In a manner of speaking, the Chicago Fire pulled off an upset win at home against the Colorado Rapids Sunday.
After failing to get a shot on goal against Los Angeles Wednesday in a 2-0 loss, the Fire again failed to record a dangerous chance in the first half against the Rapids. At the 58-minute mark, they found themselves down 2-0 after two Omar Cummings goals.
Then, two things happened to change the game in the Fire's favor.
Immediately after Cummings' second goal, Patrick Nyarko entered the game for rookie Stefan Dimitrov, and the tempo increased for the Fire. Then, in the 72rd minute, Cuauhtemoc Blanco scored from a penalty kick, and the Fire were back in it.
By the time the final whistle blew, second-half substitute Mike Banner had his second career goal, defender Dasan Robinson scored in stoppage time, and the Fire had an "upset" 3-2 win.
"It's a great win for us," Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch said. "We have been through a lot in the last few weeks and this was a test for us, to see what kind of character we have. In the second half, everybody stepped up. We got behind the 8-ball a little bit, but we stepped up. It was a test of character. I'm sure it was an exciting second half for the fans."
Fire coach Denis Hamlett, who has had to create a makeshift defense because of injuries and the disciplinary situation with Bakary Soumare, disagreed with the suggestion that the win was a boon for a team that had been struggling.
"I don't think we have been struggling," Hamlett said. "We got six points out of nine (possible) this week. I don't consider that struggling, considering the injuries we have."
The victory raised the Fire record to 10-5-8 (38 points), becoming the fourth team in the league to record double-digit wins and to move within one point of Columbus for the Eastern Conference lead. Columbus has a game in hand, however.
The Fire played yet another game without their usual starting defenders -- Tim Ward (broken foot), Wilman Conde (hamstring strain), Gonzalo Segares (hamstring strain) and Soumare. The Fire got bad news at the end of the week that Ward will be out eight weeks following surgery Monday to repair his fractured metatarsal.
Hamlett also used Dimitrov on top to start the game with Nyarko on the bench in hopes of reviving the offense. It didn't much work in the mild first half, but Hamlett said the introduction of Nyarko into the game added the boost he was looking for.
"I thought the game changed when we went to two strikers," Hamlett said. "I wanted to try to get back in the game, so we pushed (Chris Rolfe) up and put Patrick in and we started to play with a little more urgency. The PK gave us a little more life and we went from there."
Banner entered the game in the 70th minute for defender Austin Washington and became the left back, with the assignment of pushing forward as much as possible.
But Blanco turned the game around by winning the penalty kick in the 72nd minute. The Mexican international dribbled left to right in the box about 15 yards out and got sandwiched by Colorado's Cory Gibbs and Kosuke Kimura. Referee Ramon Hernandez made the call, Blanco converted his third penalty kick of the season, and the Fire took off from there.
"When the penalty happened, the crowd got more into it, we woke up a little bit and those guys came in and helped," Rolfe said.
After the penalty kick, the Fire woke up and had several tremendous scoring opportunities, including a wild array of key plays in the box by Nyarko, Rolfe and Blanco.
Banner's goal came in the 85th minute. Nyarko sent a cross from deep in right of the box, Rolfe fought for it and pushed it out to the top of the box to Logan Pause, who challenged for the ball enough that a Rapids defender sent it back out to Banner at the top of the box. Banner quickly fired from 17 yards out for his second career goal.
Robinson's goal came as the Fire played desperate soccer at the end of the game. With four minutes of stoppage time, the Fire put on the big burst. Off a Blanco corner kick from the left side, Robinson actually put his head on the ball but missed deep inside the box, and it popped out to Nyarko, who one-timed a shot off the front of his foot from the right of goal. Rapids 'keeper Matt Pickens, the former Fire starter, blocked that shot and it went out to Mapp, who did a 360 with the ball before sweeping a cross back into the box at Robinson.
Robinson, who was to blame for the two goals scored against the Fire on Wednesday, got his head on this one sharply and scored the game-winner.
"I was able to reach for it and put it in the back of the net," Robinson said.
Unfortunately, Robinson's celebration was stunted quickly because when he took off his jersey as part of his exciting post-goal display, he earned his second yellow card of the game and an automatic red card.
"I kind of blacked out a little bit," said Robinson, who said he knew he had made a mistake immediately after pulling off the jersey. "Unfortunately it cost me and cost the team. It was kind of a bone-headed move, but you live and you learn."
The Fire no longer have any midweek games and after they play host to D.C. United Saturday, they have two weeks off. So the result Sunday was about as significant as you could ask for from a team that is either struggling, or isn't.
"It's everything you could ask for," defender C.J. Brown said.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
