{"id":953370,"date":"2026-07-23T05:28:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953370\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T05:28:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:28:25","slug":"match-recap-robert-lewandowski-makes-mls-debut-in-3-2-road-loss-against-inter-miami-cf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953370\/","title":{"rendered":"Match Recap | Robert Lewandowski Makes MLS Debut in 3-2 Road Loss against Inter Miami CF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MIAMI<\/strong>\u00a0(July 22, 2026)\u00a0\u2013 Chicago Fire FC (8-5-2, 26 points) fell 3-2 against Inter Miami CF (10-2-4, 34 points) Wednesday evening in Miami\u2019s Nu Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Forward Robert Lewandowski made his Major League Soccer and Chicago Fire debut, playing 63 minutes from the start. Winger Puso Dithejane tallied his first-ever MLS goal coming off the bench in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>With all eyes on Lewandowski\u2019s first minutes with his new squad, a back pass slipped under the legs of Miami goalkeeper Rocco R\u00edos Novo and rolled in for an unexpected 1-0 Fire lead less than 20 minutes in. The hosts shook off the shock of their own goal, however, earning a penalty kick that was converted by Luis Su\u00e1rez in the 27th minute.<\/p>\n<p>Coming out of the break with the score level, the hosts quickly set the tone and took the lead five minutes into the second. Forward German Berterame combined with Su\u00e1rez on a give-and-go to put the Uruguayan striker in prime position for a brace, leaving goalkeeper Chris Brady unable to stop the point-blank shot for the lead.<\/p>\n<p>Upon entering the match, Dithejane left his mark, making several dashes into the box. Minutes into his shift, the South African winger turned a pass from Maren Haile-Selassie into a strike that equalized the match, giving Chicago hope of leaving South Florida with points for a second straight time.<\/p>\n<p>The match turned into a back-and-forth affair that wound up finding the legs of Su\u00e1rez once more in the 87th minute. Brady denied him a hat trick with a massive fourth save of the night, but Preston Plembeck pounced on the rebound to seal the game for Miami in the Men in Red\u2019s first visit to Nu Stadium.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NEXT MATCH:<\/strong>\u00a0The Fire will travel up the East Coast to take on New York City FC on Saturday, July 25. Kickoff at Yankee Stadium is set for 6:30 p.m. CT. The match will be broadcast globally on Apple TV and transmitted locally on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/wlsam.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wlsam.com<\/a>\u00a0in English and TUDN Chicago 106.7-HD2 and Uforia by TREBEL app in Spanish.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Robert Lewandowski made his MLS and Fire debut from the start of the match. The global football icon became the seventh Poland-born player to take the pitch for Chicago Fire FC in league play, but could not become the 14th player in Club history to score in his first appearance.  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Winger Puso Dithejane tallied his first goal with Chicago across all competitions to tie the match in the 67th minute. The South African winger had a match to remember, finishing third on the team in Expected Goals created in less than half an hour of play.  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Winger Maren Haile-Selassie tallied his sixth assist of the season on Dithejane\u2019s game-tying goal. Haile-Selassie now has 26 assists in regular season play, placing him a three-way tie for eighth among Fire players all-time with Brian Guti\u00e9rrez and Cuauht\u00e9moc Blanco.  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Chicago played at Nu Stadium for the first time in Club history on Wednesday night. The result gave the Fire a 2-3-1 all-time record on the road against Inter Miami CF.  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Defenders Mbekezeli Mbokazi (Lower Body) and Christopher Cupps (International Duty) and winger Chris Mueller (Not Due to Injury) were unavailable for selection. Midfielder Andr\u00e9 Franco (Lower Body) remains on the league Injured List and is projected to return in the second half of the season.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Social<\/strong>: Twitter &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chicagofire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@chicagofire<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VamosFire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@vamosfire<\/a>\u00a0(Hashtags: #cf97 #VamosFire) | Instagram &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/chicagofire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@chicagofire<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/chicagofire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Box Score:<br \/><\/strong>Inter Miami CF 3:2 Chicago Fire FC<\/p>\n<p>CHI &#8211; R\u00edos Novo (Own Goal) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/video\/own-goal-i-fray-mia-18?