Chicago has carried some confidence with them into recent matches, and the same was true when they welcomed Chivas USA to Toyota Park on a near-perfect Saturday afternoon in Bridgeview. Chivas, looking to snap a five game winless streak, hoped to find an offensive spark to slow down a Chicago side that had doubled their season win total in their last five game stretch. What would follow was a game that, for the most part, became a story of two halves, with the Fire falling back once again on Dominic Oduro to help them secure their third win in four games.
Chicago started the game strong, as they have in recent weeks, forcing two early corner kicks from Chivas in the first two minutes. While the first corner, taken by Pavel Pardo, was cleared by Chivas, Chicago was able to retain possession, pushing the issue and again forcing another corner. The set piece, this time taken from the other side by midfielder Sebastian Grazzini, found Cory Gibbs, relatively unmarked on the far side of the box. Gibbs elevated, as he has done throughout the season, striking a header that found the opposing corner his 3rd goal of the season.
Chicago would continue to control play early, only giving Chivas a few chances to build up any offensive momentum. Although Chivas held the 1st half possession advantage, Chicago was controlling the game. The Fire would add to their lead in the 26th minute, as a foul 25 yards out resulted in another Chicago free kick. Pavel Pardo sent his volley into the box, finding the head of Chivas’ Juan Pablo Angel rather than a Fire player. That turned out to be of no consequence, as the ball glanced off Angel’s head, and into the goal for an own goal that doubled Chicago’s lead.
The Fire would find themselves against the wall, however, in the 38th minute, when a poor tackle by Cory Gibbs on Michael Lahoud resulted in a perhaps too-harsh straight red card from referee Jorge Gonzalez. Nonetheless, Chicago would play the remainder of the match a man down, a fact that Gibbs lamented about after the game. “I was really down on myself, but the team how relentless they were for that whole time, it was amazing.”
If the 1st half belonged to Chicago, 35 minutes of the second half belonged to Chivas. In the second half, Gibbs departure would necessitate a forced change by Klopas, as he would bring in Yamith Cuesta as a sub to fill out the backline, again giving Chicago four defenders, after Patrick Nyarko had dropped back for the last 7 minutes of the first half in Gibbs’ absence. Exiting the game was Sebastian Grazzini, which at the time seemed a bit puzzling. In his post-game conference, Frank Klopas addressed the departure of Grazzini as opposed to Marco Pappa, who has seen increased action with Guatemala in addition to logging significant minutes with the Fire. “We had to make a decision which kind of hurt us in the second half because Seba’s such and excellent player, and has the ability to hold the ball for us and calm the game down, and we didn’t have that. It was definitely a different game with a man down.”
Chivas would try to push the game in the second half, knowing they had the man advantage. Chicago spent most of the first 25 minutes of the second half on their heels, as Chivas continued to push the issue, forcing a few errors by Chicago that let Chivas back in the game in the 61st and 63rd minutes. Juan Pablo Angel would redeem himself in the 61st, as a failed clearance found its way to Mariano Trujillo, who would send the ball in to an unmarked Angel. Angel’s one-timer found its way past a diving Sean Johnson to get Chivas on the board. Minutes later, a Chivas corner would see a failed clearance by Dom Oduro landing at the feet of Zarek Valentin. The ball bounced around momentarily before spinning over to Nick Labrocca, who would flick it to the far corner, past Sean Johnson and over Logan Pause’s head. The goal, something of a fortunate fluke, drew Chivas’ level with Chicago, again at the hands of Labrocca just as he did in the second half of their eventual draw in LA months ago.
Chicago would not roll over, however. After collecting themselves in the minutes proceeding the Chivas equalizer, the Fire would again begin to press the issue with chances in the 69th and 75th minutes, to no avail. Likewise, the Goats would nearly go ahead in the 72nd minute, as Laurent Courtois, who came on in the 61st minute for Justin Braun, would beat Gonzalo Segares down the sideline and find Juan Pablo Angel in the middle of the box. Angel’s effort was initially stopped by Johnson, but trickled behind him, heading towards the goal mouth before Segares recovered to safely play the ball away from danger.
That would prove to be one of the biggest defensive plays of the game, as 13 minutes later, second half substitution Diego Chaves would gain possession, slotting an unmarked Nyarko up the left side. Nyarko, calmly picked the ball up in the box, giving he and Dominic Oduro a two v. one chance against Chivas GK Dan Kennedy. Kennedy never stood a chance, as Nyarko sent the ball to Oduro’s feet, and Oduro finished easily, netting his team high 10th goal of the season, and putting Chicago ahead (and Chivas away) in the closing minutes of the match.
With his (again) late winner, Oduro is now just two goals behind league leaders Thierry Henry and Landon Donovan in the Golden Boot race. While it’s no small task to take over the league lead from the likes of those two individuals, it should be noted that Henry’s last goal came more than a month ago, and Donovan, who scored last week against Colorado, hadn’t found the back of the net since the end of July. Oduro, on the other hand, has now scored 5 goals in his last 7 MLS matches, a torrid pace that could see him realistically end the regular season with 13-15 goals.
In addition to threatening for the league lead in the Golden Boot race, today’s tally makes Oduro the first player since Damani Ralph in 2004 to hit double digits in goals scored in a season for the Fire. The always gracious Oduro gave credit to his team for his outstanding accomplishment. “I can’t take credit for that. I think all my goals have come from hard work from my teammates. They made it possible for me to be where I am right now.”
It goes without saying that every game is a must-win for the Fire from here on out. Anything Chicago lacked early on in the season seems to have vanished in recent weeks, even in spite of tough recent losses to San Jose and Vancouver. While today showed momentary lapses in play from the Men in Red, most of it must be contributed to the task of playing a man down for over an hour of the match, no easy job for even the best of teams. Time is running out to say that Chicago has a definitive shot at the playoffs, but the team has proven they will continue to put in the effort to make the clubs around them in the standings earn their place.
With today’s win over Chivas, Chicago is now six points behind 10th position in the playoff hunt, with six matches to go. They hope to continue their strong play when they face New England next weekend, while also hoping to see Chivas, DC, and Portland fall on tough times in the remaining weeks of the 2011 season.
Image courtesy of Getty Images
