Harrison Shipp's hat-trick just about proved decisive as Chicago Fire edged an nine-goal thriller with the New York Red Bulls to move off the bottom of the MLS Eastern Conference.
The Fire midfielder gave the away side the lead as early as the fourth minute when he latched onto Greg Cochrane's ball to score, despite protests from the hosts that the goal shouldn't have stood.
However, the Red Bulls were level in a matter of moments when Eric Alexander played in Tim Cahill and the ex-Everton midfielder was able to tuck away his effort.
As the game continued at a frenetic pace, New York edged ahead moments before the break when neat build-up from Thierry Henry set up Bradley Wright-Phillips, who sidefooted the ball beyond Sean Johnson in the Chicago goal.
After the interval, the game took an amazing twist as Fire scored four times in 16 minutes to seemingly put the result beyond New York.
Their equaliser came from Quincy Amarikwa, before Shipp nabbed his second of the game to put the visitors ahead on 53 minutes.
Shipp then completed his hat-trick before setting up Patrick Nyarko, who scored to put Fire into a remarkable 5-2 lead.
However, the game wasn't finished as Lloyd Sam and Jonathan Steele linked up well to create a chance for Wright-Phillips to net his second of the game and give New York hope of an unlikely comeback.
He then completed his own hat-trick from the penalty spot after Henry was bundled over in the area to set up a grandstand finish at the Red Bull Arena.
Chicago somehow managed to hold on for victory and lift themselves from the foot of the Eastern Conference while New York's playoff aspirations will have been dented.
Chris O'Keefe
