The Chicago Fire battled to a scoreless draw against Polish side Wisla Krakow tonight in an international exhibition match at TOYOTA PARK in Bridgeview, Ill. Tonight's attendance for the match was 14,040.
Fire Lineup (4-4-2): GK-Nick Noble, D-Dasan Robinson, D-Daniel Woolard, D-Wilman Conde, D-Austin Washington; M-Mike Banner (C.J. Brown 64), M-Calen Carr (Kai Kasiguran 70), M-Logan Pause (Brian Plotkin 45), M-Peter Lowry; F-Andy Herron, F-Tomasz Frankowski (captain).
Wisla Lineup (4-4-2): GK-Mariusz Pawelek, D-Arkadiusz Glowacki (captain), D-Piotr Brozek (Przemyslav Szabat 38), D-Cleber De Lima, D-Junior Diaz; M-Radoslaw Sobolewski, M-Jean Paulista Rodrigues, M-Tomasz Jirsak (Rafal Boguski 62), M-Marek Zienczuk; F-Grzegorz Kmiecik (Mauro Cantoro 45), F-Patryk Malecki.
Scoring Summary:
None
Misconduct Summary:
CHI - Dasan Robinson (caution, dissent) 20'
WIS - Cleber De Lima (caution, reckless foul) 51'
WIS - Mauro Contoro (caution, game disrepute) 54'
WIS - Junior Diaz (ejection, serious foul play) 55'
CHI - Wilman Conde (caution, persistent infringement) 75'
CHI - C.J. Brown (caution, professional foul) 78'
CHI - Daniel Woolard (caution, professional foul) 81'
• The Fire are now 5-4-3 in all-time international exhibition matches.
• Polish International Tomasz Frankowski served as Chicago Fire captain for the first time, and played the full 90 minutes tonight against Wisla, his former club.
• The Fire wore their all-white kits for just the second time this season (@ RSL on 3/29/08) and have earned draws in both occasions.
• Defender C.J. Brown and midfielder Brian Plotkin returned from injury to get their first minutes of the 2008 season in a first team game.
• Fire midfielder Kai Kasiguran made his first team debut tonight.
• Fire goalkeeper Nick Noble, defender Daniel Woolard, defender Austin Washington, midfielder Mike Banner, midfielder Peter Lowry, and forward Andy Herron all earned their first start of the 2008 campaign.
• The Fire used 3 of their 10 possible substitutes.
• The Fire have featured four prominent Polish National Team players including: Peter Nowak, Jerzy Podbrozny, Roman Kosecki, and Tomasz Frankowski.
• The Chicago Fire will return to the action on Sunday, May 25, as the team travels to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ to take on the New York Red Bulls (My50 Chicago, 2:00 p.m. CT).
For official box scores and game stats, please visit Chicago-Fire.com.
Fire - Wisla Krakow Post-Game Quotes
May 21, 2008
Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett
On the game:
"They don't call these games friendlies anymore, I thought both teams went out there to compete and try to win. Usually in a friendly game you don't see seven yellow cards thrown out, that just shows you both teams went out to try to win the game. Good game for some of our young guys to be thrown in a real game that was very competitive, so I was happy with their performance".
"I think it's important that these guys are training, hard throughout the season, and now they have a game in front of a good crowd and good opponent, and it's a good exercise to see how they measure up. All in all it was just good, the more you can get games like this throughout the season, the more it's important for our guys".
"The idea [about the lineups] is some of these guys haven't played minutes and the idea is to get some of these guys minutes, so now we have Thursday, Friday, Saturday so we can get us a result in New York and that's a big game for us."
On Fire midfielder John Thorrington's injury:
The status on John Thorrington is that he has a bulging disk, so he's been getting some treatment, and I think he's been progressing nicely. We're going to be cautious with him because of the history of injuries and there's a possibility of this weekend, but it's a day to day thing, and we'll continue to monitor it so hopefully he can be available for Sunday."
On Fire midfielder Calen Carr and his last goal in the previous game:
"I have confidence in all my players, they work hard during the week and they're ready for their moment to be called upon. In Calen's situation, John was not available, and so we decided to make the switch and put him on the field in the spot and put Chris Rolfe in a different spot, and he played well on the game in Saturday - and did well and did well tonight. As a coach, you want players to go in and do and do what they're capable of doing and that just makes our decision harder about which eleven we select for the game on Sunday".
On Fire forward Tomasz Frankowski in the past few games:
"Yes, he was on the bench, and we came off two games in a row where we won 3-0 and 2-0 and I'm not going to change my team after I've had two good results on the road".
Wisla Krakow Head Coach Maciej Skorza
On the game:
"I think it was an interesting game we wanted to win here, but unfortunately we played short-handed and we weren't able to score. The Chicago Fire was playing very tough and it wasn't easy for us. Before the game I didn't expect the Fire to defend so tough but there was a great crowd and I think emotions helped raise the level of play."
