Twenty-four-year-old Chicago Fire midfielder Logan Pause took all the blame for squandering the Fire's 1-0 halftime lead to table-topping D.C. United.
Six minutes into the second half Pause was ejected for earning his second yellow card after foolishly interfering with Freddy Adu's throw-in attempt in United's defensive third of the field. Left a man down, the Fire saw Alecko Eskandarian score the equalizer in the 74th minute as the teams ended 1-1 at Toyota Park.
"It was a mental lapse and first and foremost I want to apologize to my teammates and this organization because I feel like I left them out to dry," said Pause.
The Fire not only had the 1-0 lead at the time of the 51st-minute incident, but they also had been the aggressors up until that point.
"I was trying to disrupt the play and slow it down. I never thought I was going to get a second yellow," said Pause.
"It's a shame when one of your players is shown a red card that soon into the second half. Now we've got to just dig in and battle. It's not easy," said Fire head coach Dave Sarachan. " ... Just like the game in D.C. at RFK, I think we dominated possession, thought we dominated the chances. We didn't feel that threatened. You always want to win at home, but given the circumstances tonight with 10 men, we're going to accept the point and build off of this."
Having managed only three shots in the first half, United found their foothold and peppered 13 shots at the Fire goal during their 39-minute man advantage.
"We had a strong effort from start to finish. You guys saw a really good Chicago Fire team tonight," Sarachan said. "If it weren't for a great little juke by Alecko to get the equalizer, we would have had the win."
In the 74th minute, Eskandarian equalized by spinning around Gonzalo Segares at the top of the penalty area and placing a shot low inside the far post and into the side netting past outstretched Fire 'keeper Zach Thornton.
"It's unfortunate because this team deserved three points tonight and it was my fault that we didn't get it," added a downtrodden Pause.
"It was a silly play by Logan and he knows it and he's apologized to the team," said Fire head coach Dave Sarachan.
"FIFA is now mandating for referees to discipline players who delay, so Logan left the referee with no choice."
Still, Pause's teammates weren't as critical as he himself was.
"Logan was trying to help a teammate out," said defender C.J. Brown. "I'm not going to point fingers but I will tell you it wasn't on Logan. Logan was trying to protect some guys by delaying D.C. It was going to be a quick throw-in and we were trying to get back.
"Did he have to do it that far down the field? Probably not, but Logan was trying to help us out," said Brown.
Ivaldo Basso is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
