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Blanco helps Fire tie Red Bulls

Sep 16, 2007 - 4:30 AM BRIDGEVIEW, Illinois (Ticker) -- Cuauhtemoc Blanco had a goal and an assist as the Chicago Fire played to a 2-2 tie with the New York Red Bulls on a chilly Saturday night at Toyota Park.

With the tie, the Fire (8-10-6, 30 pts) remained in the eighth and final playoff spot.

"I would have liked, obviously, the three points," New York coach Bruce Arena said. "We didn't do a good job, I think, after getting the second goal, and obviously that lapse in concentration cost us some important points."

Blanco took a penalty kick in the 54th minute and sent a right-footed shot to the left side of the net past Red Bulls goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus to tie the score at 1-1. Fire forward Chad Barrett was fouled by defender Chris Leitch in the penalty area to set up the goal.

After New York grabbed a 2-1 edge, Gonzalo Segares scored on a pass from Blanco in the 70th minute to even the match at 2-2.

"I noticed that a couple times, I went out and I didn't have a mark," Segares said. "Cuauhtemoc crossed a pretty good ball and I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and I took advantage of it."

The Red Bulls played a tight defensive game with strong goalkeeping by Waterreus and took an early 1-0 lead.

In the 10th minute, Claudio Reyna sent a corner kick in front of the net to Dave van den Bergh, who sent a low liner toward the net off that went off the body of Fire midfielder Diego Gutierrez. The ball deflected left into the net as goalkeeper Matt Pickens was diving to his right.

"On the corner, I had a feeling that they were going to clear that long or that it wasn't going to touch anybody," van den Bergh said. "I just took a chance that it was going to get there, and fortunately for me, it did."

In the 17th minute, Paolo Wanchope broke through New York's defensive shield, but Waterreus was up to the task and blocked the shot. Chicago kept pushing forward, but Barrett booted an opportunity high and wide in the 30th minute.

Waterreus denied Barrett, who took a great feed from Blanco, again in the 37th minute with a nice save.

"We had four clear chances," Fire coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. "In the seventh minute, if we would have put that in, I think it would have been a very different game."

The half ended with yellow cards to Chicago's Wilman Conde and New York's Dema Kovalenko with New York holding 1-0 lead.

In the 67th minute, Conde picked up his second yellow card of the match, resulting in a red-card ejection. Chicago played the remainder of the game with 10 players.

"In general, I think the players showed great character and mental strength to play with one man down and manage to come back to tie the game," Osorio said.

New York's Juan Pablo Angel took the penalty kick and gave New York a 2-1 lead with a right-footed shot to the right side of the net past Pickens.