Chicago Fire vs. Rochester Rhinos: Well, There Was Victory

The bottom line is that Diego Chaves scored a goal in the 37th minute of play and the Chicago Fire defeated the Rochester Rhinos 1-0 in the 3rd Round of the U.S. Open Cup last night.  You the fan deserve more of a recap than that but I'm not sure the game itself does.  If you missed the game, it looks like USL Live might put it in their Archived Games at some point.  Terrible game aside, some more summary, news, and notes are after the break.

The game started out with a very bad feeling for Chicago.  Speedsters Kendall Jagdeosingh and Quavas Kirk were making dangerous runs on the left side of the field for Rochester.  Starting RB Bratislav Ristic and his CB partner Dasan Robinson looked very slow in comparison.  Rhinos forward Andrew Hoxie was playing off Jagdeosingh quite well and dangerous shots were also created by midfielders Tony Donatelli and Tyler Rosenlund.  Chicago did not start to control play as much as Rochester appeared to downshift a gear.  Coach Bob Lilley's strategy was either to hope for an early goal or the Rhinos let themselves use all of their prime energy right away while feeding off the tournament excitement. 

Diego Chaves' goal came from the Uruguayan passing the ball to Corben Bone on the left wing.  Bone did some moderately fancy footwork to get himself into a good position to put the ball on frame.  Rochester's goalkeeper Neal Kitson save Bone's shot but allowed the ball to rebound off his gloves.  Chaves was able to get a foot on the ball just outside the box and smashed the ball into the net.  Like the game, it wasn't pretty but it did get the job done and work in the end.  Rochester put in a couple of different substitutes but nothing was doing.  The Fire controlled play and the Rhinos were unable to get their magic back.  

Chicago was very fortunate that Rochester did not score in their early rush.  It looked like the USL Pro side had at least one goal if not two or three under their feet.  The Fire were equally fortunate to get a score from Chaves' shot because their opportunities were few and far between.  Most importantly the beat rolls on and so does the Chicago Fire U.S. Open Cup journey.  The Fire will host New York Red Bulls on Saturday, July 12 at 7:30 PM after NYRB defeated F.C. New York 2-1 in their USOC match-up last night.  Ticket sales start today at 12:00 PM CST and can be purchased on www.Chicago-Fire.com or by calling 1-888-MLS-Fire.  Get a big group of people together everyone.  This is important.  

Chicago Fire PDL

The Chicago Fire PDL had a USOC game of their own last night against Sporting Kansas City.  The senior MLS team was too much for our junior version and SKC won 3-0.  Teal Bunbury scored a 3rd minute free kick goal and led a starting lineup that featured many SKC regulars.  It wasn't the result the PDL team wanted but they had a great experience playing in Livestrong Park and going up against MLS starters.  

Chicago Fire U-16s

It was the last day of the United States Development Academy Playoffs yesterday and as we reported earlier, the Chicago U-16s needed a win and some luck in order to advance.  Everything was coming up Chicago when a Francisco Sajuan opened the scoring in the 7th minute and Emmanuel Chavez scored a brace to make it 3-0 in the first half.  Fire goalkeeper Christian Lomeli even stopped a penalty kick to preserve the lead.  Joel Salmeron piled on another score in the 80th minute to make it 4-0.  The other game was even going according to plan as North Meck SC was up 1-0 on PA Classics with 15 minutes to go.  Then the sky came falling down as PA Classics scored goals back-to-back in the 78th and 80th minute of play to finish the game 2-1.  The win gave them 7 points in group play and the overall group win.  If PA Classics simply tied instead, the Fire would have won the group and advanced themselves.  The 2010-2011 Academy season is over but the U-16s and the U-18s each won their last games and went out in style.  As on Monday, we all here at HTIOT say congratulations to the entire U-16 team on a great season.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2010-2011 Chicago Fire U-16s:

Louis Bennett

Elliot Borge

Emmanuel Chavez

Ruben Chavez

Andrew Conner

Kyle Dal Santo

Benjamin Kucera

Christian Lomeli

Jesus Medina

Charlie Oliver

Manuel Rios

Francisco Sajuan

Joel Salmeron

Craig Scott

Michael Winhoffer

Cody Witkowski