In my preview, I said that this should have been easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. I still firmly believe that. The Fire should have won this game going away. They had almost every advantage. They had an offence poised to get out of their scoring funk against lower league opposition, and a defense, while horribly out matched on most occasions, should have been up to the task against the 9th place team in the USL Championship Eastern Conference.
The First five minutes looked promising. They forced STL goalkeeper Tomás Gómez to stand on his head; making three saves in the span of fifteen seconds.