The Kansas City Wizards decided not to cooperate with the inevitable.
After taking a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute of their game Sunday against the Chicago Fire, the Wizards faced a barrage of shots from the strong Fire front line for the next 86-plus minutes and somehow came away with a 1-0 victory at Toyota Park.
The win was only the second for the Wizards in 16 games in Chicago, dating all the way back to the 1998 season when the Fire joined Major League Soccer. The Wizards also recorded their third shutout in five games.
After Jack Jewsbury gave the Wizards the lead in the fourth minute of the game, goalkeeper Kevin Hartman and the Wizards back line had to deal with 19 Fire shots, five on goal, in an offensive assault that makes the shutout all the more impressive.
"We have been on the side of a lot of games where we had the majority of chances," Wizards coach Curt Onalfo said. "They certainly had more of the chances. We made ours and we found a way to grit it out and get three points."
Fire forward Chad Barrett had five shots, including a couple of looks at a naked goal, only to send the ball up and over. Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who had a running discussion with Hartman throughout the game, had four shots, two of them on goal, without success.
"We knew it was going to be difficult to play against a team with a ton of great players," Hartman said. "We were able to weather the storm on certain occasions. It could have ended up a bunch of different ways, but we did a good job getting the win."
Hartman was credited with five saves while recording his third shutout this season, the MLS all-time leader now with 70 career clean sheets.
The Wizards took their lead in the fourth minute when forward Claudio Lopez sent a looping ball from midfield to the box. It would have landed right at the top of the penalty area, but Jewsbury beat Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch to the ball, chested it to the ground past the oncoming Busch and then had an easy finish into the goal.
"Claudio pulled out to the left, which opened up a hole up top," said Jewsbury, who got his second goal of the season. "I saw the hole and ran to it, and he played a great ball into me. My first touch kept me going through. I saw Busch coming and hoped to get there first a little before him. I pushed it a little to my left and hit the ball in."
The goal was the first scored against the Fire by an opponent in the first four games of the season.
Playing before a good Sunday afternoon crowd, the Fire were sure to attack Hartman to try to even the game. After all, the Fire had managed four goals in the first half against New England in their only other home game.
But the truly noteworthy level of attack the Fire put forth, including a couple of shot flurries, the open chances for Barrett and a second half play in which Blanco and second-half substitute Andy Herron waited for the other to take the clear shot that won't necessarily make the highlight reels, only made the Wizards shutout all the more impressive.
"It was a lot to handle at times," Jewsbury said. "There were a few occasions where we were very fortunate not to have a couple hit the back of the net. We knew there were going to send numbers forward, but we have a lot of confidence in our defense."
"That's one of the curses of scoring early,"defender Jimmy Conrad said. "You get into a defensive shell a little sooner than you like to on the road. To play defense for 85 minutes was difficult. We survived a couple of those, we scrambled, and we did some good things."
In the 53rd minute, the Fire put together a tremendous combination and again came away with nothing. Barrett dribbled the ball right down the center then sent a through ball to Frankowski to his left inside the six. But Frankowski's effort went right at Hartman and bounced out to Hartman's right. The ball landed at Mapp's foot, and he centered the ball to Blanco, whose shot bounced off Hartman and a Wizards defender and settled on the goal line before it was cleared off the line.
"We feel like they are a very, very good team, and the fact we held them to no goals is a tribute to excellent goalkeeping by Kevin Hartman and a solid defensive effort," Onalfo said.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
