FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — An own goal in the ninth minute of stoppage time gave the Chicago Fire a 2-2 draw with the New England Revolution on Saturday in a wild finish to the regular-season finale.
The Fire (15-11-8) settled for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference and will play host to No. 9 Orlando City in the wild-card match Wednesday at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview. MLS has yet to release the starting time.
It will be the Fire’s first playoff game since 2017, when they lost to the visiting New York Red Bulls 4-0. The winner of Wednesday’s match will take on the top-seeded Philadelphia Union in a best-of-three first-round series starting next weekend.
A win Saturday would have given the Fire the No. 6 seed in the East and a first-round matchup against Lionel Messi and No. 3 Inter Miami.
Dor Turgeman flicked a header, off a free kick played into the area by Carles Gil, from near the penalty spot into the net to give the Revolution (9-16-9) a 2-1 lead in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Three minutes later Joel Waterman ran onto a loose ball along left end line and flicked a first-touch shot that was redirected into the net by Turgeman for an own goal that capped the scoring.
Alhassan Yusuf gave the Revolution a 1-0 lead in the first minute when he dispossessed the Fire’s Dje D’Avilla at the top of the penalty area and then chipped a short shot over goalkeeper Chris Brady and inside the back post.
Zinckernagel put away a rising first-touch finish off a feed from Hugo Cuypers to make it 1-1 in the 82nd.
The two goals gave the Fire a franchise-record 68 on the season, one more than the 2000 team.
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