A week ago, the Fire squandered a pair of leads and lost their first of nine road matches to start the 2006 campaign.
Saturday, it was the Fire who found late life. Jim Curtin's 86th-minute goal gave the Fire a deserved result against the Los Angeles Galaxy as the clubs finished with a 1-1 draw at The Home Depot Center.
"Coming into this building is never an easy task and given the fact that L.A. last week didn't come away with points we knew we had to be ready to play against a team that might show some urgency," Fire head coach Dave Sarachan said. "They get the goal off a restart but our guys didn't drop their heads. They came back and we equalized. I think it was fair that we got a point off of this game."
Galaxy defender Chris Albright scored in the 78th minute off a corner kick and nearly ruined the Fire's otherwise spotless defensive performance. Galaxy standout Landon Donovan was kept well under wraps as he managed just one shot the entire match.
Nevertheless, it was the Fire who gave up the game's first goal. Yet the team did not hang their heads, at least not for too long.
"We actually did for a second," Fire defender Jim Curtin said. "We were like 'Oh no, here we go giving up a late goal on a restart.' That can kind of kill a team. To our credit, a couple of the older guys said 'Keep your heads up. There are still 12-15 minutes left to try and get a goal.'"
It was Curtin who leveled terms. Galaxy defender Ugo Ihemelu fouled the Fire's Justin Mapp on the edge of the penalty box just five minutes from time. Thiago stepped up to take the free kick.
"There was a lot of traffic inside the six-yard box and I decided not to go in there so I peeled my run back towards the penalty spot," Curtin said. "Thiago kind of made a little eye contact [with me] before and kind of clipped a good ball and I was just lucky enough to get a little glancing header on it."
When the ball went into the back of the net, all was right with the Fire.
"I was just excited for the team," Curtin said. "Everybody worked hard tonight and I think we deserved the point. We fought hard and it's a tough place to play against the defending champs."
Curtin was one of several players Sarachan credited with helping the team earn a result. Curtin and C.J. Brown anchored the defense and helped it rebound from a bad opening-week performance.
"We didn't feel good about giving up three goals last week," Sarachan said of the Fire's 3-2 loss to FC Dallas. "This week, we made a pretty strong attempt to do a better job as an overall group of being better collectively on a defensive end."
Donovan was the focus of the Fire's attention.
"Landon is the X-factor for sure," Sarachan said. "We didn't put one guy on Landon but certainly were aware of Landon. Between C.J. and Jimmy along with Diego (Gutierrez) and Thiago in the midfield, I think they did a pretty good job of handling both (Herculez) Gomez and Donovan. In a 90-minute match, Landon is going to have his moments so you hope you weather through those."
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
