Chicago Fire's De Leeuw gets his goal
Michael de Leeuw finally got his goal Saturday night.
De Leeuw was skunked the first half of the Chicago Fire season, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
Nobody has worked harder than de Leeuw, the 30-year-old Dutch forward who puts as much effort into defending as he does attacking. That extra effort helped him start the second half of the season with his first goal.
"I feel good," de Leeuw said after the match. "Finally, you know? The monkey's finally off my back, but I think it was an elephant. I'm happy with my goal but also with the points. It feels so good that I scored, but the most important thing is that we killed the game really soon. It was great. I'm happy; happy with the result, happy with my goal."
It looked for a while that de Leeuw's frustration might continue. He had a couple of good second-half chances to score before finally finding the back of the net in the 84th minute, the Fire's fourth goal in a 4-0 victory vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
His Fire teammates celebrated the goal with de Leeuw, mobbing him afterward.
"That felt great, the support," he said. "I felt the guys were also feeling it, that I needed a goal. I felt the love from the guys, and that was great."
Added coach Veljko Paunovic: "So happy for him. We were talking for a long time now how important his work for the team, how important his assists for the team also."
Summer vacation:
After Wednesday's game at Portland (9:30 p.m., Comcast SportsNet), the first-place Fire (11-3-4, 37 points) will have a 17-day break until its next game, at New York City FC. The Fire only has three games left in July, and all three are road games.
The break is coordinated around the Gold Cup, for which 49 MLS players have joined their national teams. Fire midfielder Dax McCarty will play for the United States.
The team will take several days off after Wednesday's game before resuming training next week.
Put me in, Coach:
Major League Soccer announced last weekend that Buffalo Grove's Brian McBride will coach the MLS Homegrown Team on Aug. 1 at Toyota Park as part of the festivities around the Aug. 2 All-Star Game at Soldier Field.
McBride will be assisted by Mike Magee, who grew up in Elmhurst and Long Grove. Both are former Fire players.
The MLS team will play the Chivas U-20 team. Fire homegrown midfielders Drew Conner (Cary) and Djordje Mihailovic (Lemont) could get the call to play in the game.