Chicago Fire Falls 3-2 to Chivas USA in Season Opener
March 9, 2014 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Chicago Fire FC News Release
CARSON, Calif. (Sunday, March 9, 2014) - The Chicago Fire (0-1-0, 0 points) fell 3-2 to Chivas USA (1-0-0, 3 points) Sunday afternoon at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. in the Fire's 2014 season opener. After Chivas USA scored two goals in three minutes early in the second half, the Men in Red mounted a furious comeback as Benji Joya scored with his first touch of the match and Quincy Amarikwa equalized with a right-footed shot from distance, but Bobby Burling headed home the game-winner for Chivas USA in the waning minutes of the match.
The Fire next head to the Pacific Northwest to take on the Portland Timbers at Providence Park on Sunday, March 16 at 2:00 p.m. CT (My50/TWCSC Wisconsin/La Ley).
The Men in Red will host 2013 MLS Supporters' Shield winners New York Red Bulls for Opening Day at Toyota Park, presented by Giordano's Chicago Pizza, on Sunday, March 23 at 2:00 p.m. CT. Single game tickets to the Fire's 17 MLS Regular Season home matches and to the July 26 international friendly against Barclay's Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur FC are now available via Ticketmaster and www.Chicago-Fire.com.
Quotes:
Chicago Fire Head Coach and Director of Soccer Frank Yallop
Overall thoughts on the game
"If you look at the game as a whole, for us, we were poor. I thought our whole demeanor wasn't what we've seen and worked on in preseason. Just very disappointing. Having said that, coming back and tying the game 2-2, we fought back, kept going, got back to tie the game, and to give up a set play like that is poor on our behalf. We've got to learn from it, we got to move on, but very disappointing."
On the rebuilding of the backline
"Defensive set plays is everybody. I haven't yet seen a replay of the third Chivas goal, but it didn't look good from where I was sitting. It looked like a free header from six yards out. If you give that to anybody, they're going to score. All in all, I thought we had a few chances in the game. Sunday afternoon, tough conditions with the heat, but there's no excuses for us; we have to make sure that we're ready to play and dig deep when we need to. We should've at least gotten a tie out of the game."
Thoughts on Benji Joya's debut
"Yeah, he scored a goal, he did well. He's young; you're going to get young decisions. He had a couple of fouls where I thought maybe he shouldn't have dived in, but he did fine."
On Mike Magee
"To be honest, he's still a bit injured, so I didn't want to risk him in this game. We said maybe, but I had already put Logan [Pause] on, Chris Rolfe was cramping, and we had already used all our subs. Mike was good for maybe ten minutes but we had to change it a little bit. It is what it is. I think Mike wanted to be part of it today and I did as well, but I didn't want to risk it and give him 25 minutes when he probably only had 10 in him, and his hamstring is still a little bit tight, so I didn't want to go there."
If he saw anything of concern
"I think just our demeanor especially in the last goal against, our heads dropped a little bit with the two goals against. I think Quincy [Amarikwa] sparked us a little bit, did well, made it difficult for them to play against us, and all of a sudden, they get chances out of that. There are some positives, if you like, but losing is terrible, it never feels good no matter how you look at it. For us as a group, we have to make sure that we don't buckle under and we're ready for the fight until the last minute of the game. If you're not ready to fight, then we're in trouble."
Chicago Fire defender Bakary Soumare
Overall thoughts on the game
"It was unfortunate. We worked really hard the second half to comeback; we could've gotten away with one point, unfortunately it didn't happen. We have to regroup for next Sunday and hopefully get a good result."
On Chicago's spirit in making a comeback
"It showed character. It showed that the guys that came into the game, Quincy and Benji, they already played and they gave us a great push. They came out in the right moment, worked hard and gave us two goals to comeback and we let it slip in the end."
On the backline's performance
"Every time you give up three goals, you can't say you're figured out too well. Our goal this season was not to concede as many goals, and today we gave up three so you can't say we did a good job. We worked really hard; the coaching staff has done a great job with the backline, working on defense. We know we conceded three goals today and we're not happy about that."
Chicago Fire midfielder Benji Joya
First goal in first game as a professional
"This week, all I've put in my mind is to get the debut and get a goal and get my name on the score sheet and luckily, the first touch I had today turned into a goal and I'm really proud of that."
Overall thought on the game
"It's part of the game. Sometimes you comeback and at the end, you get a little bit low and they get a good corner, good cross and that's what pros are going to do. If you slack, they're going to come out on top. I'm really proud of the effort of the guys and it's the beginning of the season and we still have another game to look forward to and we really need to focus on the next game and get the win."
On the team's effort to win the game
"The effort was there, things didn't go our way this game, but it happens. Soccer is back and forth and you just have to be constant. Things didn't go our way today and we have to keep looking forward to the next game."
Notes:
- With the result, the Fire move to 8-6-3 overall in MLS regular season matches against Chivas USA, and 4-3-2 in matches played on the road.
- The Fire are now 5-5-5 when opening the season away from Chicago, and 5-6-6 overall in the first match of the season.
- Benji Joya scored 49 seconds into his Fire debut. With the goal, which was scored with his first touch of the game, Joya becomes the 10th Fire player to score in his debut appearance for the club.
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