Fire falls in friendly match
Fire coach Denis Hamlett had to admit concern over the goals his team gave up in Wednesday's 2-1 loss to Mexican side Club America in an international friendly at Toyota Park.
"Yeah, a real concern," Hamlett said. "Especially two minutes in, you're behind the eight ball right off the bat. But to our credit our mindset is pretty good in terms of we didn't sort of just put our heads down. We just continued to play and really stepped it up a few notches. I thought we had some really good chances that we created. We could have tied the game, but we didn't."
Club America scored when veteran midfielder Logan Pause headed a clearance toward the middle of the Fire penalty area where Juan Carlos Silva chipped over first-half goalkeeper Nick Noble, one of several reserves getting playing time while some veterans rested.
The second goal came in the 42nd minute on a Pavel Pardo free kick. Noble came off his line but seemed to get caught in a crowd of players, and the ball bounced through his legs into the goal.
The Fire scored in the 73rd, Stefan Dimitrov sending through Chris Rolfe.