nil-nil -- they didn't have many chances. In the second half, they had two chances and finished them," Jim Brennan said. "Obviously, we are disappointed with the result today, because it was a long road trip and we've done well on the road trip and we wanted to get something today, but it just didn't go our way."
• The Toronto attack was noticeably hobbled against the Crew. Forward Jeff Cunningham barely made it through the opening minutes of the game before having to leave after re-injuring the same adductor that had him listed as questionable earlier in the day. Twenty-year-old Toronto native Andrea Lombardo filled in up front for most of the game, before a less than 100 percent Danny Dichio took over the reins late in the second half. "With [injuries] it's been very hard, especially when you come against a team that's playing fairly well," said Johnston.
• On Wednesday night, Toronto FC played host to Aston Villa FC of the English Premiership. After going down 2-0 on a pair of goals by Luke Moore, TFC fought back to level the count through Todd Dunivant and Andrea Lombardo. But in the final eight minutes John Carew found the back of the net and Moore completed his hat trick to give Villa the victory.
• "I felt our guys held the ball well, created a bunch of chances," Johnston said. "To be honest with you, if we sat up here at the start of the season and I said we're going to hang in there with Aston Villa ... you'd be looking at me as if I was crazy. Overall if I was assessing the game, especially with the talent we were playing against, I'm very happy."
• However, the match revealed some injury concerns for Johnston. Dichio is battling a sore back and forward Jeff Cunningham might face a long layoff to recover from an injury to his abdominal area. Johnston revealed on Wednesday that Cunningham might miss four to six weeks with the injury that has kept the striker out of three of TFC's last four games. As well, Johnston also said that goalkeeper Greg Sutton may miss the rest of the season due to the after-effects of a concussion suffered in June.
• On Wednesday, defender Tyrone Marshall also left the game due to what Johnston described as the effects of a pregame "stomach bug." Perhaps more seriously, defender Marvell Wynne suffered a hamstring injury in the 75th minute and had to be carried off the field. "I heard a little pop, but it should be fine," Wynne said. "No worries. I should be back by Sunday, we'll see. I'm getting an MRI just to make sure nothing is really bad."
• Here's Johnston's team: David Monsalve, Marvell Wynne, Jim Brennan, Todd Dunivant, Tyrone Marshall (Andrew Boyens 66), Ronnie O'Brien, Maurice Edu (Joey Melo 75), Carl Robinson, Andy Welsh (Chris Pozniak 63), Collin Samuel, Danny Dichio (Andrea Lombardo 49)
CHICAGO FIRE
The Chicago Fire return to league action for the first time in two weeks, seeing their winless streak extended to six games in their last game, a 4-0 loss at home to Houston Dynamo in Juan Carlos Osorio's debut as head coach. The Fire sit in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 16 points from 16 matches, three behind Toronto FC.
LAST MATCH
• Dynamo hadn't lost since the beginning of June, and hadn't allowed a goal in nearly nine hours, while the Fire had won just once in their last 11 games.
• In the Fire head coaching debut of Juan Carlos Osorio, Dynamo showed their intentions early before finally breaking through in the 31st minute. Ricardo Clark, who earlier hit the crossbar, hooked a ball on the flank to Wade Barrett. Barrett banged in a low cross from the left corner and Stuart Holden reached behind himself on the run to punch the ball past Matt Pickens.
• Dynamo broke the game open with two goals in four minutes around the hour. In the 58th minute, Nate Jaqua came back to haunt the team that dealt him away in the offseason. Joseph Ngwenya was trying to dribble out of a jam in the area, but the ball was poked free right to Jaqua, and he turned a ripped a high blast inside the near post for his first goal with Houston.
• Then Ngwenya scored one of the goals of the season. After Jaqua's industry won the ball, Ngwenya beat Fire defender Jim Curtin with a half-moon, collecting the ball on the other side, then rounded Pickens as he came off his line then went to ground. From almost on the goal line, Ngwenya pushed the ball along the line and off the inside of the far post (62).
• Chris Wondolowski provided the final touch just after the full 90 minutes ticked over. Dwayne De Rosario went on a run through the Fire defense and hit an angled shot that Pickens just got a hand to. Wondolowski came running in at the far post to just touch the ball over the line and into the empty net.
