BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - Dave Sarachan selected many young and inexperienced players to his starting 11 Wednesday night for the Chicago Fire's international friendly against Mexico's Club America at Toyota Park.
Despite a shaky started, Sarachan liked what he saw.
"Club America made us play fast in the first half and our players were a little tentative, a little nervous, and not quite quick with the ball," Sarachan said. "We had some guys on the field that hadn't seen many minutes this year and it was a rough start giving up a goal that early.
The "Men in Red" found themselves in a deep retreat from the game's opening whistle as Club America attacked with vigor. It took the "Aguillas" only four minutes to go up 1-0.
The Fire's starting lineup had an average age of just over 23 years and four players - Matt Pickens, Jordan Russolillo, Floyd Franks and Jared Montz - had not started an MLS match in 2006. Three other players - Jack Stewart, Brian Plotkin and Calen Carr - had started a combined four MLS matches this season.
"I think they put us on our heals early but our guys settled down after a half-hour and I think that is natural for young players and players that haven't seen a lot of minutes," Sarachan said. "I think the second half was much better for us."
Club America's coach, Luis Fernando Tena, agreed with the assessment.
"I think America dominated the first half but the second half the Fire pushed hard and made good opportunities," he said. "It was a well played game and everyone in the crowd got their money's worth."
Despite the 2-1 loss, everyone seemed to agree that the match will ultimately benefit the Fire.
"This was a good opportunity to play a very good team and to have players on our team to experience this kind of event," said Sarachan. "Obviously we don't like to lose, but it was a good, honest game tonight and I'd like to think Club America got something out of it as well."
Fire captain Chris Armas, who was given the night off agreed: "I think the biggest benefit is that you get to see guys who typically aren't given quality minutes are now given minutes in a real game situation," he said.
"Practice is practice and you can show certain things there and you can show certain things by coming off the bench for 10 minutes, but here in a real game when these young players can get 80 or 90 minutes, good things are exposed and bad things are exposed and you see what guys can do."
Did any of the young players stand out to the Fire captain?
"I thought Jared Montz looked pretty solid in midfielde. He controlled some tempo in the second half and he had a solid presence on the ball. I thought Brian Plotkin had a very strong second half," said Armas.
Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the 16,172 fans in attendance supported Club America, Diego Gutierrez was unfazed.
"We anticipated that that was going to be the case," he said. "We appreciate, however, that fans came out to Toyota Park to watch soccer. We're trying to get the name of our team and the name of our league out there and hopefully a lot of those yellow jerseys will go home tonight and appreciate Major League Soccer a bit more."
The Fire will be sure to have their traditional home support when they return to MLS play Saturday. The Fire will showcase Toyota Park to a national audience for the first time when they host Western Conference leaders FC Dallas (9-5-3, 30 pts.) in a Brimstone Cup showdown that will be featured as ESPN2's "Soccer Saturday" game of the week. Kickoff for the Fire-FC Dallas contest is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT.
Ivaldo Basso is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
