By SAM STEJSKAL
When the Chicago Fire and the New England Revolution renewed their rivalry Saturday night at Toyota Park, one team kept up a frustrating streak, while the other halted its own disappointing stretch.
When the match finished tied, 1-1, Fire fans had to start feeling like they were going through their own version of Groundhog's Day, as they watched the same scenario of inconsistent play, flashes of attacking skill and costly defensive miscues to record a fifth straight tie.
The Fire opened up the scoring in the 36th minute when defender Wilman Conde was able to slide a left footed shot past New England goalie Matt Reis.
But once again, the Fire was unable to hold a home lead, and the Revs equalized in the 49th through Shalrie Joseph. Joseph, who was playing striker for the injury-ridden Revolution, found himself unmarked only 6 yards from goal, and after a deflected shot landed at his feet, he calmly finished for his second goal of the year.
Joseph’s goal ended a 265 minute goal-less streak for New England, a streak that extended back to their April 17th match against D.C. United.
Joseph’s goal almost counted for nothing though, as Matt Reis was only barely able to deny a Patrick Nyarko header in the 93rd minute.
The result moves the still undefeated Fire into a tie for 2nd in the East, although they will feel that once again they should have had all 3 points.
The Revolution improved to 9 points on the year, moving past New York for sole possession of 5th place in the East.
The match also saw some key players for both teams return to action from injury. Steve Ralston and Justin Mapp both came on as substitutes, although neither really made much impact on the match.
What did you think about the game? Impressed by New England’s ability to pull out a short-handed result? What about the Fire? Will they ever be able to close out teams and take all 3 points from a match?
Share your thoughts below.
I stand corrected. I guess I never saw that last angle. It was not a handball on Conde.
Jeff,
As another person pointed out, replays clearly show Conde used his thigh.
Not a single NE player claimed a hand ball either.
Replay here:
http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/media/player/mp_tpl.jsp?w_id=38216&w=http%3A//mfile.akamai.com/11504/wmv/mlbmls.download.akamai.com/11504/2009/open//mls/2009/05/09/mls_arigah_4499003_800K.wmv&catCode=game_packages&gid=2009/05/09/nermls-chfmls-1&vid=1&mid=20090509250825&cid=20090509250825&fid=game_packages800&v=2&type=v_free&spons=&_mp=1
Seth|NYC, why do you think Joseph was offsides? He was clearly on.
jeff- “Chicago’s goal came off of a trap of the ball by Conde’s hand. The ball struck him dead in his extended arm, fell to his feet, and he buried it. Shouldn’t have counted.”
you are blind if you think that…. the ball came down he spread his arms out and thighed the ball down… watch the highlight of Conde’s goal only, they replay it like 3 times at different angles and the last one is clear it was a thigh
sitting behind the northside goal, i saw about 2-3 handballs on the Revs that the ref ignored…
in fact it seemed like the ref didnt have a whistle at all in the first half….
Which handball? I assume you are referring to the cross at the end of the match that struck a New England players hand. However, Chicago’s goal came off of a trap of the ball by Conde’s hand. The ball struck him dead in his extended arm, fell to his feet, and he buried it. Shouldn’t have counted.
What about the clear handball in the box that the ref seemed to not see, even though every single person in the stands did?
Northzax – good point! LOL! Teams have totaled 44 ties. Which, like you said – it takes two teams to tie – equals 22 tie games not anywhere near the 40 or so I thought.
I must be the only person who thought Joseph’s goal was textbook offside.
The Fire seem almost too confident in their own ability to scroe at will and therefore don’t play with an urgency that’s evident when they are down a goal. They need to collect a loss to refocus the team.
and how can there be 43 ties? doesn’t it take two teams to tie?
The same amount of wins as losses you say? Are you trying to say that every time a team wins, a team loses? Interesting.
MLS Cup will be between the LA Galaxy and the Chicago Fire. Neither team will be able to beat the other and it will be the first tie in MLS Cup history.
JGMB….
Of course wins and losses are equal!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you explain how their could be more wins than losses in a league? And I don’t think just by looking at those numbers how it would matter if there were 39 wins/losses and 43 ties versus, say, 79 wins/losses and 3 ties. I don’t think one says parity more than the other. You have to see if everybody can beat everybody.
I’m not saying MLS doesn’t have parity…but let’s look at the numbers at the end of the season and see what the range, average, and standard deviation are for wins-per-team if we want to see how much parity there is. Also, did the worst teams only beat the worst teams or did the worst beat the best sometimes? etc, etc. I agree with you, but be careful with the numbers game.
The Fire really need to move down the power rankings this week. Yeah, they aren’t losing, but they sure aren’t winning either. There’s no way this form can continue if the Fire want any hope of success this year. The team lacks a cutting edge, and it is killing them.
There’s been a combined total of 39 wins, 39 losses, and 43 draws in the league.
Parity is a good thing, right?
Awfully good to see Rally back, and he did make a difference. Impressive, actually, how much better the other midfielders seemed to be playing with him on the field.
From Chicago’s perspective, it seemed to be a lot of nice build-up turning into half or no chances. Lots of attacking talent, and I can’t help but think (fear?) that they’ll start to get it right.
The Fire will become the only undefeated team not to make the playoffs. Maybe a loss will finally get their heads out of their %&@$*
Wells Thompson is starting to develop into more of a forece on the right side. What he lacks in skill he makes up pure hustle and grit. Hopefully they’ll keep him around for a while.
Ralston totally made a difference. He controls the ball and keeps up the possession better than almost everyone else on the team