In front of a crowd of 19,560 at Toyota Park , the Chicago Fire lost to bitter rival DC United. DC United mid-fielder Fred scored the only goal of the game in the 27th minute and that’s all it would take for DC to put away the Fire.

Photogallery by Dave Magana

Brian McBride arrived from the Olympics on Thursday, and was ready to go for tonight’s game. Coach Hamlett made a smart move by keeping him on the bench and saving him for the second half when the Fire would need him most. Hamlett made a not so smart move when he brought McBride in for Marco Pappa before the start of the second half. Marco Pappa, the Fire’s newest young talent has great speed and good ball handling skills that could have been helpful in the Fire’s failed attempted comeback. Hamlett made an even bigger mistake when he decided to start forward Andy Herron. Herron had plenty of scoring opportunities and couldn’t score on a single opportunity. Although Patrick Nyarko might not have been ready to start the game, Tomasz Frankowski was ready to start and should have. In the end, Hamlett decided on leaving Herron in until the 66th minute when he finally decided to bring in Tomasz Frankowski.

The Fire didn’t look so good in the first half, and their passing was terrible throughout the game, but they looked slightly better in the second half with the arrival of McBride. McBride had opportunities to score but he couldn’t find the back of the net either. Credit has to be given to DC United however, as their defense looked quite solid. McBride’s best chance came in the finally minute of the game after Blanco had a nice pass to Brandon Prideaux who made a nice run on the right and then crossed the ball into the box to Brian McBride who had a nice header after DC’s goalie Louis Crayton mishandled the ball. His header wasn’t strong enough though as it was blocked by a DC defender.

The Fire must rebound quickly from this loss as they face David Beckham’s LA Galaxy on Thursday. The Galaxy are under heavy pressure to win but the Fire should feel pressure as well since they have a solid team who should be better then the way they play.

Photography by Dave Magana

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