Chicago Fire Draw Houston Dynamo 1-1 Sunday Afternoon

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill.(Sunday, Sept. 1, 2013) – The Chicago Fire (10-10-5, 35 points) drew 1-1 with the Houston Dynamo (10-8-7, 37 points) Sunday afternoon at Toyota Park. A 37^th minute own goal from Bobby Boswell was negated by a 90^th minute Adam Moffat strike as the two squads split the points on the day.
MATCH REPORT: http://bit.ly/171ASfo

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS: http://bit.ly/1fsQqdQ
Quotes:
Frank Klopas, Chicago Fire Head Coach
On the game
“I thought the guys played well. I think we came out and created a lot of opportunities. It’s a shame we didn’t put the game away. It’s tough the way you lose in the last minute, but that’s how it is sometimes. It’s disappointing. We have to make sure we play all the way to the end. Obviously, this hurts right now dropping these two points at home. We have a tough stretch of three games coming up so all of the points really count. So we have to find a way to pick them up somewhere else.”
On the last ten minutes of the game
“The team is playing a lot of long balls to put guys in and we knew we had to defend well. We have to be better in possession. That’s the key, if you get the ball and you keep turning it over then they are going to play a long ball. When we did get the ball we had to be better even in transitions from when we did get it to be a little bit better and finish the game. That’s how it goes and we just have to move on.”
On the Houston goal
“I saw the same thing you saw. We have to defend better and stop the ball, so I saw the same thing you saw.”
On taking Alex out of the game
“He was tired, he worked very hard. I don’t know if you were watching the same game I was, but he had a good game. He got tired towards the end, so we needed fresh legs in the game. That is why we have a team we have to rely on our players. Unfortunately we dropped those two points at this point of the season where all of the points count. We have to find a way to pick up these two points.”
On Houston’s possession
“They kept possession and knocked it in the back. We had to be better with our decision making and sometimes taking extra dribbles. They had possession, but we are the ones that created the better chances.”
Chris Rolfe, Chicago Fire Forward
On the result:
“I thought we played well and everybody worked hard.  To give up a goal in the 90th minute is always tough to swallow.”
On the offensive chances in the first half:
“If you look at Mike and me, we had plenty of chances to put the game away in the first half.  It’s a game of inches and it just hasn’t been going our way a little bit. The defense played well today and stopped a lot of dangerous attacks; they just kind of got worn down.”
On the play he received a yellow card caution:
“He took a long touch, I saw the ball and thought I could get there, but I’m not a good defender so I fouled him.”
On dropping two points:
“We’ve got a tough stretch coming up here, especially against Seattle.  But it’s a good time to catch them; I think they are missing a couple of players. It’s still going to be tough, we put a lot into this one – we needed three points and we came away with one.  We need to deal with it and pick up three points somewhere else.”
Gonzalo Segares, Chicago Fire Defender
On the result:
“This one feels like a loss, we had three points in our hands and we let it slip away, it’s definitely tough to swallow.”
On the late Houston goal:
“We have to be able to manage the game better.  Just a minute before that we were dropping back and holding, we just have to be able to maintain that.”
On the last few minutes of the game:
“We stopped moving the ball, we couldn’t put two or three passes together and get the ball back, so it was hard for us in the back to move the lines up so we could get back in shape and not just be sitting in the back like how it happened.  It happened in a few games prior to this, teams start pushing to come back and it’s just a matter of us in the back learning how to manage it.  The line needs to move up and the guys in front of us to hold it and give us a breather because for 10 minutes they are coming and coming knocking the door.  A lot of times we are able to hold them off, but today we couldn’t.  We definitely need to learn from it.”
On the differences in the first half versus the second half
“We had plenty of chances in the first half to be up 2-0 or 3-0 and put them away, but we didn’t.  We let them have a little breather and they came back and tied the game. That’s frustrating because it’s a game that we thought we had three points in our hand.”
Jeff Larentowicz, Chicago Fire Midfielder
On dropping points at home:
“In the end it feels like we lost some points, but it was a tough game and it’s a tough team.  For the remainder of the year we have to look to get max points at home, tonight we let a couple slip.”
On the last ten minutes of the game:
“They take off midfielders and bring on forwards so there are more guys up front.  They are bigger guys and they launch balls forward. I felt like we dealt with it for the most part until the end when we weren’t getting on after we cleared it and that gave them more space to come back at us.  A guy got free, and it’s not guy you want to leave open in the box.”
On the difference between the first and second half:
“They changed personnel a little bit.  In the first have we were good, positive and created a lot of chances, but unfortunately we didn’t put them away because I think that if we had it would have been a much different game.  In the second half they’re an experienced team, they bring on guys who know they can try and get points on the road by putting the ball into the box, and they did that.” 
Notes:
- With the draw the Fire move to 4-8-6 all-time in MLS Regular Season matches against the Dynamo, including a 2-4-3 record in matches played at home.
-The Fire remain undefeated when scoring first under Frank Klopas, moving to 23-0-6.
-Midfielders Joel Lindpere (Estonia) and Arevalo Rios (Uruguay) will join their respective nations for FIFA World Cup Qualifying.
Chicago Fire 1 – 1 Houston Dynamo
Chicago Fire: Sean Johnson; Jalil Anibaba, Austin Berry, Bakary Soumare, Gonzalo Segares; Alex (Joel Lindpere 84’), Arevalo Rios, Jeff Larentowicz ©, Dilly Duka (Patrick Nyarko 64’); Mike Magee, Chris Rolfe (Juan Luis Anangono 70’)
Substitutes not used: Paolo Tornaghi, Hunter Jumper, Logan Pause, Quincy Amarikwa
Houston Dynamo: Tally Hall; Bobby Boswell, Kofi Sarkodie, Eric Brunner (Corey Ashe 43’), Jermaine Taylor; Boniek Garcia, Adam Moffat, Warren Creavalle (Cam Weaver 66’), Brad Davis ©; Giles Barnes (Andrew Driver 77’), Will Bruin
Substitutes not used: Erich Marscheider, Alexander Lopez, Brian Ching, Jason Johnson
Scoring Summary
CHI – Bobby Boswell (own goal) 37’
HOU – Adam Moffat (Corey Ashe) 90’
Misconduct Summary
CHI – Chris Rolfe (caution) 40’
HOU – Warren Creavalle (caution) 51’
Referee: Drew Fischer
Assistants: Craig Lowry, Mike Kampmeinert
Fourth Official: Younes Marrakchi
Attendance: 17,808