Start the match well enough to take the lead, look like you’re going to ride out of Toyota Park with a victory, then lose focus and concede a late goal to drop points at home.
That script – all too familiar to the Fire over the last two years – was played out to a tee Saturday night, when Chivas USA grabbed a late equalizer to tie the Fire 1-1 at Toyota Park.
Watch the full match highlights.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Fire goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra. “It screwed the game for us. One dumb mistake and we paid for it.”
Armed with a 1-0 lead and only needing to see out the final 15 minutes against what had been a relatively toothless Chivas USA attack, the Fire lost their focus. Chicago was late getting back to defend against a Chivas corner kick and they paid the price, as substitute forward Maicon Santos ran – relatively unmarked – onto Sacha Kljestan’s corner kick and headed home from six yards out.
“We had a lot of players late getting back and they took advantage by speeding up the play,” Dykstra said. “We were trying to play damage control in the box, trying to get guys on their marks and we didn’t make a play on it. It’s tough. They took advantage of the situation by catching us sleeping and capitalized.”
Santos’s equalizer cancelled out the goal by Fire midfielder Baggio Husidic, his second goal in as many games. The 22-year-old central midfielder put the Fire ahead in the 52nd minute, when he ran onto a Patrick Nyarko cross and tapped it home from three yards out.
The play, which saw the UIC product split the middle of the field with a hard charging run, summed up his night. He consistently got up into the attack, tirelessly making run after run through the center of the park to provide support for attacking midfielder Marco Pappa and forward Brian McBride.
“He’s a player that has a lot of participation up top and he’s having some good performances in the last few matches,” Fire Head Coach Carlos de los Cobos said of Husidic. “He’s becoming one of the top members on the team.”
Husidic, who continues to impress with every start, would have received even more accolades had Nyarko picked him out in the 80th minute. Dancing along the end line, Nyarko shot directly at Chivas goalkeeper Zach Thornton. Had he seen Husidic streaking through the middle of the box, the Fire could very well have taken the lead and walked away from Toyota Park with their win streak (which was stopped at two games) intact.
“I got there and beat the guy on the end line but had no angle,” Nyarko said. “[Apparently] my teammates were running through but all I saw were blue [jerseys] so I just tried to go for it. I just hit it hoping it would sneak in but [Thornton] is so huge he had everything covered.”
And so the Fire leaves Toyota Park disappointed for the second time in three home matches. Saturday’s result is more frustrating when one considers that it looked like the Fire had turned a corner over the last two weeks.
“It’s about holding the people accountable,” Dykstra said. “What we [need to] do is just keep on each other make sure it’s right the next time.”
It remains to be seen whether or not the Fire will be with forward Collins John and midfielder Justin Mapp for “the next time,” which will come next Saturday when the Fire travels to Canada to take on Toronto FC. Both players re-aggravated injured hamstrings on Saturday night. John tweaked it during warm-ups and was a late scratch from the starting lineup, while Mapp’s injury occurred in the 13th minute.
