Final
Fire, Chivas both searching for rare win
Jul 1, 2011 - 2:55 PM Carson, CA (Sports Network) - A pair of teams desperate for a win get together at The Home Depot Center on Saturday as Chivas USA hosts the Chicago Fire.Both teams enter the contest in eighth place in their respective conferences, with Chivas having lost its last three games and the Fire recording one win in its previous seven contests.
The positive for Chicago is that the club earned draws in the other six games, meaning interim coach Frank Klopas could have a team on its way to making history.
The Fire has already played to 11 draws this season, which is just three short of the MLS single-season record set by FC Dallas last term. And the fact that Chicago still has 17 games remaining means there is a very good chance that it will find itself in the record book.
"It always comes up [with people saying], 'How many ties do you guys have?' We're trying to deal with it the proper way, it's not like we want to tie, but unfortunately sometimes that happens and we just happen to have a lot of them," Fire midfielder Baggio Husidic said after the team's latest draw, a 1-1 stalemate with Red Bull New York.
One stat that does work in Chicago's favor for Saturday's match is that the Fire has posted a 5-0-1 record against Chivas in the last six games in all competitions against the Goats.
There is a common theme among Chivas losses recently, and that is the fact that the club has had trouble holding onto leads.
In two of the last three losses for Robin Fraser's team, Chivas has coughed up a one-goal lead, and Fraser is well aware of that fact.
"The biggest area of improvement for us is we've got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot," Fraser said. "We've done it game in and game out. We're giving up way too many leads and either tying or losing games that I think we should win."
The latest example came last weekend as Chivas took a 1-0 lead after 28 minutes against the Philadelphia Union, only to concede an 82nd-minute goal to Danny Mwanga in a 3-2 defeat.
"The past couple games we've given up a couple of leads," Chivas defender Zarek Valentin said. "And obviously if you look at that, if we keep [the opponents] at zero for the rest of the game, we pull out some wins and our spot in the table is a lot different."
- CHICAGO: 1
CHIVAS USA: 1
Final
Jul 2 11:58 PM - CHICAGO: 1
CHIVAS USA: 0
Halftime
Jul 2 10:53 PM - CHICAGO: 0
CHIVAS USA: 0
1st Half - 44'
Jul 2 10:08 PM
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