and a first of the season.
• There were no goals, but each goalkeeper was called upon to make seven saves. Both were called upon to make some game-savers in the final minutes.
• Fire 'keeper Matt Pickens stopped Jamie Watson and Andy Williams in a brief flurry in the 89th minute, then RSL 'keeper Nick Rimando put a stamp on the match with a great one-handed stop from a close-range blast by Chad Barrett deep into added time.
• Fire head coach Dave Sarachan made three changes to his injury-hit team after the 3-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls four days previous. Jeff Curtin and Willian Oliveira made their first MLS starts while Pascal Bedrossian made his second, coming in for Jim Curtin, Ivan Guerrero and Calen Carr, as Sarachan also readjusted his lines.
• Here's Sarachan's team (4-4-2): Matt Pickens - Logan Pause, C.J. Brown, Jeff Curtin, Gonzalo Segares - Brian Plotkin (Bakary Soumare 79), Willian Oliveira, Chris Armas, Justin Mapp (Jerson Monteiro 61) - Pascal Bedrossian (Ivan Guerrero 36), Chad Barrett. Substitutes Not Used: Jon Busch, Floyd Franks, Jim Curtin, Jordan Russolillo
• "We didn't get three points at home which is the ultimate goal at home, but it wasn't for lack of effort, wasn't for lack of competing. With a little break here and there, we win this game," Sarachan said. "So I was pleased with the competing part and now we just heal ourselves and get ready for the next game.
TEAM NEWS
• It certainly was a different looking Fire team with nearly half the squad listed in the injury report and three players making their MLS debuts in the game (Jeff Curtin, Bakary Soumare, Jerson Monteiro), with a fourth (Willian Oliveira) making his first league start.
• "We're in a period of time when it's not falling for us. We made a great push at the end. We had a makeshift group tonight. We had about six potential starters not available tonight," Sarachan said. "We had to dig a little deeper into our roster, which we're not afraid to do, and I think most of those guys got good marks tonight."
• Soumare came on for the final 11 minutes, while Monteiro played the final half-hour or so. "Bakary didn't have a lot minutes, but made good plays in the short amount of time he was on the ball. And Jerson was active. I think if Chad [Barrett] looks up on that last play, he gets a tap-in. Honestly, [Monteiro] put himself in a great position and Chad tried to score from a tough angle," said Sarachan. "Overall, it was good. It was good to get them minutes."
• Jeff Curtin was with the Fire the entirety of last season, but did not seen any action in league or U.S. Open Cup matches, playing only with the reserves. He and brother Jim became the 12th set of brothers to both see playing time in official competition.
• "I got my first opportunity [to start]. Yesterday, [Coach] told me I was going to start. So I prepared, watched some game film and did what I was supposed to do. I was injured a lot last year, so I had to take advantage of the opportunity. We got a shutout, but we would have liked the win. You can't win every day," Jeff Curtin said. "... It's [Jim's] seventh year in the league and he knows almost every player. He gave me a couple of tips and it worked out pretty well."
• After conceding 11 goals in their past four games, the Fire were pleased with keeping a clean sheet. But the goalscoring troubles continued - blanked for the second consecutive match, they have scored just three goals over the five-match winless run.
• "This has been pretty much the story our last two games. The three games before that, we really weren't creating the chances. The last two games, the soccer has been better, and we've created chances," said Chad Barrett to the Chicago Sun-Times. "Today I thought we did a better job defensively. We created some good chances for ourselves. We're on the up. We've got Columbus coming up and one point's better than no points. But at home all you think about is winning."
• Striker Chris Rolfe missed his third consecutive game with a sprained left ankle. Rolfe had scored four goals in six outings before suffering the injury on May 12 at Toronto. ''It's feeling a lot better than it has, but it's still not ready,'' Rolfe said to the Sun-Times. ''It's too weak. Hopefully, I can play next Sunday.''
COLUMBUS CREW
The Columbus Crew saw their winless run extend to four matches on the season, but still played to a fifth draw on the campaign, Toronto FC coming back to reach a 2-2 draw last Saturday evening at Crew Stadium. The Crew are in sixth place in the Eastern Conference with eight points from eight games, two points behind D.C. United and nine out of the first-place tie between New England and New York.
