In a game that resembled much of the offseason, where the outcome was in doubt for much of the match, the Chicago Fire did just enough to escape Salt Lake City with a point in the season opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon.
Two minutes into injury time Fire midfielder Cuauhtemoc Blanco received the ball at the top of the Real Salt Lake penalty area and fired a curling blast around RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando and into the side netting just inside the far post.
The goal salvaged a point from a shaky Chicago performance and its source came from the man who practically carried the team into the playoffs last season.
"That's what great players are about," said Fire head coach Denis Hamlett. "There is a lot of pressure on him because every time he touches the ball he has players around him, so he gets frustrated throughout the game. But, he needs just a little bit of an opening and he'll make you pay."
The goal came against the run of play that had Salt Lake throwing all of its energy into a high pressure attack from the opening whistle. Even while absorbing that pressure, Chicago goalkeeper Jon Busch, who had eight saves on the afternoon, knew that if his team had just one chance they could capitalize on it.
"I knew that if we got a chance, we were going to get the goal," said Busch. "I think it was our only shot on goal ... but one for one isn't bad. One shot, one goal, you can take that."
Actually, it was their second shot on frame. The other was a forgettable chance from Gonzalo Segares in the 66th minute. The Fire defender came just inside the corner of the RSL penalty area and skipped a bouncing ball straight at Rimando.
The bomb from Blanco was strangely familiar to Salt Lake fans, who witnessed the Chicago midfielder hit the MLS Sierra Mist Goal of the Year last season with a fantastic shot into the upper corner from distance.
"Maybe this is the place for Cuauhtemoc," said Busch, "because if you think back to last year, his ball from last year, I think he closed his eyes on that one. This year, he gets it and bends it around [Rimando] -- a great finish."
For most of the day, the Fire spent their energies defending a motivated Real, making sure that that Salt Lake's 11 shots in the first half stayed out of the net.
Most of those shots were either right at Busch or took little effort for him to save. It was a situation that the Fire were expecting, and even though the conditions might have not been ideal they were up to the challenge.
"It was a difficult day for us in terms of generating play," said Fire defender Diego Gutierrez. "We knew that RSL was going to come out and press us from the beginning, but we were able to withstand their attacking play in the first half."
While the Fire defense remained busy, chasing down RSL attackers, their own attack sputtered. Blanco had a pair of prime opportunities, as did a few others, but they couldn't get anything on frame. It made for a difficult situation where Hamlett admitted that he was glad to still be tied at the break.
"We had a difficult start, and Salt Lake put in a good push for the first 45 minutes," said Hamlett. "We were happy to come in [at the half] 0-0. We made some adjustments, and as the second half wore on we didn't create many chances, but we made it harder for them."
The Fire defense remained stingy, only allowing six shots on goal in the second half. In fact, they did so well that the only ones able to score against them, was themselves.
In the 71st minute Bakary Soumare volleyed a mishit clearance past Busch and into the net to put the Fire down a goal. In the eyes of the Fire goalkeeper it was a minor slip-up in an otherwise positive performance for Soumare.
"Bakary did a great job," said Busch. "[Yura Movsisyan] makes a great near post run and Bakary did a great job on him four or five times, and then [Bakary] get his foot on it and it's unlucky. You can't blame him. He's there and makes a great play, and unfortunately it goes the opposite way. In soccer, those things happen."
Scott McAllister is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
