SOCCER: Robert Lewandowski scores twice as fire beat Charlotte

Robert Lewandowski netted a brace in his home debut as the Chicago Fire eked out a 2-1 victory over Charlotte FC on Saturday evening.

The win is Chicago's first since the end of the international break. Lewandowski, signed in late June as a free agent, is a former star for Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona. His vintage performance means that the Fire (9-6-2, 29 points) close an ever-narrowing gap with the Eastern Conference's top three clubs.

Charlotte (7-7-4, 25 points) has lost four of its last five road matches. They entered the match without star winger Kerwin Vargas, who finalized a transfer to Brazilian team Athletico Paranaense.

Pep Biel opened the scoring in the 18th minute for Charlotte. After playing a one-two with Idan Toklomati at the top of the box, Biel sped past his marker and rifled his shot past Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady into the top right corner. The goal was Biel's team-leading ninth of the season.

Lewandowski responded just two minutes later, scoring his first goal in a Chicago uniform. Jonathan Bamba lofted a through-ball to Philip Zinckernagel at the top of the box, but instead of going for goal, Zinckernagel headed it to an incoming Lewandowski. After faking a shot, Lewandowski put the ball on his right foot and slotted his shot into the bottom left corner past goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina.

The Fire almost took the lead when Zinckernagel found Robin Lod open in the box. However, Lod couldn't steer his shot on target at such a steep angle, and Lewandowski couldn't get to the ball at the far post for what would've been a point-blank, uncontested shot.

One of Chicago's best chances came through Lewandowski coming off the corner in the 56th minute. The Polish attacker played a pinpoint through-ball to a streaking Zinckernagel, setting him up for a one-on-one with Kahlina. However, Zinckernagel took one too many touches as he neared Kahlina, and Kahlina deflected his tight-angle shot. Kahlina finished with three saves.

The Fire found the go-ahead goal in the 68th minute when Andrew Gutman found Lod just outside the box in transition. Lod played Lewandowski past a defender with a through ball, and Lewandowski easily beat Kahlina at close range to secure his second goal of the game.

Charlotte searched desperately for an equalizer but couldn't challenge Brady, who finished without any saves. Charlotte produced just three second-half shots, only one of which came from inside the box.

-Field Level Media/Reuters