Fire starts fast, pours it on
The way things went Thursday night at Toyota Park, it was as if not a single raindrop fell on a Chicago Fire player.
Maybe what a national television audience saw was just 11 small rain clouds following each New England Revolution player on the field as if he were Charlie Brown.
Oops, make that 10 Revolution players.
The Fire poured it on against New England for a 4-0 victory in its home opener, getting all 4 goals in the first half while taking advantage of an early red card to the Revs' Jeff Larentowicz.
Forward Chad Barrett started the onslaught with a fourth-minute strike off a Justin Mapp assist. A nice buildup found Mapp loose on the left, and his cross just in front of the penalty spot met Barrett, who one-timed a left-footed shot past stunned goalkeeper Matt Reis.
"It was a great start to the evening," said Denis Hamlett, who earned his first victory as Fire coach. "You could tell that our guys came ready to play. You could tell from the first five minutes by our movement, sharpness, and the guys were into it. We got a great first goal."
Larentowicz compounded New England's problem with his seventh-minute red card, and the Fire struck again 14 minutes after that. Barrett dribbled the ball to the endline, and when Reis saved the shot, newcomer Tomasz Frankowski was there to nudge the ball in.
The Fire made it 3-0 in the 37th minute on a Cuauhtemoc Blanco penalty kick, earned by Mapp when Sainey Nyassi took him down from behind in the penalty area.
Two minutes later, Barrett found Frankowski for a goal that looked much like the first, and the Fire had a comfortable 4-0 lead.
"Two times Chad Barrett had good work, and I had been in good position to score the goal," Frankowski said.
"What we've seen all preseason, his ability to run in the box, you saw tonight," Hamlett said. "He gets a half a chance on goal and he's pretty good at finishing that. … It's a great night for him."
It was also a great night for the Fire, which was grateful to leave Salt Lake City with a tie in the road opener Saturday. New England is the defending Eastern Conference champion and had opened the season by beating league champion Houston 3-0.
So the Fire is 7 goals better than the league champs?
"No, no, no. We don't look at it that way. What I do know is this team has prepared well through this preseason," Fire midfielder Diego Gutierrez said. "We've done our work, we've prepared in a conscientious way, and we're ready to confront the best teams out there. We feel that we're one of the best teams out there until proven otherwise."