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Despite Second Straight Loss, Fire Remain Optimistic
Jul 9, 2010 2:25:00 AM
By Isaac Heath
Bridgeview, IL- The Chicago Fire’s rollercoaster season continued Thursday night with another gut wrenching one-goal loss against a tough Real Salt Lake team.
In a rematch of last year’s difficult penalty kick shoot out loss to RSL, Chicago played with passion and energy for much of the match, but once again was unable to score.
Despite the struggles, they remain optimistic moving forward.
“We lost to a very good team, and in the last part of the first half they controlled the game,” explained Fire head coach Carlos de los Cobos. “But I thought we played great in the second half.”
There was a noticeable lull in Chicago’s play for the last 25 minutes of the first half and Real Salt Lake began to accumulate opportunities. Robbie Findley probably should have had 3 goals, but instead came away with the decisive penalty kick.
The penalty was a close call, but Chicago felt they were slighted a bit. When asked if he fouled Findley, C. J Brown smiled and said “I’m not going to answer that; you saw it as well as I did.”
“We still had our chances to win the game, and I don’t normally talk about the referee, but he missed this call,” added de los Cobos.
Penalty kick aside, the Fire had numerous chances to score in the second half but were once again unable to get on the board. However, despite this ongoing problem, there were many positives to take from the game.
For starters, the play of young defender Steven Kinney was superb at right defender. Kinney was active all night in the attack and was extremely unlucky not to grab a goal as he hit the post twice on headers in the second half.
CJ Brown went as far as to call him “the future” as the youngster spoke with reporters after the game.
“I had a blast out there,” said Kinney, “but it was so frustrating to come so close to scoring, but not be able to.”
Kinney’s energy seemed to rub off on the team, because the effort was there from the Fire tonight for the full 90 minutes. Earlier this season that was not the case, as the Fire has struggled to put together a full game.
De los Cobos and the players, while frustrated with the result, were much more content with the performance and therefore encouraged about the state of the team.
“I am happy with where the team is because several of the players are maturing and this season is a process because this is a different team from last season.”
The Fire look forward now to the Superliga where they hope to continue their progression towards becoming a more consistent team.
For more on Major League Soccer, visit Goal.com's MLS page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page!
In a rematch of last year’s difficult penalty kick shoot out loss to RSL, Chicago played with passion and energy for much of the match, but once again was unable to score.
Despite the struggles, they remain optimistic moving forward.
“We lost to a very good team, and in the last part of the first half they controlled the game,” explained Fire head coach Carlos de los Cobos. “But I thought we played great in the second half.”
There was a noticeable lull in Chicago’s play for the last 25 minutes of the first half and Real Salt Lake began to accumulate opportunities. Robbie Findley probably should have had 3 goals, but instead came away with the decisive penalty kick.
The penalty was a close call, but Chicago felt they were slighted a bit. When asked if he fouled Findley, C. J Brown smiled and said “I’m not going to answer that; you saw it as well as I did.”
“We still had our chances to win the game, and I don’t normally talk about the referee, but he missed this call,” added de los Cobos.
Penalty kick aside, the Fire had numerous chances to score in the second half but were once again unable to get on the board. However, despite this ongoing problem, there were many positives to take from the game.
For starters, the play of young defender Steven Kinney was superb at right defender. Kinney was active all night in the attack and was extremely unlucky not to grab a goal as he hit the post twice on headers in the second half.
CJ Brown went as far as to call him “the future” as the youngster spoke with reporters after the game.
“I had a blast out there,” said Kinney, “but it was so frustrating to come so close to scoring, but not be able to.”
Kinney’s energy seemed to rub off on the team, because the effort was there from the Fire tonight for the full 90 minutes. Earlier this season that was not the case, as the Fire has struggled to put together a full game.
De los Cobos and the players, while frustrated with the result, were much more content with the performance and therefore encouraged about the state of the team.
“I am happy with where the team is because several of the players are maturing and this season is a process because this is a different team from last season.”
The Fire look forward now to the Superliga where they hope to continue their progression towards becoming a more consistent team.
For more on Major League Soccer, visit Goal.com's MLS page and join Goal.com USA's Facebook fan page!
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