CHICAGO FIRE vs SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC
TOYOTA PARK, Bridgeview, Ill.
May 2, 2009 (WEEK 7) / MLS Game #48
7:30 p.m. CT (My50 Chi.; KONG)
The Chicago Fire and Seattle Sounders FC meet at Toyota Park in one of the high-profile contests of the round, matching second-place clubs in each conferences. It's also a case of irresistible force meeting immovable object: The Fire lead MLS with 12 goals scored through six games on the season, while Sounders FC have allowed a league-low three goals on the year - and veteran goalkeeper Kasey Keller still has yet to allow one since coming to the league.
REFEREE: Jasen Anno. SAR (bench): Sean Hurd; JAR (opposite): Peter Manikowski; 4th: Michael Kennedy
MLS Career: 4 games; FC/gm: 27.8; Y/gm: 3.8; R: 1; pens: 1
INJURY REPORT: CHICAGO FIRE - OUT: MF Justin Mapp (R hamstring strain); FW Peter Lowry (L knee sprain); FW Calen Carr (L ACL tear); DF Daniel Woolard (R ankle sprain); DOUBTFUL: DF C.J. Brown (R quad strain) ... SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC - PROBABLE: DF Taylor Graham (left sesamoid fracture); MF Stephen King (L groin strain); FW Jarrod Smith (quadriceps strain); MF Peter Vagenas (knee surgery)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: none
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: SEA: Osvaldo Alonso
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME:
First meeting.
RETURN MATCHES:
7/25: Chicago Fire at Seattle Sounders FC, 12 noon PT
• Coaches record: Denis Hamlett vs. SEA: first game ... Sigi Schmid v CLB: P25W11 L8 D6
CHICAGO FIRE
The Chicago Fire played to a third consecutive draw, but this might feel more like a win, scoring twice in a three-minute span in the final five to come back for a 2-2 draw with the Columbus Crew on Saturday evening at Crew Stadium. The Fire did fall out of first place in the Eastern Conference, now with 10 points from six games on the season, level with the Kansas City Wizards a point behind Toronto FC.
LAST MATCH
• The Crew were back in action after an off week, still looking for a first win on the season. The Fire were still undefeated and atop the Eastern Conference, but had seen the Kansas City Wizards come back with two late goals for a 2-2 draw the weekend before.
• The Crew took a two-goal lead by halftime, with a pair of goals nine minutes apart. In the 25th minute, Guillermo Barros Schelotto put in a soaring freekick from midfield, and Chad Marshall rose up to head it home for his first goal. For Schelotto, the league leader in assists last season, it was his first assist.
• Then in the 34th minute, Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch came out to try and play a long ball bouncing just outside the area. But Alejandro Moreno nicked it away as Busch could not grab it, racing across the goal line and avoiding a sliding Wilman Conde before slipping into an empty goal.
• Yet just as they had seen the Wizards do the week before, the Fire came back, after the Crew's Gino Padula was sent off in the 57th minute for a foul on Chicago's Cuauhtemoc Blanco. In the 86th minute, Patrick Nyarko was sent through in the left side of the area and served a pinpoint cross to the back post for Brian McBride to head home, his fifth goal on the season.
• Then the equalizer came two minutes later. Chris Rolfe played a neat backheel to Tim Ward, who slid it to Gonzalo Segares in the restraining arc, and the Costa Rican international lashed home a low drive inside the left post.
• Fire head coach Denis Hamlett made no changes to the team that played to a 2-2 draw with the Kansas City Wizards the previous weekend.
• Here's Hamlett's team (4-3-1-2): Jon Busch - Tim Ward, Wilman Conde, Bakary Soumare (Chris Rolfe 69), Gonzalo Segares - John Thorrington, Logan Pause, Marco Pappa (Mike Banner 75) - Cuauhtemoc Blanco - Patrick Nyarko, Brian McBride. Substitutes Not Used: Baggio Husidic, Justin Mapp, Nick Noble, Brandon Prideaux, Dasan Robinson
• "That's what makes soccer so great. They say a 2-0 lead is the worst. Obviously, tonight with the red card that changed the game," Hamlett said. "The red card changed the game and we really started going on the attack. We brought in some subs. Chris Rolfe and Mike Banner really helped us getting the ball wide."
TEAM NEWS
• After the red card to Padula with a half-hour left, Hamlett eventually changed his system, going to three in the back for the final quarter-hour and getting wider contributions from substitutes Chris Rolfe and Mike Banner.
• After conceding just two goals in the first three games, the Fire have now allowed seven over their last three. A season ago, Chicago conceded just 33 goals over the 30-game regular season, second in MLS, one more than the Houston Dynamo.
• "We're having trouble in the back; we're conceding a lot of goals, and we don't like that because we consider ourselves to be a good team defensively and lately we haven't been doing well," said fullback Gonzalo Segares. "I think we've just got to improve that; so right now we're struggling a little bit defensively but we've just got to keep the same mentality, keep working throughout the weeks and hopefully everything will come through."
• Brian McBride leads the MLS Golden Boot standings with five goals through six games, and has three goals in his last two. Since returning to MLS, McBride has 10 goals in 17 league games, adding one in three playoff games last year as well.
• "Anything inside the six it's got a pretty good chance of going in," Hamlett said. "A great goal by Brian and, obviously, an unbelievable play by Rolfe that leads to the second goal."
• Cuauhtemoc Blanco has been on the field for seven of the Fire's 12 goals on the season, having started only the last two matches.
• "He's always available for the ball and if you get it to him, he's not going to lose it. He's got a great ability of finding players open and seeing runs that most people won't see and the timing of the pass is perfect, so it's great to have him on our team," McBride said.
