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Rolfe's late goal forges 3-3 tie for Fire

Apr 12, 2009 - 6:48 AM SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Chris Wolfe's late goal may have kept the Chicago Fire undefeated, but he was still far from satisfied with a 3-all tie at San Jose.

"In all honesty, we're a little disappointed that we didn't get three (points for a victory)," Rolfe said. "We felt like we had some chances."

The forward nailed a shot from 22 yards out in the 85th minute Saturday, taking advantage of the ejection of San Jose reserve Shea Salinas, who lasted just 18 minutes before earning his second yellow card of the match.

Marco Pappa, who assisted on Rolfe's goal, and Brian McBride also scored to help the Fire (2-0-2) remain without a loss. Chicago outshot San Jose 12-3 in the second half.

"I think playing on this field, things happen fast, so you have to make sure you're alert," Chicago coach Denis Hamlett said. "Our guys hung in there, stuck together and our forwards bailed us out."

It was another disappointing outcome for San Jose (1-2-1), which was coming off a poor performance in Kansas City last week and couldn't hold on to a late lead Saturday.

"We got a point out of it, we've got to move on," San Jose coach Frank Yallop said. "But we've got to get better."

Salinas came on in the 63rd minute, was booked 10 minutes later for a hard tackle on Gonzalo Segares and was ejected eight minutes later for delaying a Fire throw-in.

"I thought that Shea had gone to throw the ball in their direction and their guy had hit it and made it go in a different direction," said Earthquakes midfielder Simon Elliott. "That was my take on it. It wasn't the referees take on it."

San Jose had some offensive success against a Chicago defense that had allowed only two goals in its first three games.

The Earthquakes took the early lead on a 14th-minute goal by Ryan Johnson, who punched the ball home into a wide-open net after being set up from the opposite post with a low pass from Darren Huckerby. The play was sparked by a long cross-field pass from Chris Leitch on the right wing that hit Huckerby in stride.

After a relatively quiet first three games with San Jose, prize offseason acquisition Bobby Convey jumped on a poor clearance from Chicago defender Brandon Prideaux in the 43rd minute to score his first goal as an Earthquake and stake the hosts to a 2-1 lead.

Freed in the second half to roam up top, Convey made a 75th-minute run that forced a challenge in the box by Dasan Robinson and earned San Jose its first penalty kick of the season. Goalkeeper Jon Busch guessed wrong, and Arturo Alvarez converted with his left foot to temporarily put the Earthquakes ahead.

Mexican international Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who had his own fan base among the sellout crowd of 9,717 at Buck Shaw Stadium, came on at the half for Chicago and made an immediate impact.

Blanco took a high pass in the 57th minute from Bakary Soumare on the right edge of the penalty area and nodded a lob to McBride, who skillfully used his right foot to bring the ball down at the top of the box, then wheeled and fired it home.

Hamlett wouldn't say if Blanco - who told reporters last weekend he's recovered enough from his preseason knee injury to play a full 90 minutes - will start next Saturday against Kansas City.

Logan Pause found an open Pappa in the 41st minute to tie things up at 1.