In the eyes of New England Revolution coach Steve Nicol, it took about seven minutes for the "beautiful game'' between his team and the Chicago Fire to turn ugly.
In the seventh minute Thursday night, New England defender Jeff Larentowicz was sent off by referee Baldomero Toledo for a foul against Fire defender Brandon Prideaux and suddenly the Revolution found themselves down a man with 83 minutes to play.
Add to that the fact the Fire already had a 1-0 lead, were playing with a strong wind behind them, and playing before an excited crowd of 15,553 at their home opener at Toyota Park, and the Revolution were behind the soccer version of the 8-ball. The Fire took a 4-0 lead by halftime and the game ended with that margin.
Asked if the foul against Larentowicz deserved a red card, Nicol said, "You must be joking."
"The sending off completely spoils the game," Nicol said. "If they are going to start sending people off for things like that, there will be nobody left at the end of the season. If you are going to referee the game like that, then do it for both sides."
Larentowicz came sliding in as Prideaux came racing out of the back, and the Revolution midfielder caught the Fire defender with his tackle. Toledo came from behind the play with his red card out immediately.
"It's a nonsense decision," Nicol said. "The game was spoiled completely."
Even without the early red card, the Fire seemed to have an early advantage. The game's first goal came in the fourth minute as Fire midfielder Justin Mapp found himself right of goal and the Fire's entire offense ended up in the box. With Tomasz Frankowski and Chris Rolfe alongside him, forward Chad Barrett ended up with the ball directly in front of New England goalkeeper Matt Reis and had an easy turn to put the ball into the goal.
"When you give up an early goal like that, it is demoralizing," New England defender Michael Parkhurst said.
Playing a man down, the Revolution gave up an unfortunate goal in the 22nd minute. Barrett got around Parkhurst on the end line, dribbled into the box, and Barrett and Frankowski each got a couple of touches on the ball before Frankowski finally poked the ball past Reis.
Parkhurst and Chris Albright were in the box with the Fire players but failed to clear the ball.
"The second goal is a bad goal to give away," Nicol said. "It was just poor decision-making. We learned something tonight."
"It came off that terrible turf down there and fell right to him and he poked it in," Reis said, referring to Frankowski. "We were all one step too far away to get it. It pinballed off Parkhurst and Albright and dropped right there between all three of us."
The Revolution finally woke up a bit midway through the first half and got a trio of corner kicks (they had 11 in the game) but got only one shot on goal out of them.
In the 37th minute, Mapp again ended up with the ball on his foot on the right side with second-year midfielder Sainey Nyassi shadowing him. Mapp had a step on his opponent, and Nyassi took him down in the box for a penalty kick that Fire midfielder Cuauhtemoc Blanco converted for a 3-0 Fire lead.
"I think he did a lot of good things," Nicol said of his young midfielder. "Young players will always make mistakes but they learn from experience. The penalty was unlucky."
Two minutes later, Blanco worked his particular magic again, finding Barrett alone on the far left side, and he sent a quick pass to Frankowski inside the box for a textbook tic-tac-toe shot and goal. The Fire had their 4-0 lead and their first victory.
It rained almost the entire game, and it certainly rained throughout the first half, with a stiff wind blowing straight down the field into the face of the Revolution. It took Reis two or three goal kicks to figure out how to get the ball downfield, and it was difficult for the Revolution to get the ball down to the attacking end of the field.
"The weather was definitely a factor," Reis said. "The box down on that end, I might as well have been playing on the beach. My first goal kick, a giant chunk of turf came up. The turf is really soft, and it has sand underneath. You play at the end with a little wind in your face and a team that is really coming at you, and it is a recipe for disaster."
The Revolution had the wind in the second half, but put only two shots on goal. The Fire were actually credited for three shots on goal in the second half, but had a couple of possessions inside the box when they seemingly avoided taking the easy shot.
"We didn't want to give up any more goals, to stop the bleeding," Parkhurst said. "Then we wanted to get one or two back off set pieces, and we were pretty close."
The Revolution get back at it Wednesday with a game at Kansas City.
"Hopefully that game will come real quick because we have a lot to prove," Parkhurst said.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
