The Chicago Fire again came up short in their search for a first victory of the 2006 season. Against a strugging Columbus Crew on a picture-perfect Saturday afternoon, the teams traded goals six minutes apart as they played to a 1-1 draw at Crew Stadium.
The young Chicago team had many early chances but came up empty until early in the second half. Fire head coach Dave Sarachan was happy with what he referred to as an offense that was "dangerous at times," but said his team needed to react quicker to the ball, counter more cleanly with first passes and capitalize when given opportunities.
The Fire boss thought the team was slow reacting to streaking Columbus forwards, but happy overall with the team's performance.
"The idea when you go on the road is to come away with points. We got one today, but I thought we earned three," said Sarachan. "We really limited Columbus. They didn't pose many threats against us, but somehow when you look up at the board it's 1-1. We have a competitive group inside that locker room that felt we could have gotten three (points), but it's an important point we got today and we're going to continue to build on that."
Late in the first half, young Fire phenom and Ohio native Chris Rolfe missed a great opportunity, placing the ball just past Crew goalkeeper Jon Busch only to find the left goalpost. The opportunity was created by Rolfe himself after he stole the ball from Crew defender Chad Marshall at the top of the Columbus penalty area, leaving only Busch to beat. Afterward, Rolfe looked back at the near-miss in disgust.
"It's the second time this year that if I make those two shots, there's three points for us in the standings," he said.
Rolfe made up for the miss just five minutes into the second half when he hit for his second goal of the young season on a pass from forward Chad Barrett. Thankfully, he again had the opportunity to shine in front of family, friends and former teammates who were rooting him on from the stands. A year ago, in his rookie season, Rolfe scored three goals in two league games in Columbus.
"It was fun to see all those guys in the stands rooting me on," Rolfe said. "It's fun to come back home to Ohio."
The Crew scored their only goal of the match on a penalty kick by midfielder Sebastian Rozental after Kei Kamara fell in the penalty area following a collision with Jim Curtin. After the game, with regards to the spot kick, Sarachan spoke critically.
"In my opinion it wasn't a penalty," Sarachan said. "It's a shame that, you know, when you add it up today, Columbus didn't really have that many clear chances, but were given that opportunity to equalize."
Fire original Zach Thornton became the 29th player, and fourth goalkeeper, in MLS history to make 200 league appearances with his outing on Saturday. Thornton joined Scott Garlick (208), Kevin Hartman (217) and Tony Meola (232) - who Thornton began his career backing up with the then MetroStars. Oddly enough, Thornton's MLS debut in 1996 resulted in a loss to the Columbus Crew.
The Fire will enjoy a bye week next week before returning to action April 30 against the New England Revolution in Foxborough, Mass. It will be their fourth of nine consecutive road games they are playing while their new stadium in Bridgeview is being completed.
Ryan D. Kuhn is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
