Some days you score goals, some days you don't. It's that simple. Of course, it takes scoring a goal or two to win a game. The Chicago Fire dropped a 1-0 decision to the Kansas City Wizards, but not without putting up a fight.
Chicago sent 19 shots toward goal in Sunday's match at Toyota Park. Unfortunately for the Fire, none of them found their way past Kansas City goalkeeper Kevin Hartman.
"We've been getting good chances all year and making them," Fire forward Chad Barrett said. "Today was the first day we didn't. We put some good stuff together. But it's all about scoring goals and winning."
Barrett led the Fire's attack with five shots on goal. Cuauhtemoc Blanco had four, while Justin Mapp, Calen Carr and Tomasz Frankowski had two each.
The Fire's best opportunity to score came in the 40th minute. Segares made a run toward goal and crossed a perfect ball to Barrett on the right side of the net. With Hartman on the left side of the box, Barrett had an open net. He sent the ball high.
"I saw Chad open on the back post," Segares said. "The ball went through a defender's legs and right to Barrett. Sometimes forwards miss opportunities like that."
Barrett said he'll likely have nightmares about that play later Sunday night.
"You always hope to get one more shot," Barrett said. "Today I didn't get it. It's sickening that it happened at home. I know that I can score. I know everything is going to be fine."
Wizards defender Jimmy Conrad said he can feel Barrett's pain.
"Barrett had that wide-open net that people will be talking to him about for the next couple of years," Conrad said.
Kansas City's Jack Jewsbury gave the Wizards a 1-0 lead in just the fourth minute. The Fire players never slowed on their intensity. If anything they pushed harder. Mapp sent the first shot goalward in the 18th minute. Chicago continued to drill the ball at the net until the last seconds of stoppage time.
Carr sent a shot toward goal in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time, which Hartman easily saved.
"It was a game where with a little more luck we could have scored one maybe two goals," Frankowski said. "Things didn't go our way today."
Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch blamed himself for the goal. But all in all, he was pleased with the offense his team is creating.
"The good thing is we're creating chances," Busch said. "We broke them down very well today. Kevin [Hartman] played a good game. Hats off to him. If we had just gotten that first goal, the second one would come. It just got later and later, with no goals."
Chicago now has a 2-1-1 record. The team has outscored opponents 6-2. And one of those goals was an own goal. The Fire have created 46 attempts at goal. It's not a bad start, just four games in.
"In the first couple of games we finished our chances," Fire head coach Denis Hamlett said. "Tonight we get many chances and we just don't finish. It's going to happen in soccer. There's going to be days where you dominate the game and you just can't get the goal."
Kathryn L. Knapp is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
