Sept. 17 was a down day for most of Chicago's sports teams.
—At Soldier Field, the Chicago Fire FC (9-15-8, 35 points) fell 3-2 to Charlotte FC (12-17-2, 38 points).
With the loss, the Fire were officially eliminated from postseason contention.
The Fire opened the scoring just two minutes and 35 seconds into the match with an unassisted goal from midfielder Mauricio Pineda, his first of the season and fastest goal for Chicago so far this year. And in the 30th minute, Jhon Duran scored again for Fire, giving the team a 2-0 lead.
Unfortunately for Chicago, Charlotte engineered a comeback, although the victors didn't score their first goal until the game's 68th minute.
Chicago will head into a FIFA international break this upcoming week, before returning to the field on Saturday, Oct. 1 against FC Cincinnati at 6:30 p.m. at TQL Stadium. The match will be televised live on WGN-TV and CF97 Live, and transmitted locally in Spanish on TUDN 1200 AM.
—At SeatGeek Stadium, the Chicago Red Stars (8-6-6) played a hard-fought match against the Houston Dash (9-5-6), but ultimately fell 1-0.
Houston scored in the game's 24th minute and held on for the victory.
Next, the Red Stars will play the Portland Thorns at Providence Park on Sunday, Sept.. 25. Chicago will try to keep its playoff hopes alive with two regular-season games left.
—Yoan Moncada hit a tie-breaking single in a two-run 11th inning, and the Chicago White Sox (75-71) beat Detroit (55-90) 4-3 on Saturday night after losing to the Tigers in extra innings in the series opener, ESPN noted.
Chicago is several games back of AL Central-leading Cleveland (78-66), which completed a doubleheader sweep of Minnesota.
The teams finish their three-game series on Sunday, Sept. 18.
—At Wrigley Field, the Colorado Rockies (63-82) defeated the Chicago Cubs (62-83) 3-1.
Charlie Blackmon—who came into the game in a 5-for-41 slump—hit a tie-breaking triple and scored in a two-run ninth for Colorado, per ESPN.
The Cubs had won four straight and were looking to put themselves in position for their second straight sweep after taking three at the NL East-leading New York Mets.
The Rockies had some fun before the game, sending mostly rookies in full uniform to the nearby Dunkin' Donuts.
The series ends Sunday, Sept. 18.
—It was a game most people thought the Northwestern University football team would win—but there have been a lot of upsets this season so far.
Unfortunately for NU, it became the first Power Five school to lose against an FCS opponent this season as the Wildcats fell 31-24 to Southern Illinois, CBS Sports noted.
Northwestern started the season with a 31-28 win over Nebraska in Dublin, Ireland; then, NU lost 31-23 to Duke at home.
Southern Illinois started 0-2 this season, falling 64-29 to Incarnate Word and 34-31 to Southeast Missouri.
NU next will host Miami (Ohio), a mid-level FBS team that is more than capable of beating the Wildcats.
