The Chicago Fire and Toronto FC ended their scrimmage in Bradenton, Fla. with a 1-1 draw, while in the same location the Colorado Rapids played a split-squad scrimmage against the U.S. U-17 national team that ended in a 2-0 Rapids victory and a scoreless draw at the IMG Academies, highlighting MLS preseason activity on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the New England Revolution continued a perfect preseason with a 2-0 victory against the Bermuda national team in Hamilton, Bermuda, while FC Dallas dropped the first leg of Rio Grande Plate in a 2-1 loss to Mexican partner club Tigres UANL in Monterrey, Mexico.
Toronto FC 1, Chicago Fire 1
Despite a quiet first half, the Fire drew first blood with a goal from Calen Carr in the 52nd minute, but Toronto came back in the 78th minute with a Jarrod Smith goal that ended the match in a tie.
It took seven minutes into the second half for the Fire to break the stalemate. Forward Chad Barrett ripped a hard shot on goal toward Toronto rookie goalkeeper Josh Wagenaar. The 'keeper initially made the save, but the ball deflected off his hands and onto the foot of Carr, who knocked home the opener.
But Chicago could not hold off TFC, and in the 78th minute midfielder Tyler Hemming pushed a pass to Smith who found the lower right corner of the goal to tie the game.
The Fire nearly went ahead in the 86th minute when midfielder Jesus Mendoza slipped by two defenders to give fellow midfielder Peter Lowry a clear shot. But Lowry passed the ball to forward Dwight Barnett, who shot the ball high above TFC 'keeper Josh Wagenaar's crossbar.
Chicago Fire (4-4-2): Dominic Cervi (Nick Noble 46), Brian Plotkin (Mike Banner 77), Diego Gutierrez (Austin Washington 63) , Bakary Soumare (Jeff Curtin 63 / Tim Regan 80), Bruno Menezes (Julian Barragan 46), Justin Mapp (Peter Lowry 63), Logan Pause (Stephen King 63), Chris Rolfe (Pius Ikedia 63 / Kai Kasiguran 80), Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Jesus Mendoza 63), Chad Barrett (Dwight Barnett 63), Steven Marlet (Calen Carr 46).
Toronto FC (3-5-2): Greg Sutton (Josh Wagenaar 46), Jim Brennan, Marco Velez, Tyrone Marshall, Tyler Hemming, Collin Samuel, Kiki Musampa, Maurice Edu, Ronnie O'Brien (Jarrod Smith 73), Danny Dichio, Jeff Cunningham.
Colorado Rapids vs. U.S. U-17 national team
The Rapids took on the U.S. under-17 national team in a pair of simultaneous friendlies at the IMG Academies. The games were played in three 30-minute periods, and Colorado switched players between the two fields and all the fit players saw at least 30 minutes of action. The U-17s switched their entire teams after the second intermission.
In a 2-0 victory on one field, the Rapids were able to take advantage of the U-17s after just 16 minutes when Chase Hilgenbrinck put in a cross from the left flank to a flying Niko Hernandez who finished the play with a diving header.
In the 58th minute, Omar Cummings dribbled past and beat a handful of defenders before crossing the ball to Jordan Harvey who had a clear, wide open shot from less than six yards away.
In the other contest, Colorado had appeared again to take an early lead on the U-17s. However, Stephen Keel's header off of a free kick was ruled off due to a hand ball.
Omar Cummings seemed determined to leave his mark on the game. However the opposing goalkeeper dove for two separate saves on separate shots and denied Cummings his moment. The same 'keeper made another game-saving grab on a header from Keel.
Colorado Rapids (field 1): Justin Hughes, Kosuke Kimura, Facundo Erpen, Stephen Keel, Jose Burciaga Jr., Terry Cooke, Nick LaBrocca, John DiRaimondo, Colin Clark, Omar Cummings, Jacob Peterson
(field 2): Bouna Coundoul, Brandon Prideaux, Jordan Harvey, Cesar Zambrano, Chase Hilgenbrinck, Nico Colaluca, Brian Grazier, Ciaran O'Brien, Scott Campbell, Niko Hernandez, Jovan Kirovski
Substitutes: Mike Grayczk, Chris Sharpe, Daniel Antunez, Cliff Wilmes
New England Revolution 2, Bermuda national team 0
Kenny Mansally scored his fourth goal in two games and Adam Cristman added his second in as many contests as the New England Revolution posted a 2-0 victory against the Bermuda national team at National Stadium in Hamilton, Bermuda on Wednesday night.
Mansally put the Revs on top in 21st minute, taking a cross from Cristman in the center of the penalty box and beating the Bermuda 'keeper low to stake New England to a 1-0 lead. Cristman extended the lead to 2-0 shortly after the half, pouncing on a deflected pass by Shalrie Joseph and putting the loose ball low past the 'keeper in the 48th minute.
The one piece of discouraging news for New England on the night was a wound suffered by Sainey Nyassi above his eye in a collision with a Bermuda player along the touchline. Nyassi was replaced by trialist Javier Delgado and taken to a local hospital for a precautionary screening.
New England Revolution: Matt Reis (Brad Knighton 46), Jay Heaps (Sam Brill 64), Michael Parkhurst (Gary Flood 64), Chris Albright, Khano Smith (Amaechi Igwe 46), Shalrie Joseph (Kyle Altman 59), Jeff Larentowicz (Joe Franchino 46), Sainey Nyassi (Javier Delgado 24), Steve Ralston (Kyle Helton 59), Adam Cristman, Kenny Mansally
FC Dallas 1, Tigres UANL 2
FC Dallas came up short in the first leg on the Rio Grande Plate on Wednesday night, falling to Mexican partner club Tigres UANL 2-1 at the Estadio Universitario in Monterrey, Mexico.
Forward Ricardinho notched the lone FCD goal of the night, beating Tigres 'keeper Enrique Palos on a blast from 35 yards out to halve the 2-0 lead Tigres built off of first half goals by Jesus Palacios and Carlos Esquivel.
Despite the loss, FC Dallas head coach Steve Morrow was still encouraged by what he saw from his squad.
"Given that we are still very early in our preseason, there were a lot of pleasing things to come from the game, especially in the second half," Morrow said. "We had a couple of defensive lapses which cost us big in the first half; but in the second half we had better possession and created more chances. There were several pleasing individual performances. Our fitness and quality of play will get better as we go through preseason."
With the loss, FCD stayed winless in their three trips to Monterrey as part of the Rio Grande Plate. Dallas won the inaugural 2006 Rio Grande Plate 5-4 on penalty kicks after the teams split the two games, each winning their home leg by 2-0 scores. Tigres took the trophy in 2007, winning 2-0 at home and 1-0 in Frisco.
Tigres UANL: Cirilo Saucedo (Enrique Palos 46), Flavio Rogerio, Carlos Esquivel (Alejandro Villalobos 86), Fabian Cubero, Blas Perez (Jonatan de Leon 46), Guillermo Marino (Jonathan Arenas 59), Jesus Palacios, Enrique Escudero, Francisco Fonseca, Diego Martinez (Jose Rivas 65)
FC Dallas: Ray Burse (Dario Sala 46), Drew Moor (Andrew Daniels 46), Duilio Davino (Aaron Pitchkolan 46), Alex Yi (Adrian Serioux 46), Abdus Ibrahim (Bobby Rhine 46), Andre Rocha (Marcelo Saragosa 46), Dax McCarty (Anthony Wallace 46), Blake Wagner (Brek Shea 46), Juan Toja (Abe Thompson 46), Kenny Cooper (Dominic Oduro 46), Arturo Alvarez (Ricardinho 46).
