An 82nd-minute goal by Bobby Boswell gave the visiting Houston Dynamo a surprising 2-1 win against the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park on Saturday evening.
Playing through a driving spring rain for most of the game, the two-time MLS champion Dynamo earned their second consecutive win after failing to win in their first six games of the season. The Fire lost for only the second time in the season, and both have come at Toyota Park.
Houston's Dwayne De Rosario and the Fire's Calen Carr traded goals 11 minutes apart in the first half. Then as the game seemed headed for a draw, Dynamo defender Richard Mulrooney's free kick from 35 yards out on the right side went into the box and Boswell's clean header went into the upper right corner of the goal, over the head of Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch.
The Fire were playing for a chance to tie the Columbus Crew atop the Eastern Conference standings with a win.
With John Thorrington out due to a lower back strain suffered in practice Thursday, Hamlett pushed forward Chris Rolfe back into a midfield position, where he played early in the season, and he gave Calen Carr his first start of the season.
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 win their first corner kick, and Cuauhtemoc Blanco's offering bounced off the crowd in front of the goal. Blanco followed with a left-footed shot that went directly to Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad.
The Fire got another shot on goal at the seven-minute mark from dead center by Justin Mapp, but Onstad made a strong save going to his left.
But the Dynamo scored first in the 17th minute, on their first shot of the game. With a steady rain falling, midfielder Ricardo Clark fired a shot from about 25 yards out that deflected off a defender directly in front of him, then took a second bounce off De Rosario and snuck past Busch, who had slipped on his first step toward the ball.
De Rosario was later credited with his second goal of the season, his second in as many weeks, and was only the fourth goal given up by the Fire in their first eight games.
The Fire got the goal back in the 28th minute off a free kick by Blanco from the right side. The Mexican international lifted the ball into the middle of the area and Carr powerfully headed the ball downward, bouncing in front of and eventually past Onstad as Wade Barrett valiantly tried to keep it from going in. It was Carr's first goal of the season.
In first-half stoppage time, Clark took down Blanco from behind on a hard tackle, part of a physical defense the Dynamo were playing against the Fire's superstar. Referee Paul Ward discussed the play with Clark for more than a minute before brandishing a yellow card, the first card of the game.
The Fire recorded four shots on goal in the first half and Houston had three. Both teams were credited with six shots.
The rain, which had dissipated late in the first half, came back with a vengeance at the start of the second half and it rained on and off the rest of the game.
In the 58th minute, Busch made a tremendous punch save on a hard right-footed shot by a charging Dwayne De Rosario from about 15 yards out.
In the 66th minute, Fire defender Diego Gutierrez battled with Houston's Franco Caraccio to come down with a ball in the air, and when Caraccio fell, Gutierrez was called for a foul, giving the Dynamo a free kick 22 yards out. De Rosario's effort went over the goal.
Fire coach Denis Hamlett sent defender Wilman Conde into the game in the 68th minute in place of Rolfe. Houston coach Dominic Kinnear followed with his own substitution, sending in forward Kyle Brown for Caraccio.
In the 73rd minute, Hamlett sent in forward Andy Herron for Chad Barrett. Hamlett's last substitution came in the 80th minute when he put in Tomasz Frankowski into the game for Mapp.
Neither goalkeeper was tested over the final half-hour, until Boswell's header flew over Busch for the eventual game-winner, his first goal after joining the Dynamo from D.C. United in the offseason.
The Fire had one chance with literally the final kick of the game, on a free kick from about 40 yards straight out from goal, but Blanco's attempt sailed harmlessly into Onstad's arms.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
