Fire wraps up spot in Eastern title game

The Fire had no room for error Saturday night, so it made no errors.

Entering the match trailing New England by a goal in the two-game, aggregate-goals series, the Fire earned a 2-0 victory to win the series 3-2 on aggregate in front of 21,528 at Toyota Park.

The Fire will host the Eastern Conference championship match next Saturday night against Real Salt Lake.

"It was just a tremendous, tremendous team effort, and you can't say enough about the guys in this locker room," goalkeeper Jon Busch said. "It's an honor for me to play with these guys, because everybody left it on the field tonight."

Busch had a relatively easy night as his teammates pressed the attack and the outmanned Revolution tried to preserve its advantage. The Fire put 13 shots on goal to the Revs' 4 and controlled the pace of the game.

The Fire got its first goal, to even the series, in the 35th minute when Marco Pappa cut the ball back inside the New England penalty area and passed to John Thorrington, who beat goalkeeper Matt Reis with his shot to the left post.

Thorrington not only brought the goal, he brought a lot of fire to the center of the field.

"Fire? That's an understatement," coach Denis Hamlett said of the midfielder. "The guy's been out two months or so (with an injury), rolled his ankle real bad (Wednesday), didn't think he was going to be able to play, but the guy's a warrior."

Despite the Fire's pressure, it was beginning to look like overtime might be needed, but the Fire found the game-winner in the 83rd minute when Patrick Nyarko, a substitute for the injured McBride, used his speed to track down a long ball to the corner.

He dribbled into the penalty area and passed to Cuauhtemoc Blanco near the spot. Blanco deked Jay Heaps and finished the Revolution's season with his shot.

To Nyarko, the winning goal was inevitable.

"This team believed it," Nyarko said. "Honestly, all week we've been saying it. - We were confident going in, and luckily we got a goal early on in the game."

"It's so awesome," McBride said. "What an atmosphere, too. The fans were great. The guys fought for each other defensively so strong, and then getting that goal - John's goal in the first half was a big thing.

"Then Patrick came on and made a big difference for us and set up Cuau, and Cuau took his goal great."