Effort, more than anything, was credited for the Chicago Fire's 5-1-1 start this season. Likewise, the team's lack of effort proved to be the difference in their 2-1 loss to Houston Saturday night.
Playing from a defensive stance almost the entire second half, the Fire finally gave up the goal that broke the 1-1 halftime tie on a header by Bobby Boswell off a free kick by Richard Mulrooney in the 82nd minute.
The Fire had given up only three goals going into Saturday's contest and had not been scored on twice in any contest. But a goal in the 17th minute by Houston's Dwayne De Rosario put the Dynamo on top and put the Fire on their heels, and even Calen Carr's 28th-minute goal couldn't push the Fire past the two-time defending MLS champions.
The Dynamo had five shots on goal in the second half to just one for the Fire, belying the belief that the road team plays for the tie and the home team plays for the win.
"At home, when you don't come away with points, it is a missed opportunity," Carr said. "I have a lot of respect for that team. They are an honest, hardworking team. We knew we were in for a rough game and they gave it to us."
"We were defending the whole second half," said goalkeeper Jon Busch.
The Fire started the game ablaze, and had two shots on goal in the first eight minutes, and four shots total in the first 12. The fact the Dynamo did not let any of those become goals set the tone for the match.
"We started really well the first 10 minutes," Soumare said. "We had two great chances. Sometimes you score those and sometimes you don't."
In the game's first two minutes, the Fire had two scoring opportunities on similar crosses. The first one was Chad Barrett picking out Gonzalo Segares, who was charging hard from his defensive position, and the second was Justin Mapp streaking down the left side, but his cross glanced off a defender.
It took only four minutes for the Fire to get their first corner kick, and Blanco's offering bounced off the crowd in front. Blanco followed with a left foot shot that went directly to Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad.
The Fire had another shot on goal at the seven-minute mark from dead center by Mapp, but Onstad made a strong save going to his left.
The Fire gave up the game's first goal when Clark stood well outside of the penalty area directly in front of Busch and let go with a long-distance drive. It hit a defender, then hit off De Rosario before going into the right corner. Playing in a constant and sometimes driving rain, Busch slipped taking off to recover the ball.
"It took a double deflection," Busch said. "I got a little bit of a slip on my first step. If I make a good stride maybe I get there and get a touch on it. But that's the conditions. You deal with it. When he hit it, it was going to my right, it hit somebody, hits another person and goes back to my left. It is part of the game."
The Fire tied the score in the 28th minute when Carr, playing at forward while Chris Rolfe dropped into the midfield for the injured John Thorrington, scored off a free kick from Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
"It was a play 'Temo' and I worked on yesterday," Carr said. "When he got fouled, he let me know to run to the spot and loop around. He put the ball perfectly."
At halftime, the Fire had the 1-1 score and had reason to believe the home field would work in their favor. Instead, the Dynamo played like the home team.
"We stopped playing," Busch said. "Credit to them, they are a good team and showed why they are defending champions. But the second half, we stopped playing and did a lot of defending. If you don't take care of the ball when you have it good teams are going to punish you."
"They were coming at us more and more and eventually they scored," Soumare said.
The winning goal came from a quick restart, and came as Busch was trying to get the Fire defense pushed out farther, so he would have a better look at what was coming in.
"We lost our concentration," Busch said. "They put the ball down quick. The guys on the ball need to slow the ball down a little bit, stay on top and make the referee move them back. We weren't tight in the box. Guys were still trying to find their guys. There were two or three guys who could have headed it seven or eight yards out."
The Fire's only second-half shot on goal came in the final seconds of stoppage time, as Blanco lined up a long shot and let it fly, only to have Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad make the game's last save.
Fire coach Denis Hamlett made three substitutions Saturday, sending in midfielder Wilman Conde, forward Andy Herron and forward Tomasz Frankowski for Chris Rolfe, Chad Barrett and Justin Mapp, respectively.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