• On Wednesday, the Fire lost 2-1 to Club América in a friendly at Toyota Park. Juan Carlos Silva put America ahead in the second minute, then Pavel Pardo doubled it three minutes before halftime. Chris Rolfe scored the Fire's lone goal 17 minutes from the end.
• Here's Hamlett's team: Nick Noble (Andrew Dykstra 46); Gonzalo Segares (Austin Washington 46), Wilman Conde (Bakary Soumare 46), Dasan Robinson, Brandon Prideaux, Baggio Husidic, Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Marco Pappa 67), Logan Pause (Tim Ward 46), Mike Banner; Chris Rolfe, Patrick Nyarko (Stefan Dimitrov 46)
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC
Seattle Sounders FC returned home and returned to their winning ways, scoring goals on either side of halftime for a 2-0 win against the San Jose Earthquakes at Qwest Field. Sounders FC now have 12 points from six matches, still in second place in the Western Conference, still four points behind MLS overall leader Chivas USA.
LAST MATCH
• Sounders FC were back home after seeing their losing streak extended to two games at Chivas the weekend before, while the Earthquakes had not in three games, coming off a pair of ties, both at home.
• Both goals came on either side of halftime. In the 42nd minute, the Quakes couldn't clear a freekick that pinged around the area, eventually falling to Tyrone Marshall, and his looping cross to the right post was headed home by Steve Zakuani, the second goal for the No. 1 overall pick in this year's SuperDraft.
• Then five minutes after the restart, Nate Jaqua was put through by Zakuani for a 2-on-1, and he slid it square to Brad Evans at the top of the area, who knocked it between Joe Cannon's legs in the San Jose goal for his second on the year.
• Kasey Keller returned from suspension to the Seattle lineup and eclipsed the MLS record for scoreless minutes to start a season. New York's Ronald Waterreus held the old mark of 375 minutes; Keller's streak is at 389 minutes and counting with the shutout.
• Sounders FC head coach Sigi Schmid made three changes to the team that lost 2-0 to Chivas USA in Carson the previous weekend. Kasey Keller returned from suspension, replacing Chris Eylander between the posts. Nate Sturgis made his first start of the year, at left back for Zach Scott, and Steve Zakuani returned to start in a wide midfield role, with Brad Evans switching sides and Sebastian Le Toux going to the substitutes' bench.
• Here's Schmid's team (4-3-1-2): Kasey Keller - James Riley, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Tyrone Marshall, Nathan Sturgis - Brad Evans, Osvaldo Alonso, Steve Zakuani (Sebastien Le Toux 67) - Freddie Ljungberg (Roger Levesque 87) - Nate Jaqua, Fredy Montero (Sanna Nyassi 80). Substitutes Not Used: Chris Eylander, Patrick Ianni, Zach Scott, Tyson Wahl
TEAM NEWS
• After moving Steve Zakuani to the bench for the game at Chivas USA, against San Jose, Schmid restored the No. 1 overall pick to the left side of midfield and moved Brad Evans to the right. Schmid said after scoring a goal and adding an assist, he'd "be surprised if he wasn't starting" against the Fire.
• "He's also learning a little bit of a - not a different position, he's played wide left before - but obviously in college, he was allowed a really free role," Schmid said. "He played a lot more as a striker, so learning how to play wide left and do all the defending, sometimes that comes with that as something that's a little different for him."
• Also, as the game went on, Evans and Freddie Ljungberg interchanged, with Ljungberg providing an attacking spark from the flank and Evans reprising the driving central midfield role where he started the season.
• "I just think the first three games of the year and throughout the preseason, we played in a certain way. When Freddie Ljungberg came back, we had to adjust," Zakuani said. "It takes time to learn how to play in a new formation or a new system. We went to a 4-3-1-2 (formation) and with Freddie in as an attacking midfielder you need a bit more defensive cover."
• After Zach Scott had started the first five games for Sounders FC at left back, Nate Sturgis was given his first start for the club in his place.
• "I think the element that Nate brings to the team is that he's pretty good with the ball for a defender. He's can play defensive midfield as well. When he was with me with the under-20s, he actually played central defender also," said Schmid. "But he's a very good passer of the ball. He's pretty good with both feet.
• Kasey Keller still has yet to allow a goal in Major League Soccer. "Most teams I've been on, I've had a couple good runs at different times, and that kind of shows I've been with a lot of teams," Keller said. "But this is cool, never to necessarily start a season or start my campaign with a team to go four games and 30 minutes without conceding a goal. Now it's over, and we have to really concentrate."
• On Tuesday, Seattle Sounders FC continued the club's success in the U.S. Open Cup, defeating Real Salt Lake 4-1 in a first-round play-in match at Starfire Sports Complex. Sebastian Le Toux converted a penalty kick in the 24th minute, then set up goals from Sanna Nyassi (26) and Stephen King (53), before finishing off the tie with his second of the match in the 55th. Will Johnson scored RSL's goal in the 32nd minute.
• Here's Schmid's team: Chris Eylander, James Riley, Taylor Graham, Tyson Wahl, Zach Scott, Sanna Nyassi (Evan Brown 72), Stephen King, Patrick Ianni, Steve Zakuani (Jarrod Smith 65), Roger Levesque, Sebastien Le Toux. Substitutes Not Used: Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans, Nate Jaqua, Kasey Keller, Fredy Montero.
• Each of the last two years, Le Toux has led the Open Cup tournament in goal scoring, playing for the USL Sounders. Sounders FC now advance to a second-round play-in against the Colorado Rapids, with the winner moving into the tournament proper at the round-of-16.
