On a night where his team scored three goals and rolled to a second victory of the season against the New England Revolution, Chicago Fire head coach Denis Hamlett preached the importance of defense.
The ability to absorb pressure allowed his team to surge forward at the right times on its way to a 3-0 victory at Gillette Stadium.
"It's a commitment of the whole group defending," Hamlett said. "It's important to get the second goal early. Now then, we know they're going to come out and push some more. We were bunkering a little bit, but at the same time, you're still trying to make plays."
The Fire might not have created more than three chances in the game, but they took each one with aplomb. The incisive finishing came as a result of ball movement New England simply couldn't contain.
"When the ball gets moving, you can find the open guys," Hamlett said. "That's the nice part of it. When you move the ball, you're going to get great looks. Our first goal, we might have put 10 or 15 passes together."
The opener was simple in its intricacy but ruthlessly effective in its result. The Fire worked the ball from the one side to the other, and Fire midfield John Thorrington found the ball on his foot with plenty of time to look up and assess his options.
"I found myself in quite a bit of space," Thorrington said. "We had a good move. We had the ball for quite a number of passes. Logan [Pause] opened himself up. That was one thing the coaches told us to do. We wanted to take advantage and switch the play. He found me and I found myself open. I saw Rolfe out of the corner of my eye making a diagonal ball. I was able to slip him a ball and he showed what he was able to do from there."
Rolfe finished off Thorrington's pass, but Chad Barrett's run set up the goal, according to Rolfe.
"At that moment, we were both up top together," Rolfe said. "That's what we've been doing together for a while now. I left my space and he made a hard run into my space. He took Parkhurst out of the way. That gave John a lane to me."
Barrett played the final pass to set up Thorrington's goal five minutes into the second half, his third in two games. The layoff allowed Thorrington to bend it to the far corner.
"On those, it's just about trying to hit the target. It crept around Matt and went in," Thorrington said.
Stephen King's first MLS goal capped the rout, marking a second comprehensive victory against New England this year, after a 4-0 victory at Toyota Park to open the season.
"We've been pleased with how we matched up with them," Thorrington said. "Every time you come to New England, you're expecting a battle. You just need to match that, which we did tonight. We're not expecting to beat them 3-0, 4-0 again. We know they are a good team, a tough team that will be there at the end of the season. It definitely feels good for us to get a victory here."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
