Fire use early offensive outburst to blank CF Montreal

Xherdan Shaqiri and Maren Haile-Selassie each collected a goal and an assist to lift the host Chicago Fire to a 3-0 victory over CF Montreal on Wednesday.

Chicago's Brian Gutierrez scored in the ninth minute, Haile-Selassie tallied two minutes later and Shaqiri converted a set piece in the 34th minute.

Georgios Koutsias notched a pair of assists for the Fire (7-7-8, 29 points), who have won the first two contests of their four-match homestand to improve to 4-1-6 at home this season.

Homegrown goalkeeper Chris Brady made four saves to record his fifth clean sheet of the season and third in his last four matches.

Jonathan Sirois finished with two saves for Montreal (8-12-2, 26 points), which failed to convert on any of its seven corner kicks and has been shut out in each of its last four matches. CF Montreal dropped to 1-9-2 on the road this season.

Chicago answered a one-hour, 15-minute weather delay to start the match by erupting on a goal-scoring barrage.

Koutsias settled the ball deep in the box and drew a second defender before alertly spotting Gutierrez, who fired a shot past Sirois for his first goal of the season.

The Fire kept their foot on the gas before doubling the advantage two minutes later.

A quick touch by Shaqiri found Haile-Selassie, who sent a left-footed shot just under the crossbar for his fourth goal of the season and first since May 27.

A foul by Victor Wanyama set up a set-piece situation in the 34th minute for Chicago. Shaqiri exchanged passes with Haile-Selassie before the former unleashed a shot from outside the box that sailed into the top right corner for his third goal of the season -- with all three coming in his last five matches.

Montreal attempted to answer two minutes later on a penalty kick, however Ariel Lassiter's shot caromed off the right post.

--Field Level Media