A hungry Tigres UANL team took advantage of a lazy Chicago Fire team Saturday that saved itself in the final minutes of the SuperLiga game at Toyota Park.
Cuauhtemoc Blanco's penalty kick goal in the 85th minute cut Tigres' lead to 2-1, which was enough for the Fire to advance to the semifinals of SuperLiga 2009.
Tigres needed to win by two goals to secure advancement to the semifinals, but instead had to wait for the result of the game between San Luis and Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center before finding out whether it would get through.
As it turned out, perhaps some justice was served, as a late goal gave Chivas USA a 1-1 draw and sent Tigres through to the semifinals as the Group A winner. The Fire finished second in the group by virtue of their loss to Tigres, but both teams will have to wait until Sunday to learn their semifinal opponents.
The Fire knew the scenarios, and although they tried not to let it affect their game, it looked like they weren't ready to go out and win.
Tigres almost scored in the first minute, and got their first goal in the 37th minute on a play in which they passed the ball back and forth to each other five times without a Fire player touching the ball.
"Absolutely terrible, a disgrace from the first minute," Fire coach Denis Hamlett said of his team's defensive effort. "We could have been down 3-0. We didn't want to make a tackle on both goals. I told them if we have this kind of attitude we won't win anything."
"We came out very slow and that set the tempo for the rest of the game," Fire midfielder Tim Ward said.
Tigres, using a roster of youth players and reserves from the club, had the run of play for most of the game and their two goals were beautiful passing and dribbling exhibitions that the Fire watched rather than disturbed.
"I am very satisfied with their performance," said Tigres coach Daniel Guzman. "Prior to the game, we visualized a victory by two goals."
The game had a wild opening, as Tigres nearly took a quick 1-0 lead in the game's second minute. Alejandro Villalobos wound up with the ball in the penalty box left of goal and slipped a pass to Juan Pablo Garcia in front of Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch, who had already come out after the ball. Garcia's touch approached the goal line but did not cross before being sent out.
Tigres took its 1-0 lead in the 37th minute on a goal by midfielder Armando Pulido. Tigres made four passes around the top of the box, with Fire defenders failing to slow them up, before Javier Saavaedra slipped the ball to the middle of the box for an easy right-footed shot by Pulido past Busch.
"We weren't committed to defending tonight," Busch said. "They knocked the ball around quickly and then 'boom!"
Pulido also scored the second goal Tigres needed in the 61st minute on a brilliant counterattack that started after Blanco took a free kick from 23 yards out on the Fire's scoring end. His shot hit the wall, and Garcia beat two Fire players to the rebound and started the counter.
Garcia dribbled the ball far up field until he found Pulido to his left, who then dribbled past Ward and defender Austin Washington and was right on top of Busch for an easy touch goal.
"This is the first time I have been with the first team and I knew it was a big opportunity for me," Pulido said. "My mentality was to take advantage of it."
Pulido had a goal in Tigres' 2-1 win against Chivas USA last Saturday, so his three goals for the tournament put him atop the scoring list in SuperLiga 2009.
Down 2-0, the Fire knew they needed a goal to advance, but were denied until Patrick Nyarko was fouled in a sandwich tackle between Pulido and Villalobos.
Blanco, who had five shots on goal in the game, nailed the penalty kick to give the Fire the result they needed.
"He came in on my blind side and banged into me," Nyarko said. "I had a clear shot on goal. I knew it was a penalty kick."
Busch said although the Fire "played to win" from the start, it wasn't until the end of the game they played to get one goal and not two.
"You want to win every game you are in, but it wasn't until the end we knew we needed a goal," Busch said.
Hamlett promised to start his best XI to get his team through, and he did so, although defender Bakary Soumare did not start after coming home from Africa from World Cup qualifying for Mali. Instead, Hamlett started Daniel Woolard and Austin Washington on defense in place of Soumare and Gonzalo Segares, who joined his Costa Rican Gold Cup team this week.
There were no Fire substitutions at halftime, but Hamlett sent rookie Baggio Husidic into the game in the 58th minute in place of defender Brandon Prideaux. Tim Ward moved back to a defensive spot while Husidic played the midfield.
Hamlett then made two late attacking substitutions. In the 71st minute, Hamlett inserted Nyarko into the game for Rolfe, then in the 77th minute, Justin Mapp entered the game for Marco Pappa.
"We waited until we were down 2-0, and then there was an urgency," Hamlett said. "We got the golden goal that saved us."
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
