Shorthanded Fire show mettle in defeat
Chicago runs with Los Angeles despite key absences
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- Fire downed by LA; must wait to clinch
- Highlights: LA 1, CHI 0
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The Fire had just lost 1-0 to the Los Angeles Galaxy at The Home Depot Center, missing out on a chance to clinch a Major League Soccer playoff berth this weekend. There weren't many smiles displayed throughout that locker room. But there wasn't a complete sense of failure either.
That's because the Fire believed they stacked up well against the Galaxy to the end of a hard-fought match despite missing a handful of starters out with injury.
Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Gonzalo Segares, Chris Rolfe, John Thorrington and Tim Ward all missed out on Friday's match due to injury.
"It would be easy to say we don't have our usual 11," said Chicago goalkeeper Jon Busch. "We don't make excuses. The bottom line is we're good enough regardless of who we put on that field to win games every weekend. We proved it again tonight but (the result) is unfortunate. I think we deserve more than what we got tonight."
What the Fire got was a missed opportunity to clinch a playoff slot. A win against the Galaxy combined with a Chivas USA win against D.C. United meant a spot in the postseason for Chicago.
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The Fire will have to wait two weeks for another shot thanks to a Landon Donovan goal in the 42nd minute.
Donovan fought off Chicago defender Logan Pause to get to a Chris Klein deep pass just outside the penalty area before lobbing a right-footed shot over Busch's head into the net on a counterattack.
"Landon is Landon. He does that week in and week out," said Busch, who helped keep the Fire in the match with five saves. "They're a good counterattack team. They played it up to (Donovan)."
Busch said he thought Donovan fouled Pause on the play.
"Logan has a position on him, (Donovan) fouls him and there's no call as the ball skips through," Busch said. "I'm reading it that it skips long enough so I can pick it off. Unfortunately it doesn't. I was hoping he just missed it."
Chicago missed out on a couple of scoring opportunities late in the match. Brandon Prideaux and Stefan Dimitrov had sequential opportunities near the goalmouth but could not get a clean foot on the ball. Instead, Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts dove on a rolling ball after a soft Dimitrov shot.
Hamlett said part of the reason for the lack of finishing is due to some players getting adjusted to different positions.
"We're proud of the guys for just competing tonight," said Chicago coach Denis Hamlett. "We can't worry about when we get those guys back. We got to deal with the guys we have right now. I'm real proud of that group because we have different guys at different positions.
The Fire sit in second place behind Columbus in the Eastern Conference standings with 41 points and a 10-7-11 record. The Crew were the first team to clinch a playoff slot.
Chicago will try to clinch again when it travels to New England Oct. 17 after next week's bye. The Fire then close out the regular season at home against Chivas USA. They hope they have a playoff slot secured by then.
In the meantime they'll continue to battle with the current available players.
"It's just the situation we are in right now. As a coach you ask your team to go out and compete and try to play as a team...to do their best in the positions they are in. I felt we did that tonight. "It's just disappointing. We got two teams competing real hard this time of year trying to make the playoffs."
Ivan Orozco is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