_gl=1*13ny30n*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTY0OTI3OTIxMS4xNzg0Nzc0MTU2*_ga_Q3GX51MG19*czE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkbzEkZzAkdDE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkajYwJGwwJGgw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WATCH<\/a>) 18\u2019<br \/>MIA &#8211; Su\u00e1rez (7) (Penalty) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/video\/pk-goal-l-suarez-vs-chi-27?_gl=1*13ny30n*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTY0OTI3OTIxMS4xNzg0Nzc0MTU2*_ga_Q3GX51MG19*czE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkbzEkZzAkdDE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkajYwJGwwJGgw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WATCH<\/a>) 27\u2019<br \/>MIA &#8211; Su\u00e1rez (8) (Berterame 5) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/video\/goal-l-suarez-vs-chi-51?_gl=1*6qmrft*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTY0OTI3OTIxMS4xNzg0Nzc0MTU2*_ga_Q3GX51MG19*czE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkbzEkZzAkdDE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkajYwJGwwJGgw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WATCH<\/a>) 51\u2019<br \/>CHI &#8211; Dithejane (1) (Haile-Selassie 6) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/video\/goal-p-dithejane-vs-mia-67?_gl=1*6qmrft*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTY0OTI3OTIxMS4xNzg0Nzc0MTU2*_ga_Q3GX51MG19*czE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkbzEkZzAkdDE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkajYwJGwwJGgw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WATCH<\/a>) 67\u2019<br \/>MIA &#8211; Plambeck (1) (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/video\/goal-p-plambeck-vs-chi-87?_gl=1*6qmrft*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTY0OTI3OTIxMS4xNzg0Nzc0MTU2*_ga_Q3GX51MG19*czE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkbzEkZzAkdDE3ODQ3NzQxNTYkajYwJGwwJGgw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WATCH<\/a>) 87\u2019<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discipline:<\/strong><br \/>CHI &#8211; Elliott (Caution) 64\u2019<br \/>MIA &#8211; Reguil\u00f3n (Caution) 90+7\u2019<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chicago Fire FC:<\/strong>\u00a0GK Brady, D Dean, D Waterman, D Elliott (capt.), D Gutman (Radojevi\u0107, 89\u2019), M Sal\u00e9tros, M D\u2019Avilla (Pineda, 63\u2019), M Zinckernagel (Dithejane, 62\u2019), M Bamba, F Haile-Selassie (Shokalook, 88\u2019), F Lewandowski (Lod, 63\u2019)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Subs not used<\/strong>: GK Cohen, D Barroso, D Rogers, M Oregel Jr.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Head Coach:<\/strong>\u00a0Gregg Berhalter<\/p>\n<p><strong>Inter Miami CF:<\/strong>\u00a0GK Rios Novo, D Mura, D Fray (Allen, 85\u2019), D dos Santos, D Reguil\u00f3n, M Ru\u00edz (Plambeck, 69\u2019), M Bright, M Segovia, F Silvetti (Pinter, 74\u2019), F Su\u00e1rez (capt.), F Bright<\/p>\n<p><strong>Subs not used:<\/strong>\u00a0GK St. Clair, D Sumalla, D Abadia-Reda, M Urkidi, F Rey<\/p>\n<p><strong>Head Coach:<\/strong>\u00a0Guillermo Hoyos<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stats Summary: MIA \/ CHI<br \/><\/strong>Shots: 14 \/ 15<br \/>Shots on Goal: 7 \/ 4<br \/>Saves: 3 \/ 4<br \/>Passing Accuracy: 87.3% \/ 86.7%<br \/>Corners: 8 \/ 4<br \/>Fouls: 8 \/ 16<br \/>Offsides: 1 \/ 3<\/p>\n<p><strong>Venue:<\/strong>\u00a0Nu Stadium (Miami, Florida)<br \/><strong>Attendance:<\/strong>\u00a025,123<\/p>\n<p><strong>Referee:<\/strong>\u00a0Rubiel Vazquez<br \/><strong>Assistant Referees:<\/strong>\u00a0Nick Uranga, Jose Da Silva<br \/><strong>Fourth Official:<\/strong>\u00a0Edson Carvajal<br \/><strong>VAR:<\/strong>\u00a0Kevin Stott<br \/><strong>AVAR:<\/strong>\u00a0Fabio Tovar<\/p>\n<p>              <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI\u00a0(July 22, 2026)\u00a0\u2013 Chicago Fire FC (8-5-2, 26 points) fell 3-2 against Inter Miami CF (10-2-4, 34 points)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":953371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,12420,5386,1818,15277,383630,50,383631,48735,12421],"class_list":["post-953370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-fire-fc","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-match-recap","tag-miavschi-07-22-2026","tag-news","tag-puso-dithejane","tag-robert-lewandowski","tag-us-major-league-soccer"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116967644005583687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}