The Chicago Fire earned a 2-0 victory over
the New England Revolution on Saturday night to take the Eastern Conference
Semifinal Series from their Major League Soccer rivals, 3-2, on aggregate.
The game, which was played in front of a sellout crowd of 22,528 at Toyota
Park, followed a first-leg match at New England this past weekend that was won
by the Revs, 2-1.
The Fire got a first-half goal from John Thorrington and a second-half goal
from Cuauhtemoc Blanco to advance to the Eastern Conference final, which they
will host vs. Real Salt Lake next week.
Thorrington opened the scoring in the 35th minute after a great set-up from
Marco Pappa. After Pappa took a pass from Brandon Prideaux in the New England
penalty area, he drove toward goal and played an angled ball back to
Thorrington, who slotting a shot just inside the far post to tie the aggregate
series at two.
With the teams battling to a stalemate the next 48 minutes, second-half
substitute Patrick Nyarko provided the spark that propelled the Fire to
victory.
He set up Blanco's game winner by out-muscling defender Emmanuel Osei for the
ball in the right corner before cutting toward goal. He then played the ball
through the legs of defender Kevin Alston and slipped a pass to Blanco in the
center of the six-yard box. Blanco cut away from the defense and fired a
perfect shot inside the right post and under the crossbar to take a 2-0 lead
in the game and a 3-2 lead in the series.
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