Real Salt Lake reaches first MLS Cup final beating Fire 5-4
In a season full of highs and lows, the Chicago Fire took one last agonizing turn Saturday night at soldout Toyota Park.
After 90 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime ended scoreless, the Fire lost the Eastern Conference championship game 5-4 in seven rounds of penalty kicks to Real Salt Lake.
Real Salt Lake will play the Los Angeles Galaxy next Sunday night in Seattle for the MLS Cup.
"It's an empty feeling, bottom line," coach Denis Hamlett said. "What do you say to the guys? There's not really much you can say. They put everything out there and competed and tried and you come up and get to PKs and someone's got to lose. And then you lose on PKs, it's not an easy thing."
The Fire also lost the SuperLiga championship game in PKs, 4-3 to Tigres UANL on Aug. 5.
"Obviously, penalty kicks are not good for us," Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch said. "We're 0-2 in shootouts. What can you say? We left it on the field tonight."
The Fire looked to be in good shape in the shootout when it took a 3-2 lead after three rounds. But Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando made 3 nearly identical saves, diving to his left to stop John Thorrington, Logan Pause and finally Brandon Prideaux, who now enters retirement.
"Nick did fantastic in the shootout and he beat me," Busch said. "He stepped up in the shootout and I guess I didn't. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is advancing, and they're playing next weekend and we're not."
After Prideaux's miss, New Lenox native Ned Grabavoy stepped up and sent the game-winner into the net off the hands of Busch, who made 8 saves in regulation and overtime, several of them dramatic.
"I got two hands on it, I just couldn't get it out," Busch said.
It was the third consecutive year the Fire has lost in the conference final, the other two coming on the road.
Real Salt Lake outplayed the Fire in the first half, but the Fire played better in the second. Still, the foul total - RSL 23, Fire 8 - stood out to Hamlett.
"I felt like every time we had a chance to go on a break they commited fouls," Hamlett said, "and I don't think the referee did a good enough job in terms of dealing with that part of it."
But none of that mattered when the game went to PKs. It became a different kind of game, and the ball didn't go the Fire's way.
"It's going to take a while to reflect on," Fire forward Brian McBride said in a quiet postgame locker room. "Emotions are so high and then so low. I'm sure it's going to take a while."