Toronto and Fire ends in Stalemate
Toronto FC 1 Chicago Fire 1 11 September
After both teams had lost last time out something had to give in this encounter as these two sides squared off for the first time in this campaign.
The visitors scored first after 20 minutes, even though Dilly Duka’s cross-shot was missed by forward Mike Magee his off the ball run still did enough to distract the Canadians side goalkeeper Joe Bendik to allow his speculative effort to find the onion bag.
Their lead was short-lived however as only three minutes had passed before the hosts got back level.
Rob Earnshaw showed poise to let the Fire defence commit themselves before dispatching the ball into the visitors net passed a helpless Sean Johnson, after he had received the ball from winger Bobby Convey inside the penalty area.
The only negative was that he appeared to injure himself in the course of scoring and he was replaced by substitute Justin Braun shortly after.
That seem to inspire the home side into action and they were very nearly rewarded with the lead as just before the half-time whistle Spaniard Alvaro Rey unleashed a shot that unfortunately cannoned of both post and the crossbar but still never crossed the line.
Newly acquired forward Bright Dike was introduced for the last fifteen minutes by the home team, in place of striker Andrew Wiedeman and as time started to wind down it was Chicago who had the best chance to claim the maximum points, but Bendik did superbly well to deny former Toronto player Quincy Amarikwa, who had come off the bench as a replacement for midfielder Patrick Nyarko 11 minutes into the second stanza, on a one-on-one breakaway.
That point keeps the Fire in Seventh place but moves them within one point of fifth place New England Revolution and sixth place Houston Dynamo as the battle to make the play-offs in the Eastern Conference continues to heat-up.
