Fire ties record with 16th draw
There was nothing sweet about No. 16 for the Chicago Fire.
Not after giving up a 2-goal lead by allowing 3 consecutive goals. Certainly not in the mark itself, tying the MLS record for draws in a season with Saturday's 3-3 tie against D.C. United at Toyota Park.
And definitely not in the proof that in soccer draws will get you nowhere, which the ninth-place Fire (5-7-16, 31 points) knows all too well.
No team in the Eastern Conference has fewer losses than the Fire, but no team has fewer wins either.
"It's OK if you've got 10 wins and you've got 16 ties, but the position we're in, we need wins," Fire coach Frank Yallop said after learning his club tied the mark set by the Fire and New York in 2011. "I think the big thing is, again we've got to build on the positives. We're difficult to beat. But we don't win games. That's a fine line, but it's one we've got to work on."
A 16th-minute goal by Quincy Amarikwa and a converted penalty kick from Jeff Larentowicz had the Fire thinking 3 points were within reach. But Luis Silva converted a penalty kick and a free kick to even the game, and Bobby Boswell gave first-place United (14-9-6, 48 points) the lead in the 68th.
Matt Watson's 78th-minute goal from distance secured the record-tying tie for the Fire.
"I feel like for us there are so many games we could have won, should have won, things like that," Watson said. "It just hasn't been. Little details we probably need to clean up, but I also personally feel we've been hard done by in some of those situations."
Yallop clearly thought Saturday's first 2 United goals were two of those situations.
"If you look at the first goal for them, I don't see the call, for one," Yallop said. "Their second goal is not a foul. And the free kick's fantastic, take nothing away from the kick.
"But those things change games. Yes, we can't hang onto a lead, and I can say to the guys we didn't try hard. I thought we played well tonight. We deserved to win, but we didn't."
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