BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - The Chicago Fire have recorded more Toyota Park victories in SuperLiga 2009 than they have recorded home regular-season victories in Major League Soccer this season.Chicago’s Justin Mapp scored the lone goal as the Fire defeated MLS rival Chivas USA, 1-0, on Tuesday at Toyota Park. With the win, the Fire are in strong position to advance to the semifinals of the SuperLiga tournament. The top two teams in Group A move forward. Chicago sits at the top with two victories, while San Luis and Tigres UANL are tied for second with a win apiece.
Mapp got the Fire on the board in the 35th minute with a left-footed strike on the upper left corner. He was the beneficiary of Patrick Nyarko’s attack. Nyarko (pictured above) crossed the ball from the right side into the middle, and the pass quickly deflected off of a couple Chivas defenders and right to Mapp at the top of the box. The goal officially was ruled unassisted.
“We tried to clear it and it bounced a couple times. You can’t give Justin that kind of time,” Chivas goalkeeper and former Fire net minder Zach Thornton said.
Chivas recorded only one shot on goal for the whole game. They made several substitutions at halftime, which gave them a bit of a burst on this hot evening. But the Fire defense stayed strong. And the play of the game came from Chicago defender Austin Washington, who came up with a huge block on a Chukwudi Chijindu shot in the 52nd minute.
“We tried to push the game in the second half, but give a lot of credit to their back line,” Thornton said of Chicago’s defensive effort.
“Their young guys played better than our young guys. That’s the story,” Chivas head coach Preki said.
Though Chivas didn’t have a first-half shot on goal, they definitely provided an early scare for the Fire. In the 4th minute, Shavar Thomas hit the right post off of a corner kick opportunity.
Veteran Fire defender C.J. Brown was replaced in the 16th minute by Brandon Prideaux. He strained his hamstring and did not want to take any chances.
“He felt his hamstring, but I don’t think it was pulled,” Fire head coach Denis Hamlett said. “It’s more positive than negative in the sense that he didn’t hear it pop or pull, and he caught it early.”
Next up: Chicago’s SuperLiga schedule continues this weekend when the Fire host Tigres UANL at 7 p.m. Saturday at Toyota Park.
SlideTackles.net thoughts: The hot conditions, mixed with a bunch of players who don’t normally get a lot of playing time, probably factored into the sluggish start to this game.
The defensive effort was obviously a positive. To hold Chivas without a shot on goal in the first half and only one for the entire game, that was impressive. In the early stages, the defense was a bit shaky when Brown gambled on a couple of opportunities and Chivas had that one deflect off the post. Other than that, the Fire gave goalkeeper Jon Busch an easy night to work with.
There wasn’t a whole lot to be excited about offensively. But Nyarko continues to move well on the pitch. In Saturday’s Fire lineup, he easily set the tone with the majority of potential scoring threats, both for his teammates and himself. The only downfall has been the lack of goals. But Hamlett gives every assurance that the goals will come eventually for the youngster.
“All good goal scorers go through that,” Hamlett said. “That’s the hardest thing in soccer. You tell him that the good thing is you’re getting yourself in good spots. You’re getting good looks. … He does so much for our team aside from scoring goals. Those things will come.”
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