that coming in a 2-2 draw with the New York Red Bulls on Sept. 15.
In the interim, the Fire had allowed just eight goals while posting four shutouts, before again allowing two goals in a game. Yet again, the Chicago defense made sure it wouldn't be any more, and the club was once again not hurt as they got the draw they need as a result are now just a game away from MLS Cup 2007.
"I was kind of (ticked) at myself because I thought we could have done better. We've been pretty solid as a defense up until that point and we let those two goals in and those two goals really livened the crowd up," said defender C.J. Brown. "Once that happened D.C. really felt like they had a chance and they really, really put the pressure on."
"But then I was also saying they still need two more goals to knock us out and one goal to tie it. It wasn't good though because defensively we broke down twice."
In the 15 games before Juan Carlos Osorio took over, the Fire had allowed multiple goals on six occasions. Then in the first game with the new boss in charge, Osorio saw Houston Dynamo shred the Chicago rearguard for four goals. But they responded with a sign of things to come once Osorio's system took hold: clean sheets in the next three matches.
"Defensively we're playing well and making it hard on teams and getting some timely goals," said Fire captain Chris Armas.
Last Thursday, those timely goals had already come as, in a three-minute span in the first half, Chad Barrett and Chris Rolfe left United with a mountain to climb when they put Chicago ahead 2-0 in the game and 3-0 on aggregate. That gave the Fire enough cushion to survive the late onslaught from the back-to-back Supporters' Shield winners.
"It was bound to happen at some point and fortunately they didn't give them that third one to send it into overtime," Rolfe said. "We give them two and we win the series -- not a big deal."
The Fire last lost a game on Sept. 1, a 1-0 loss at New York. They've won four games over the 10-game stretch since, including a 2-1 win against New England at Toyota Park. The Fire have defeated the Revolution twice in three games this season.
"The 10-game unbeaten streak is something that kind of crept up on us because we were looking at it as one game at a time and getting points so we could make the playoffs," Rolfe said.
It will be the fifth time in six seasons the Fire and Revolution have met in the MLS Cup Playoffs, and it has been a pitched battle on each occasion. New England has won three of the four previous encounters, including last year's Eastern Conference Semifinals, where they needed a penalty shootout to advance. The previous two meetings were 1-0 victories by the home team in single-game Eastern Conference Championships, in 2003 in Chicago and 2005 in Foxborough.
"We have our seasons when we do well in the league and other seasons when we don't do so well in the league but you get us in the playoffs, we work hard, we have a different mentality," Brown said. "You don't win it in the season you win it in the playoffs.
Contributing: Chris Snear
