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Fire Fri May 29 2009
Fire Win Big On The Road
We finally found out where all the breaks the Fire couldn't catch at Toyota Park are. They're on the road. The Fire's 3-2 victory over league-leading Chivas USA, was the latest in a string of victories from the Fire that haven't measured up in quality to the games they only tied at Toyota Park. Though anyone not named Arsene Wenger will tell you, quality doesn't matter. Results do. You could see that on the faces of Fire players, as they celebrated the final whistle like it was a playoff win.
The Fire were down 2-1 after a couple of howlers from Jon Busch (missing a routine save) and Bakary Soumare (giving up a penalty by leaving his feet in a position where he really didn't need to). A comeback looked unlikely until former Fire stalwart Jesse Marsch received a red card for his second bookable offense. From there, Denis Hamlet had license to throw on attacking substitutions in the form of Patrick Nyarko and Baggio Husidic. The move paid off in the 89th minute as Nyarko scored a late equalizer. Then, deep into injury time a seemingly inconsequential cross led to contact on Brian McBride in the box and a pretty soft penalty call.
A little lucky? Sure. But the comeback also shows the kind of never-say-die attitude the Fire have shown all year, and more importantly, the momentum they've been gathering recently. They'll need more of that against Dallas at home this Sunday, when they'll be missing Blanco, Gonzalo Segares and Bakary Soumare due to World Cup Qualifiers.
