Chicago Fire midfielder Chris Rolfe scored the lone tally and goalkeeper Jon Busch came through with 10 saves as the Fire defeated the New York Red Bulls, 1-0, in Major League Soccer action Sunday afternoon at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.The Eastern Conference-leading Fire improve to 4-0-6 and are two games shy of tying the MLS record for the longest unbeaten streak to start their season. New York falls to 2-6-3.
Rolfe’s goal came just before halftime, and was conjured up in a flash. Busch started the attack with a deep ball that was headed by Brian McBride toward the middle of the field. Logan Pause rushed in from the back and headed the ball forward to Rolfe, who turned and fired the left-footed shot to the far post past Red Bulls goalkeeper Jon Conway.
The flow of the game went back and forth at times, but for the most part the Red Bulls were the ones on the attack - a huge difference compared to the New York team that fell to Chicago, 1-0, earlier in the season with a one-man advantage.
The Red Bulls’ Juan Pablo Angel had several scoring chances in the first half. And then the rest of his team jumped on the bandwagon and forced Busch to earn his clean sheet.
Alberto Celades had a strong strike from the top of the box that was saved in the 60th minute. Then in the final 5 minutes, Busch had to halt New York’s attack on multiple chances. Dane Richards got past Fire defender Bakary Soumare from the left side, but his shot was turned away. Danleigh Borman slumped over in reaction to his header being stopped shortly thereafter.
Conway came up from the back and came close to getting a strong header, but the ball bounced over the net as the Fire evaded New York’s final scoring push.
Next up: The Fire wrap up their three-game road trip at Chivas USA for a 9:30 p.m. game Thursday at Chivas USA. The game is televised on ESPN2.
SlideTackles.net thoughts: Busch has always said that there would be games like this where he’d have to come up with an array of saves. Sunday was the time, and Busch came through to perfection. His reaction to the ball was uncanny, and he bailed the defense out on a few occasions when they were gambling for a steal on the flanks. Soumare did that a couple of times, and even Wilman Conde had a moment or two that was out of character. The guys are picking up for one another, and it’s amazing that this team could not achieve this momentum on the home front.
I’m also impressed with the nature of how Chicago scored, which was almost the opposite of the character within the team’s five-game string of draws. The Fire didn’t dominate on possession. They didn’t have the ball on the offensive third for a long stretch of time. And their goal was almost conjured up on a black board before the game, with a string of great passes all the way from the back with Busch.
Chicago, still touting that undefeated moniker, will face its toughest challenge to date when Chivas USA hosts the Fire in a few days. It has been difficult to gather any type of momentum throughout MLS play this season, and the Fire are one of the few squads to get something going … on the road no less.
No comments:
Post a Comment