Ola Kamara's hat trick lifts DC United past Chicago

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:04 am

Ola Kamara converted a pair of penalty kicks while bagging a first-half hat trick, and DC United rolled to a 3-0 win over the visiting Chicago Fire FC on Wednesday night.

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In the mix for the MLS Golden Boot as the league's top goal scorer, Kamara increased his season total to 16 through the first 44 minutes of the match. He buried successful penalty attempts in the ninth and 35 minutes, then notched his second career MLS hat trick with a header in the 44th for D.C. (10-10-4, 34 points), which has earned seven points from its last three matches and improved to 8-3-0 at home this season.

United, fighting for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, also finished 2-0-1 this season against the Fire (6-13-5, 23 points), who have been outscored 9-3 while going 1-4 through five of six consecutive road contests.

After conceding two goals in the first six minutes of last weekend's 2-0 loss at Sporting Kansas City, Chicago once again found itself down before 10 minutes lapsed on Wednesday. Following a yellow card off a bad foul from the Fire's Carlos Teran in the seventh minute, Kamara stepped up to the spot and went opposite end of Chicago goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth's dive to give United a 1-0 lead.

Chicago's Luka Stojanovic twice was in position to level the match for the visitors. First, in the 23rd minute, when he took a ball in the box, but sent it just to the left of the post. Then right before the half-hour mark, United goalkeeper Bill Hamid made a brilliant kick save on Stojanovic's point-blank chance.

However, Jhon Espinoza's trip of Kevin Paredes in the corner of the box on 33 minutes set Kamara up for another successful spot attempt. While Shuttleworth guessed correctly on his dive to the right, he was not quick enough to stop Kamara's strike.

Kamara completed his hat trick in the waning moments of the half. After Paul Arriola's shot hit the crossbar, the rebound came to teammate Julian Gressel, who then promptly crossed in position for Kamara to successfully convert the hat trick.