By Will Martin
The Chicago Fire are still in the midst of playoff aspirations as they visited Frisco Saturday night.
With one in hand and a victory their record would place them in fourth place in the Eastern Conference. With a win over FC Dallas the Fire would be in the drivers seat.
All they’d have to do is defeat FC Dallas in their home. The newly named Toyota Stadium.
For FC Dallas the season is all but over if they can get three points in their remaining games. Last weeks 1-1 draw in Real Salt Lake was one they let get away having the man advantage most of the second half.
Earlier this week Schellas Hyndman was pretty adamant about the state of things for his playoff chances.
“We needed three points. We don’t need ties, we need wins. We’re so disappointed, so frustrated right now because Salt Lake gave us the chance to get those three points and we didn’t capitalize on it,” Hyndman remarked.
In netting his fourth goal of the season and his first since May 18th Kenny Cooper saw a long stretch of substitution playtime in the 1-1 draw. Kenny’s take:
“We’re all extremely hungry to get in there with only three points. We know we have to get points. I think you’re going to see a really determined squad over these next couple games and finally get some points.”
When you talk about the Chicago Fire the guy you need to follow is Mike Magee. He seems to be in the middle of all the action when the Fire douse the net in 2013. Magee would do more of the same Saturday night in Frisco.
Beginning with a corner kick Mike Magee would land a shot off the head of Juan Luis Anangono for an early 1-0 lead in the 25th minute past Chris Seitz. Chicago would then increase their lead to 2-0 in the 42nd minute when Alex fed a cross pass to Mike Magee that ricocheted off his person and went past Chris Seitz.
Chicago then extended their lead to 3-0 when Jalil Anibaba would successfully drill a kick from the corner in the 52nd minute unassisted to allow for a three goal cushion for the Fire.
Not long after that Kenny Cooper did his best to ignite the 14,087 in attendance in the 65th minute when a free ball near the crease was spanked in for a score. FC Dallas now only trailed 3-1. Kenny Cooper would make it a 3-2 game when awarded a penalty kick in the 75th minute and blasted a shot past a diving Sean Johnson.
There would be a few chances for FC Dallas to tie and to win but to no avail. As Coach Schellas Hyndman said post game another instance in which the team was outplayed early and playing catchup late. With the 3-2 defeat FC Dallas can start to look ahead to 2014. A very despondent locker room pretty much summed up the finish to a season that began so strongly.
Chris Seitz would stop 15 of 18 shots on goal while Sean Johnson stopped 15 of 17.
The Chicago Fire remain in the playoff hunt with the Brimtstone Cup, a 3-2 victory and one red hot Mike Magee with 19 goals on the season. Next week the final FC Dallas home game will commence at 1:30 pm with the Seattle Sounders.