LAST MATCH
• The Crew were returning home having lost two of their last three games after a four-game unbeaten run to start the season, while TFC had two wins in their last four games after losing the opening four matches in club history.
• The Crew took just two minutes to jump into the lead. Rusty Pierce picked off a pass and lofted the ball forward for Alejandro Moreno, who laid the ball off to his left where Andy Herron was running in behind a defender. Herron drove a left-footed strike off the 'keeper for an early lead.
• But Toronto drew level in the 27th minute, when Danny Dichio collected a long back, played a neat one-two with newly acquired Jeff Cunningham and pounded home and angled shot from inside the area.
• Herron hit for his second, though, nine minutes later. A Ned Grabavoy strike from inside the area was knocked down by a diving Greg Sutton in the TFC goal, but right to the feet of Herron at the corner of the six-yard box, and he again found the net from close range. However, an injury forced him off barely two minutes later.
• The visitors again pulled level four minutes after the second-half restart. From a free kick all of 35 yards from goal, defender Jim Brennan smashed a left-footed drive that sailed around the wall and into the upper right corner for his first MLS goal.
• Crew head coach Sigi Schmid made one change to the team that lost 4-0 to the New York Red Bulls the previous weekend. Striker Andy Herron returned from a four-match suspension and came into the three-pronged attack for Brad Evans.
• Here's Schmid's team (4-3-3): Andy Gruenebaum - Frankie Hejduk, Marcos Gonzalez, Ezra Hendrickson, Rusty Pierce - Ned Grabavoy, Danny O'Rourke, Stefani Miglioranzi (Brad Evans 70) - Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Alejandro Moreno, Andy Herron (Ricardo Virtuoso 38). Substitutes Not Used: Bill Gaudette, Eddie Gaven, Chad Marshall, Danny Szetela, Tim Ward
• "We wanted the three points. We scored early, which is something we wanted to do. We had the lead at halftime, which is something we wanted to do, so it's definitely disappointing," Schmid said.
TEAM NEWS
• When the Crew took the lead through Herron in the second minute, it was the first time they'd been in front since April 28, when they defeated D.C. United 1-0. But after both goals, Toronto was to pull level relatively quickly.
• "I think some individual performances weren't as strong as they have been, and there were some simple passes that we should have made that we didn't make. That's just something that has to be better," Schmid said. " ... They're a difficult team to play against because they are very physical and it's a very physical style of play. At times tonight, I didn't think we won enough duels that we needed to on the knockdowns and on balls in the midfield."
• Herron hadn't seen the field since April 19, when the Crew drew 2-2 with New England. After that game, the suspension was handed down by the MLS Disciplinary Committee after Herron elbowed Revolution defender Jay Heaps while going for a free kick. Then after scoring two goals in his first 36 minutes back, he suffered a thigh injury and had to come off before halftime.
• "It's really disappointing. You want to win. I want to be more excited. Anytime I have a chance to score, I want to do my best to help my teammates," Herron said. "I was very disappointed I couldn't keep going in the game because easily this game could have ended up 4-1 or 3-1."
• They were also his first goals with the Crew, after coming over from the Chicago Fire in a trade on SuperDraft day in January, who he led with nine goals a season ago.
• "It's hard, you know, because you try to be happy for what you do, but you can't, because as a forward, if you score five goals in a one game and you lose 7-5, you're not going to be happy because you still lost," Herron said. "I didn't want to leave but my quad was feeling like any moment it could get worse, so we will see during the week how it feels. I feel like I should be ready for Chicago."
• After eight games, the Crew have played to five draws - along with Real Salt Lake, that leads MLS. The league record is 13 draws in a season, first set by Columbus in 2004 and matched last year by Houston and Chivas USA.
• "We can't have situations where three guys play well and six guys don't play well. At the same time, there have been teams in this league that have won a lot of games when they haven't necessarily played well, so it's just doing the little things to get three points," said Ned Grabavoy. "It's more than just finishing goals. We've got to make more plays in the midfield. We've got to make more plays all around the field. Everybody's got to be on the same page."
