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Magee’s penalty double leads Fire past Sporting KC

Mike Magee

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By IVES GALARCEP

It isn’t every day you see a team earn two penalty kicks in the first 15 minutes of a match, but that was what the Chicago Fire were able to do in Sunday’s match against Sporting Kansas City.

One of the penalties looked extremely dubious, while the second looked considerably more legitimate. Both were called though, and Mike Magee expertly converted both into the same low left corner to help the Fire post a 2-1 victory over Sporting KC.

The win, Chicago’s second in a row, came against a Sporting KC side fielding a patchwork defense without Matt Besler and Aurelien Collin. Peter Vermes handed teenage defender Erik Palmer-Brown his first professional appearance and the Juventus target endured a rough debut, surrendering a penalty kick and drawing two yellow cards before being sent off after just 64 minutes.

Dom Dwyer pulled Sporting KC within a goal in the 68th minute with a header off a Benny Feilhaber pass, but that’s as close as Sporting KC was able to get.

Fire rookie Harrison Shipp  continued to enjoy a dream season for Chicago, showing off an array of dangerous passes to trouble Sporting KC’s patchwork 3-5-2 formation. His pass helped set up the first Fire penalty, drawn by Quincy Amarikwa, who raced onto the pass and fell to the ground after Erik Kronberg raced out to challenge him. Replays suggested Kronberg never made contact with Amarikwa, but the penalty call stood and Magee made the score 1-0 after just seven minutes.

Benji Joya drew the second penalty just eight minutes later as he challenged Palmer-Brown in the penalty area. Joya slipped past Palmer-Brown, who pushed him from behind to draw the referee’s whistle and set up Magee’s second penalty conversion.

The loss dropped Sporting KC to 5-4-2, while Chicago’s second straight win improved the Fire’s record to 2-2-6.

Here are the match highlights:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqEQwq58MVc?list=UUSZbXT5TLLW_i-5W8FZpFsg]

Comments

      • Hey, for the record I have partied plenty in Chicago, and have loved it. That said, it has been a while so maybe I need a trip there soon.

    • Call the Wha-mbulance please. I was busy on Sunday and couldn’t watch the game, screwed up where it was played. No conspiracy theories or “flyover state hate.” And does Chicago really count as “Flyover” territory? That might be a bit of a reach.

      Reply
  1. Sporting park looks just like Toyota Park!!!!!! Dang these cookie cutter stadiums!!!
    Hope Shipp goes to Spain or Holland before he gets hacked into knee surgery in MLS

    Reply
    • Do you really think that was the reason Mike R? Because any check at Mlssoccer would show where the game was played. Let’s wait for Ives to explain his claiming the Fire were visiting KC.

      Reply
      • It was meant to be tongue in cheek
        Because
        A) the Toyota park signs in tha background gave it away
        And
        B) I was at the game !!

      • It was a mistake. I didn’t see the match, we didn’t have anyone else write up the report, so when I went to watch the highlights last night for some reason I came away from the highlights thinking the match was in KC. Probably because the highlights were from the KC broadcast.

  2. Vermes should be chastised publicly for that terrible display of coaching.

    You move to a three-man back line (three CBs) using two outside CBs who have never played CB and they are being anchored by a 17 year old playing his first professional game.

    Great job coach, just drive a train over that kid’s confidence.

    Reply
    • Ya, he put him in a situation to fail, but given who he his, I think its fair to assume that Vermes knew what he was doing and figured Palmer-Brown has enough talent and maturity to get his ears wet with a bucket of water to the face.

      There wasnt much of a choice, something wacky had to be done. Games going forward will seem to much easier for this young talent.

      What is crazy is that SKC deserved a point, they outplayed Chicago, lol

      Reply

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