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August 19, 2005
A NIGHT OF LOSSES
Fire Loses to KC, Falls to Third and Pickens is Out
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Goalkeeper Zach Thornton started Friday night on the bench for the Fire. Thirty minutes later, Thornton stepped in for an injured Matt Pickens.
Linda Cuttone/Sports Vue Images |
KANSAS CITY, MO – The Chicago Fire fell victim to a two-goal effort from Kansas City Wizards rookie forward Scott Sealy, which proved more than enough to send the Fire to a 3-0 defeat on the road in front of 7,724 fans at Arrowhead Stadium.
Sealy and Wizards midfielder Jack Jewsbury scored in back-to-back minutes midway through the second half to finish off the Fire (12-10-3, 39 pts.), who lost more than the match on the night, dropping to third place in the Eastern Conference standings behind the Wizards (11-5-8, 41 pts.) and the New England Revolution (42 pts.).
In addition, the “Men in Red” lost starting goalkeeper Matt Pickens at the half hour mark when the netminder suffered a high ankle sprain while going after a cross that resulted in the Wizards opening goal.
“This was a game that needed some discipline and alertness,” said Fire Head Coach Dave Sarachan. “I thought that, up until their first goal, we frustrated
them a bit. At halftime we felt that as long as we were patient and kept the ball and did a good job at possession that we could get the goal back. What happened in the second half was we just didn’t handle the ball well. We’d turn it over and didn’t take advantage of the turnovers, and they did.”
The visiting Fire held most of the possession throughout the first half with little to show for it, not managing a severe threat on the Kansas City goal
until midfielder Jesse Marsch sent a chance from 10 yards out just over the crossbar in the 44th minute. The Wizards didn’t fare much better in their attack until the 26th minute, when Sealy cleaned up a loose ball on the doorstep to take a 1-0 lead.
Injuries were the big story in the opening stanza, as
Pickens was forced from the match minutes after the goal-scoring play, on which he suffered his sprained ankle when his left foot got stuck underneath him while diving low to stop a cross by Jose Burciaga Jr. An incapacitated Pickens lay on the ground, allowing Sealy to clean up the mess and put the Wizards ahead. The Wizards didn’t get away unscathed, however, as forward Josh Wolff left the match at the interval with a right rib contusion.
The Fire attack stalled out in the second half, while the defense fell victim to a familiar foe – the Wizards’ lightning-quick counter-attack. The match got away from Chicago quickly during a two-minute stretch midway through the half that saw Sealy score his second of the contest in the 72nd minute and second half substitute Jack Jewsbury hit paydirt just a minute later. The Fire offense could only manage one shot during the half, as defender C.J. Brown’s header off a corner kick sailed high three minutes from time.
The Fire will have plenty of time to get past the loss, as the squad will not face competition in MLS regular season play until Labor Day weekend, when the squad continues its six-game, 56-day road trip on Sep. 4 against the Los Angeles Galaxy at The Home Depot Center in Carson, CA (7:00 p.m. CT, Comcast SportsNet).
It won’t be all rest as the Fire will square off next Wednesday, Aug. 24 against the USL First Division’s Rochester Raging Rhinos in a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Quarterfinal contest at Frontier Field in
Rochester, NY (6:30 p.m. CT).
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