MLS - Chicago Fire Remains Unbeaten

By Stephen Lars

After four days of the start of the 2009 MLS season, the Chicago Fire is one of the teams who are putting up a fight and who to date has an excellent record of no defeats. This was demonstrated once again last Saturday when the Red Machine faced the San Jose Earthquakes, a meeting that ended 3-3 and even though Chicago did not get the victory, this tie was enough for them to keep their streak intact and maintain their leadership at top of the Eastern Conference.

On the other hand, the San Jose Earthquakes have not had a good performance lately; in their previous game against the Kansas City Wizards they finished with a score of 2-0 against them. This combined with their last draw against the Fire, prevented the Quakes to add points and advance in the positions of the Western Conference, where they remain in the fifth place with just four points.

The game began Saturday with the locals Earthquakes pressing their opponents and controlling the ball with fast and dangerous plays. It was in this type of action that the Boys in Blue were able to open the score at minute 14, due to a successful pass that Darren Huckerby placed on Ryan Johnson’s feet, who taking advantage of the situation led directly toward the goal of goalkeeper John Busch, and with a powerful shot sent the ball to the bottom of the net of the Men in Red, which were taken out of guard and could not do anything but to continue playing, trying to avoid their opponent’s score to expand .

The game continued with the same pace of the Quakes making a good game against the visitors of Chicago, who were able to improve their game as the match progressed, until at minute 41 they had a great opportunity when Marco Pappa entered the rival’s area in the right end and preventing the goalkeeper Joe Cannon to stop him, Pappa put the score 1-1. This goal caused great emotion to the crowd of Chicago, but the celebration didn’t last long since two minutes later, Bobby Convey ran with the ball since the middle of the field and advanced until getting in front of Busch and then surpassed him and put the score 2-1, and that was how the first half came to end, with a somewhat overshadowed Chicago Fire and the Earthquakes looking for the victory.

The second half began with Chicago willing to fight and avoid the defeat, so the coach Denis Hamlet made a wise decision to enter the Mexican Cuauhtemoc Blanco to the field, who immediately took control of the game and the team, assisting with a pass to Brian McBride, who managed to put the score 2-2 at minute 57.

Another option to score came to San Jose when polemic penalty was called at minute 75 of Dawson Robinson over Convey, who was then well-executed by Arturo Alvarez, bringing back the Earthquakes to the lead, but ten minutes later and with the clear intention not to lose its unbeaten streak, Pappa caught a ball and passed it right to Chris Rolfe, who sealed the game with a 3-3 draw to put an end to the heated match.

About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on daily MLS games, sports news and the sportsbook industry for many exceptional sport web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.