Star team it would really be something special, so we will see. I need to do my job and score goals.”
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Niko credits the team and the coaching staff for believing in him and helping him adopt quickly to life with the Chicago Fire, who signed him from Legia Warsaw.
“I feel like I’m here five-ten years really, and I just came a half year before, so it;s strange, but also in my previous club in Poland, I adopt really well and really fast,” he said.
During their recent hot streak, the Fire have established themselves as not just playoff contenders, but title contenders. Pauno spoke about the development of David Accam and Nemanja Nikolic in the post game.
“If the question is if I expected it to be so soon, yes, because actually it wasn’t that soon because last year was tough for us and these are Nelson Rodriguez’s words, ‘all the good job we did in the past’ and I think I mentioned that in one of our conferences all that good job we did in the past, now it’s reflected and its not only on the field but off the field too,” he responded.
“We are still working and we still have to improve on the kinds of things that are important right now and we have to work on but it’s still a job in progress and working in progress and we know that we cannot stop now.”
The Fire return home next Saturday, on July 1st, Canada Day, or Canadian Independence Day, when they will host Vancouver.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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