Fire plays Portland to a draw

Posted February 26, 2015 10:00 am

Daily Herald News Services

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Chicago Fire rallied for a 1-1 draw against the Portland Timbers on Wednesday night at Providence Park in the club's second match of the 2015 Simple Invitational.

The Fire fell behind early in the preseason contest after a deflected free kick from Michael Nanchoff found the net, but tied the game in the 44th minute with an own goal off the head of Portland's Norberto Paparatto. Chicago closed the match with a flurry of chances, but couldn't find the go-ahead goal.

Chicago tied the game moments before halftime on a set piece. Michael Stephens sent a corner kick into the mixer, narrowly missing Eric Gehrig's head on a near-post run. However, Paparatto was trailing the play and mistakenly headed the ball into the far corner of the net to knot the game at 1-1.

The Fire will continue the Simple Invitational action on Saturday against Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Kickoff is 4:30 p.m. CT with live streaming available at Chicago-fire.com.

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