While Alex’s goal was the most dramatic, the Fire had to fight back hard just to be in such a position, trailing their road adversaries twice in the match.
New England scored first when Kelyn Rowe beat Johnson just minutes after New England had buried a ball into the net, but were called for off-sides. Fortunately for the Revolution, the second one was onside and stood as a good goal to give the Revolution a very early ninth minute lead.
Recently acquired designated player Juan Luis Anangono, who started alongside Mike Magee at the striker position, scored the first goal of his Major League Soccer career in the thirtieth minute to level the match at a goal each.
The Fire had new life in the match and began to dominate the possession game as the first half’s end drew near, showing signs that they could win the match, but New England’s Saer Sene had other things in mind, scoring a controversial goal in the first minute of first half stoppage time to reclaim the one-goal lead.
Fire head coach Frank Klopas made no secret of his frustration with the officiating on the play. “I didn’t like the second goal because it was a hand ball… You look at the tape, I saw it from there. I don’t know how they miss a play like that, but in a corner where the guy’s fifty yards away, he sees the ball out of bounds. He traps it, and it hits both hands, and then they go… they get a play out of nothing. So that’s why I was frustrated”, Klopas told reporters after the match.
Regardless of how the go-ahead goal was scored, the Fire were still trailing and would be forced to come from behind yet again to keep the team’s playoff aspirations realistic. Three goals away from the league lead coming into action on Saturday, Chicago striker Mike Magee was up to the task, scoring in the fifty-fifth minute as the Fire tied the score for the second time in the match.
It seemed as though a tie would not be enough after the Dynamo won their match, but thanks to Alex’s late match heroics, the Fire walked away victors of a well-fought 3-2 match at Toyota Park. Now tied in points with the Union, the Fire are ahead on the tie-breaker and have one more match left to play than Philadelphia, and sit two points ahead of the seventh place Revolution.
There was apparently some confusion after Alex’s goal, as Magee told reporters, “My reaction was at first I was about to go nuts, but then I looked at him and thought it didn’t go in because he didn’t celebrate. I was in extreme disappointment and then went nuts again. It was amazing. We’ve been trying to get that type of goal at the end of a game for a while now, and now that it’s finally come at such an important time feels massive.”
The Fire travel to Columbus on Saturday, September 21, where they will look to strengthen its position among the conference’s top five teams. The game will be broadcast on My50 Chicago in England and on La Ley 107.9 FM in Spanish and is set for a 6:30 PM CDT start time.
For More Great Chicago Sports Content
Follow us on Twitter at @chicitysports23 for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE
