Fire and Chivas Battle to 1-1 Draw

By Tessa Fegen

BRIDGEVIEW, IL - May 1, 2010 - It was a beautiful night for soccer at Toyota Park as Chivas USA tied the Chicago Fire 1-1.  Baggio Husidic got his second MLS goal of his career as he put the Fire (2-2-2) up by one in the 53rd minute. However, Chivas USA (2-3-1) got the equalizer in the 76th minute off of a corner kick.

“We were expecting a hard match,” said Fire Head Coach Carlos De Los Cabos. “Throughout the week I mentioned to the team how good Chivas has been playing.”

It was a battle throughout the entire match as the first half ended without either team capitalizing.

Collins John was scheduled to start up-top in the Fire’s 4-5-1 formation but an injury in warm-ups put him on the bench for the entire match as captain Brian McBride got the start. As the center of the Fire’s offense, McBride is always contributing. He had a few good chances to score including a cross from Husidic in the 24th minute which ended in a bad touch.

Nyarko proved to be the most dangerous player throughout the match, working the right flank all game.

It was his assist which put Husidic on the board, tallying his assists to four for the year. Husidic scored his second goal of his career after getting his first one just last week against the Houston Dynamo.

“Baggio participates a lot up top. He has gotten more minutes this year and has been playing really well especially these last two games. He’s becoming one of the top members on the team,” said De Los Cabos.

Chivas USA struck back in the 76th minute when a Sacha Kljestan corner kick found Maicon Santos head, directing it to the back of the net.

Three minutes later, Nyarko again, almost contributed to another Fire goal. He took the ball up the right flank, fainted the defender, and then got a shot off into the goalie’s legs.

That would be the last real opportunity for the Fire with the exception of a questionable non-call in the 88th minute which would have given them a penalty kick. Dimitrov got taken down in the box and was hoping for the call as one last desperate attempt at a goal-scoring opportunity.

De Los Cabos was happy with the way his defense played but said he felt that the team was lacking offensively. Chivas USA outshot Chicago 14-4, with five shots on goal to Chicago’s three.

“We created several opportunities but we didn’t finish. We seemed to have a lack of final concentration,” said De Los Cabos.

The Fire’s next match is at Toronto FC on May 8th.

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