• In his first game in charge, Juan Carlos Osorio brought Bruno Menezes, Jim Curtin and Thiago into the team, with C.J. Brown, Calen Carr and Logan Pause all out.
• Here's Osorio's team (4-1-4-1): Matt Pickens - Bruno Menezes (Calen Carr 73), Jim Curtin, Diego Gutierrez, Gonzalo Segares - Bakary Soumare - Justin Mapp, Chris Armas, Thiago, Ivan Guerrero (Willian Oliveira 64) - Chad Barrett. Substitutes Not Used: Jon Busch, Floyd Franks, Jeff Curtin, Logan Pause, Brian Plotkin
• "They had two good chances on long balls over the top. On the other hand, we had two good chances that we didn't score because the final touch, whether it was a pass or a shot on goal, was very weak. In other words, I thought we had pretty good chances on goal. In the second half, we started taking the ball at them and took some chances defensively speaking," Osorio said. "I can't deny the fact that I think we didn't defend the goals very well. There is a lot of work to do. This is a game that I have learned a lot from and hopefully we can start putting things in place. At the end, we cannot just get into the attacking third and not even have a shot on goal."
TEAM NEWS
• Since that last league loss, the Fire have made a significant addition, as Cuauhtémoc Blanco finally joined the team after playing with Mexico's national team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa America. He made his debut in the Fire's 1-1 draw with Celtic FC on July 22, three days after the Scottish power lost 2-0 in the MLS All-Star Game.
• "(Blanco) brings something special to the team and those are his vision and his creativity," Osorio said. "If you look back and analyze the game, you'll notice that he was in on 75 percent of the times that we got in the attacking third. It was through him that we created better chances, and to put the icing on the cake, he scored a beautiful goal. Hopefully, he will get fitter and fitter and we'll get more of him in the games to come."
• Blanco scored the Fire's goal in the 30th minute, before being taken off in the 58th minute. Derek Riordan hit for the equalizer 10 minutes from full time.
• "I always try to score and I had an opportunity to score," Blanco said. "The truth is I am very happy I was able to score. The objective of today's game was not met as we did not win. But I think little by little we will keep playing better and better and turn these results into victories."
• Here's Osorio's team on the day: Matt Pickens (Jon Busch 46), Diego Gutierrez, C.J. Brown (Dasan Robinson 65), Gonzalo Segares, Chris Armas (Brian Plotkin 65), Ivan Guerrero, Bakary Soumare (Willian Oliveira 77), Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Thiago 58), Bruno Menezes (Logan Pause 46), Calen Carr, Chad Barrett (Floyd Franks 59)
• "I let my players know that I am very disappointed that we did not win this game," Osorio said. "I think that if we finished 25 percent of our chances we could have and would have won the game by at least a two-goal difference."
• Blanco played in an attacking midfield role behind a front two of Chad Barrett and Calen Carr. "There were good signs," Osorio said. "We had better perception and I think in general we defended quite well but we'll continue improving the team. There is only way to do it and it is to work and to work on the training pitch. That's what we're going to do."
• However, Osorio believes the Fire have great room for improvement as they have scored just 13 goals in 16 MLS contests. "We need to work and have a better mindset," Osorio said. "We cannot have possession just for the sake of having possession but when we have possession we have to have a purpose. We passed too many times in the attacking third (of the field) and if we had that killer instinct, we would attack more."
• After the signing of Blanco, the Fire added another high-profile Central American striker when they announced the acquisition of Costa Rican international Paulo Cesar Wanchope. Wanchope, who played in all three of Costa Rica's games in Germany 2006, has 72 caps and has scored 45 goals for his country. He made one of the biggest moves ever from Costa Rica in 1996, when he signed with Derby County of the English Premiership. In all, the 31-year-old played eight seasons in England, for Derby (to 1999; 72 league appearances, 23 goals), West Ham United (1999-2000; 35 apps, 12 goals) and Manchester City (2000-04; 64 apps, 27 goals). Since leaving Europe, Wanchope has been hit hard by injuries, playing in Spain for Malagá, at Al-Gharrafa in Qatar, Argentina's Rosario Central and Tokyo FC in the J-League.
• The Fire were supposed to face Mexican side Santos Laguna on Wednesday in a friendly in La Joya, Texas, but the game was cancelled after a two-hour thunderstorm flooded La Joya Stadium, leaving the field unplayable.
