Join us on SportsHosts and be entered in our monthly NYCFC merch giveaway: http://thenycfcnation.com/sportshostsapp Game recap provided by MLS Soccer: Maxi Moralez returned from injury as a halftime substitute to help spark New York City FC to a 3-1 win over Chicago Fire FC Saturday at Red Bull Arena. Moralez’s impact was felt almost immediately, serving up the assist on Anton Tinnerholm’s eventual game-winning goal in the 53rd minute. It was the seventh assist in as many all-time appearances against the Fire for Moralez, who has been sidelined by a nagging calf injury suffered at the MLS is Back Tournament last month. Tinnerholm took a settling first touch and finished clinically inside the far post to break the stalemate in the 53rd minute. Keaton Parks opened the scoring in the 16th minute, equalling his goal total from a year ago. The midfielder received the ball in the box from an Alexandru Mitrita service and guided his low shot inside the far post. Parks paid tribute to “Black Panther” actor Chadwick Boseman, who died Friday, with a “Wakanda Forever” celebration. Four minutes later, Maxime Chanot headed off the post after latching onto Jesus Medina’s corner kick. Mauricio Pineda leveled in first-half stoppage time with the unmarked rookie tapping past Sean Johnson after Francisco Calvo flicked on Alvaro Medran’s corner kick. The Fire nearly equalized a second time in the 74th minute, but Alex Callens cleared Elliot Collier’s attempt off the line after Johnson initially misplayed. A minute later, Alex Ring scored for a second consecutive game off an assist from Tinnerholm to put the game away. Columbus had a first-half goal by Gyasi Zardes called off when Derrick Etienne was offside on the service. Pedro Santos came close to the equalizer in the 82nd minute, but Sean Johnson dived to parry it out for a corner kick. Fanendo Adi appeared to score the tying goal in stoppage time, but it was the second goal waved off for offside. QUOTES NYCFC Head Coach Ronny Deila: On bringing Maxi on at the half instead of later... "Maybe we wanted to wait a bit, but I think we needed to make some changes in the second half to get three points. Today is the first time that I have seen Maxi so fresh. You can see that he has no pain, and you can also see how good he is and how vital he is for the team. We created a lot of chances and played a really good second half. I am eager to see the future but just want to play games now." NYCFC Defender Anton Tinnerholm: On just wanting to keep moving after difficult results this season... "We had a rough start, there’s no doubt about it. We had a lot of meetings and things got better. But in the end we have to show it on the pitch. It is easy to talk but harder to perform out there. We showed it today and we showed it against Columbus that we can do it. I think the second half we were dominating the game; the Chicago players were so exhausted in the final 15 minutes that they can’t even press us.

Back to back wins for New York City FC

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