Hamlett shuffles deck, helps slumping Fire deal victory
Fire coach Denis Hamlett didn't intend to shake up his lineup Saturday night at Toyota Park, it just worked out that way.
It also worked out very well, eventually.
The first-place Fire ended its home-field drought with a 2-0 victory against bottom-feeder San Jose, getting its first home Major League Soccer goal since May 5 in the 82nd minute to earn its first home MLS win since April 5.
It was also the Fire's first game without forward Brian McBride, who underwent shoulder surgery Friday that could end his season.
"Whoa, yeah, that's kind of hard to believe," said forward Patrick Nyarko, McBride's replacement, when told of the home drought. "We needed to break the slump at a certain time, and I'm glad it was today. Hopefully, we can sustain that and keep making it hard for our opponents to play here."
Dealing with injuries and a busy week of MLS and SuperLiga games, Hamlett shuffled his lineup. Second-year midfielder Peter Lowry saw his first MLS action, with Mike Banner, Dasan Robinson, Daniel Woolard also starting. Normal starters Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Marco Pappa and Wilman Conde came off the bench in the second half.
"For fans and things like that, it's a little bit strange to see guys like that," said defender Bakary Soumare, who will be suspended for next week's game because of yellow-card accumulation. "We see these guys in training every day, and we know that they will do well. Guys like Peter, Mike Banner, they are working hard at practice. You know those guys are going to give you something."
It looked like the Fire (7-3-7, 28 points) would suffer a second straight 0-0 tie, but Cuauhtémoc Blanco chipped a pass to Nyarko in the 82nd minute that Nyarko slid into, knocking it out of the air and into the San Jose net from 6 yards out.
"We were pushing the game," Nyarko said. "We were getting closer and closer. Temoc (Blanco) and Marco coming in gave us a little bit of a spark. - When (Blanco) got the ball I just needed to make the run. He's one of the few people who can find you with that ball. I don't know how it got through. All I needed to do was to get contact with the ball, and it went in."
The rested Blanco salted the game away in extra time with some more of his special magic, taking Conde's pass and chipping the ball from 17 yards over goalkeeper Joe Cannon.
"Special players, that's what they do," Soumare said. "They come in for a little bit, they pull a few special plays."