The Chicago Fire and Sporting Kansas City played to a 1-1 draw Tuesday afternoon in both sides’ third matches of the 2011 MLS Reserve League. The two teams traded first half goals before playing a physical and scoreless second half.
Fire striker Cristian Nazarit gave Chicago an early lead when strike partner Orr Barouch won the ball at the top of the 18. The Colombian forward ran on to the ball, carrying it into the box before slotting his low effort past Sporting KC goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen and into the left corner to give the Fire a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute.
Sporting Kansas City responded minutes before halftime, as midfielder Luke Sassano rocketed a shot from the top of the penalty arc which beat Fire ‘keeper Alec Dufty before coming off the cross bar and falling to the feet of Chance Myers. The fourth-year Kansas City player took a touch before burying the rebound past Dufty from close range in the 40th minute.
Myers almost put Kansas City ahead two minutes later when a giveaway in the Fire midfield resulted in Sporting striker C.J. Sapong running towards the top of the Fire penalty area. Sapong laid the ball off for Myers whose chip got taken by the wind and went just over Dufty’s goal in the 42nd minute.
Switching sides at the half, the Fire used the wind to their advantage early when midfielder Baggio Husidic played a long ball over the top for Barouch who ran onto the ball in stride, before beating defender Shavar Thomas. Walking in alone on Nielsen’s goal, Barouch’s low effort was saved by the charging Danish ‘keeper to preserve the 1-1 score line in the 50th minute.
Though good offensive spurts came at the start of the half, the rest of the match fell off following a foul on Victor Pineda in the 66th minute. The play resulted in a tussle between the two sides with the Fire’s Ristic and Barouch receiving yellow cards, while Kansas City’s Sassano was also cautioned.
With neither team able to put much together through the end of the half, referee Michael Kennedy blew the whistle and the two sides shared a point a piece.
With the result, the Fire Reserves move to 2-0-1 (7 points) and sit atop the MLS Reserve League’s Central division. Sporting moves to 1-1-1 (4 points) and remain in fourth in the division.
Sporting is back in Reserve League action Sunday, May 29th when they visit the Colorado Rapids.
<object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," type="application/x-silverlight-2" width="480" height="324"><param name="source" value="http://chitv.neulion.com/mlsvp/scripts/mls.xap"/><param name="initParams" value="catid=218,id=14902,shareembed=true,server=http://chitv.neulion.com/mlsvp/,pageurl=http://chitv.neulion.com/mlsvp/console.jsp?id=14902&catid=218"/><param name="background" value="Transparent" /><param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="3.0.40624.0" /><param name="autoUpgrade" value="true" /><param name="Windowless" value="true" /><param name="enableHtmlAccess" value="true"/><a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&v=3.0.40624.0"><img src="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108181" alt="Get Microsoft Silverlight" border="0"/></a></object>
Notes:
- Forward Chance Myers is tied with D.C. United's Blake Brettschneider and Chivas USA's Chris Cortez for the MLS Reserve League lead with three goals.
- Sporting KC U16 Juniors midfielder Wes White has appeared in all three MLS Reserve League matches for Sporting KC this season, entering in the 81st minute on Tuesday.
Lineups:
Sporting KC: Jimmy Nielsen ©; Seth Sinovic, Matt Besler, Shavar Thomas, Kevin Ellis; Craig Rocastle, Luke Sassano (Wes White* 81), Scott Lorenz (Korede Aiyegbusi 75), Ryan Smith, Chance Myers; C.J. Sapong
Substitutes Not Used: Jonathan Kempin, Eric DeJulio
Chicago Fire: Alec Dufty; Dasan Robinson, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Josip Mikulic (Peter Beasley 41), Bratislav Ristic ©; Martin Rivas, Brady Wahl, Baggio Husidic, Victor Pineda; Cristian Nazarit (Gabriel Ferrari 69), Orr Barouch
Substitutes not used: Jon Conway, Joel Salmeron Drew Conner
Academy Players
Scoring Summary:
CHI – Cristian Nazarit (Orr Barouch) 11’
KC – Chance Myers (unassisted) 40’
Misconduct Summary:
CHI – Bratislav Ristic (caution) 66’
KC – Luke Sassano (caution) 66’
CHI – Orr Barouch (caution) 67’
