The Fire missed another opportunity to move past the Houston Dynamo and New England Revolution and into the playoffs on Wednesday night. The Fire traveled north of the border to face their adversary in Toronto FC at BMO Field. The crowd looked as sparse as the “W”‘s on the home team’s schedule, though the officially reported total of 15,217 was respectable for a midweek match.
One positive from the match is that this is the first time since the Soumare and Magee acquisitions that the Fire have not trailed in the possession department at match’s end, finishing with an even 50% split with Toronto. The Fire out-shot Toronto 18-15, but only managed four on target, missing nine times. Toronto earned four yellow cards in the match, while the Fire were disciplined enough to keep a clean sheet in that department.
Dilly Duka sent the ball towards net in the twentieth minute and a sliding Mike Magee was unable to come up with it. Instead, the ball took an awkward bounce and ended up in the back of the net to give the Fire an early 1-0 lead. The team was unable to hold on to it, however, allowing a goal to Robert Earnshaw just three minutes later. Earnshaw would leave the match just two minutes later.
The Fire will now have to beat New England at home on Saturday in order to give themselves a chance to move into a playoff spot then. Otherwise, the Fire may have to wait for another opportunity that may never come.
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