With 1-0 win, Chicago Fire notches second victory of week
Chicago Fire coach Veljko Paunovic said his team passed a "maturity test" Friday night at Toyota Park. It also passed the 3-point test.
The Fire earned its second victory of the week, defeating San Jose 1-0 on a John Goossens goal in the 58th minute.
"I think it was a fantastic evening," a pumped-up Paunovic said. "Very very passionate, very hard game. A lot of opportunities. I think we created more."
While the Fire (3-7-5, 14 points) controlled the ball only 41 percent of the game, this time it didn't lack for shots. The Fire had 16 shots, 7 on target, while San Jose managed just 6 and 2.
Maybe more importantly, the Fire was mature enough to manage the game down the stretch, keeping San Jose and dangerous forward Chris Wondolowski from causing much trouble for Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
Having Goossens back from a knee injury after two months made a difference against San Jose just as it did in Tuesday's U.S. Open Cup victory against Columbus Crew SC.
"Whoa, big-time," said Fire midfielder Michael Stephens, rolling his eyes to emphasize the point. "He's creating goals and scoring goals. When we're sitting in our low zone and we're defending hard, we can find him and he's a good outlet. He's finding (forwards David Accam and Kennedy Igboananike). He's being a good link to the attack and it's been great. Today he scored an amazing goal."
With new forward Michael de Leeuw becoming available for next weekend's match at injury-riddled Toronto FC, the last-place Fire finally is feeling good about itself.
"We are getting there," Paunovic said. "We are getting there. I still believe there is a long way to go, but at least finally we passed that maturity test today where we created a couple of times during this season the momentum of where we can step to the next level and we couldn't for different reasons."
Could this be a turning point for the Fire?
"I think this upcoming weekend is going to be the big one," Stephens said. "If we can go up there and get a result in Toronto, then I'd say we have the turning point because we still need to break that (winless) streak on the road and we need to prove that we can get points on the road because we've dropped some at home."
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