Chicago Fire players were colliding with each other - Jon Busch and Wilman Conde (right), Mike Banner and Calen Carr. There were some open gaps within the Fire's defense, including leaving Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan wide open a couple of times above the box. And then the Fire had minimal possession of the ball for the final 45 minutes.The Fire still had some chances through all of the above shortcomings, but L.A. pulled off the 1-0 victory Friday night at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. The Galaxy overtake the Houston Dynamo for first place in the Western Conference and inches closer to the MLS playoffs. They can clinch a postseason spot if Chivas USA earns a draw or defeats D.C. United on Saturday.
Donovan tallied the game's lone goal in the 42nd minute, making a strong run side-by-side against the Fire's Logan Pause, off of a deep send from Chris Klein. Pause hit the ground and Donovan drew Busch far from the goal box. The Galaxy midfielder chipped the ball well over Busch, the ball bounced once and into the back of the net for a 1-0 L.A. lead.
The Galaxy goal came off of a counter from Peter Lowry's corner kick attempt. David Beckham started the counter with a quick pass to Donovan, who dropped it back to Klein and then led Donovan with the send.
It was that type of ball movement that helped L.A. control much of the second half, while Chicago could not muster a run of possession for most of the second half and portions of the first.
There were some moments when the Fire offense came close to striking, though. In the 27th minute, Brian McBride had a deep strike with some pace on it to force Donovan Ricketts to make the diving save. In the 65th, Patrick Nyarko chipped the ball at a difficult angle from the left side, but his touch was just wide right. In the 89th, there was a huge scramble where Brandon Prideaux had a good opportunity in traffic, and second-half sub Stefan Dimitrov also got a foot on the ball before L.A. stopped the attack in front of the goal line.
The brightest spot for Chicago was the play of Busch, who made a couple of top-notch saves (five total), including a laser shot from Beckham in the 86th minute, reacting quickly enough to push the ball away with his right glove.
Next up: The Fire have a bit of a break until they visit the New England Revolution for a 5 p.m. match on Saturday, Oct. 17. The game will be televised on Fox Soccer Channel.
SlideTackles.net thoughts: The Fire have had plenty of injuries and lineup changes to deal with, this time playing without the likes of Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Chris Rolfe. But at this point in the season with any lineup, the extent of miscommunication was pretty extreme.
Additionally, it looked like the Fire players did not know how they wanted to attack the Galaxy defense. There were some half chances, there were some opportune moments when a better run or decision would have challenged Ricketts a bit more. For some reason Chicago hasn't forced Ricketts to break into a sweat this year, as many Fire fans probably remember the Fire's zero shots on goal the previous time they played the Galaxy at Toyota Park. Most of Ricketts' saves, other than the McBride shot, were pretty routine.
One player who has not had a noteworthy game in a while is midfielder Marco Pappa. He did lead the team with three shots on goal Friday, including one long strike that had some velocity but went straight to Ricketts. With numerous soccer skills in his arsenal, for some reason he just looks lost on the pitch when he doesn't have Blanco playing alongside him. Pappa needed to pull the trigger earlier in the 41st minute on a good setup from Nyarko. And McBride provided a nice chip pass in the 88th minute, but Pappa's shot went way left and probably should have minimally been placed on goal.
The final stretch is all about finding some momentum as the playoff picture pans out, and Chicago needs to find a way to put an end to its five-game winless rut.
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