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Thorrington fuels Fire past Toronto FC

Jul 13, 2008 - 4:16 AM BRIDGEVIEW, Illinois (Ticker) -- John Thorrington snapped a tie in the 92nd minute to propel the Chicago Fire to a 2-1 triumph over Toronto FC on Saturday.

Chris Rolfe opened the scoring in the sixth minute for Chicago (7-5-3), which moved past D.C. United (7-7-1) for sole possession of third place in the Eastern Conference standings. In addition, the Fire snapped a five-match winless streak and evened their record at home at 3-3-1.

With the match still knotted at 1-1, Thorrington provided the difference by blocking a clearing attempt by goalkeeper Greg Sutton. Daniel Woolard flipped the ball over defender Marco Velez to Thorrington, who one-touched the ball from just outside the goal area past Sutton for his fourth goal of the season.

"I hope getting big goals continues," Thorrington said. "The big reason I'm on the field is to bring energy. We as a team were putting pressure on them because we didn't want to get another tie. Thankfully I got into a position to score."

"It was horrendous defending," Toronto coach John Carver said. "We have to defend better than that. When we were tied, we were thinking do we keep what we got or go for the winner. Earlier the lads were throwing their bodies on the line and that was the type of defending we needed."

Abdus Ibrahim, a 17-year-old who was playing in his first MLS match, scored in the 63rd minute for Toronto FC (6-6-3), which continues to struggle on the road. The club saw its road winless streak reach four matches as it fell to 1-6-0 away from BMO Field.

Ibrahim accepted a feed from Amado Guevara in the penalty area and avoided charging goalkeeper Jon Busch before sending a left-footed strike into the net to level the contest.

"I got ahead of the goalkeeper," Ibrahim said. "The ground was kind of wet, so I just put it in the net. It was great. I just have to keep playing hard."

Rolfe gave Chicago the early advantage, using his defender as a screen and blasting a shot from just outside the penalty area that sailed past Sutton and just inside the right goalpost.

The Fire's last win was a 5-1 road victory against the New York Red Bulls on May 25 and their last home win was April 26, a 2-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids.

"This is a very important win for us," Chicago coach Denis Hamlett said. "This was our biggest game of the season. With the Open Cup being out of the way, we really wanted to focus on league play and give our great fans a win here at home."

Toronto played without leading goal-scorer Danny Dichio, who has been suffering headaches that the team believes is related to a concussion.