Draw with one of top teams frustrates Fire
Look at the Fire’s 0-0 draw against Real Salt Lake on Wednesday night at Toyota Park like an economist would the economy.
On one hand, on a night when the club inducted former defender C.J. Brown into it’s Ring of Fire hall of fame, the Fire shut out one of Major League Soccer’s top clubs, the first shutout of the season for goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
On the other hand, the Fire (3-2-3, 12 points) couldn’t defeat a short-handed team like RSL (7-3-2, 23 points) at home because it continues to have trouble scoring.
“It’s disappointing,” forward Patrick Nyarko said. “We had our moments. I thought at times we were on top of the game. We came out pressuring. We took them out of their element and created some chances, but we couldn’t finish them. We got desperate a little bit toward the end and we couldn’t get a clear-cut chance to put the game away.
“But it’s very frustrating. We measure ourselves against these kind of teams, but getting a win against this team would’ve been huge. Getting our confidence up, knowing we can beat a good team. But we tied at home, which we’re not very happy with. We need to improve our home form.”
The Fire’s best chance came in just the fourth minute, Dominic Oduro heading the ball off the crossbar from 5 yards after a Nyarko cross. Substitute Rafael Robayo’s 86th minute header went wide right.
Defensively, rookie Austin Berry got his second consecutive start and continued his strong play.
“You’ve got to put things in perspective,” Fire coach Frank Klopas said. “That’s a very good team. ... So when you play the top team in the West and the quality that they have, when you play games like this, when you create opportunities, you’ve got to put them away. Having said that we didn’t, we kept playing, but the positive thing also is we didn’t give anything away.”
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