 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Taylor Twellman scored on an incredible bicycle kick to lead the Revs to a 1-0 win. |
Wells Thompson did get the ball into Twellman in the 38th minute, receiving a ball from Steve Ralston on the right flank and sending a cross toward the Revs’ striker, who was well covered by Logan Pause and Dasan Robinson.
Colliding with Robinson, Twellman managed to head the ball back up into the air with his back turned to goal. Then, despite having two defenders on his back, Twellman went for a bicycle kick as the ball dropped, and managed to connect, sending it into the lower left corner, well out of the reach of Fire goalkeeper Matt Pickens.
"It was an unbelievable goal," Thompson said. "Hats off to him, I was just trying to put the ball in the box and let him do his thing. What he's paid to do is score, so I was just trying to feed him the ball. He headed it up to himself, I don't know if he meant to do that, but he had the skill to put it away and the composure to do that. Not many guys can do that."
"Every game against Chicago is a hard fought battle," Twellman said. "It is just one where you are looking for a couple inches here and there and we battled hard. I let the team down a little bit tonight. I probably should have had another one that would've eased the pressure off the defense and obviously they deserve all the credit tonight."
Twellman had an opportunity for his second goal of the match in the 69th minute, after a quick counter attack saw Noonan elude three players before laying the ball off to Khano Smith. The Bermudian international found Twellman open at the top of the box, where he attempted to chip Pickens, but sent his shot with reach of the Chicago 'keeper.
The Fire threatened first in the sixth minute, after a short corner was played to Gonzalo Segares. The Costa Rica defender whipped in a cross to CJ Brown, whose header was deflected off Avery John and was on frame to the near post. But recently named MLS Defender of the Year Michael Parkhurst was there to clear it off the line for another corner kick.
Smith set up the Revs first opportunity in the 17th minute, sending in an early cross from the left flank. Twellman and Noonan were lurking at the far post and Twellman rose above his defender to put a header on frame, but Pickens punched the ball over the net for a corner kick.
Paulo Wanchope had probably Chicago's best chance of the half in the 29th minute, after he got wide open just a few yards from goal on a Cuauhtemoc Blanco free kick. Wanchope must have lost track of the goal as he sent his header well wide of the net.
Wanchope had another opportunity in the 32nd minute, after Chad Barrett rounded Parkhust as he tried to shield the ball over the line. Barrett sent a low pass to Wanchope near the penalty area where he drove in a hard shot towards goal. Avery John ran in and blocked the shot, then cleared out the rebound.
"They like to play off of our mistakes, and they like to outlet quickly and get the ball up," said Revolution midfielder Jeff Larentowicz. "It's not much different from New York, although New York liked to play it into their forwards directly. Chicago likes to go through their midfield and use Blanco and [Chris] Armas and make sure that [Chris] Rolfe got on the ball as well. It is easier said than done, but I think that we were turned on all night and if it wasn't Shalrie [Joseph] or I talking, it was the defenders behind us. I think they all did a great job today."
Gonzalo Segares forced Matt Reis into a tough save from about 35 yards out shortly after, unleashing a powerful shot to the far corner of the net. Reis had to make an acrobatic diving save to keep the ball out of the net.
Noonan nearly put the game out of reach in the 83rd minute when he received the ball near midfield and nearly dribbled through the entire Chicago defense before unleashing a left-footed shot that Pickens managed to keep out with a diving save.
Rolfe almost provided some magic for the Fire in the 85th minute, unleashing a low dipping shot from about 40 yards, that Reis was forced to tip wide for a corner.
Reis then came up huge again in the 90th minute, denying substitute Calen Carr on a header from just a few yards out off of a Blanco pass.
Carr again nearly tied it up on the final kick of the game, getting the ball at the top of the box and unleashing a shot towards the top of the net. Reis manage to jump up and save the shot to send the Revs to the 2007 MLS Cup Final on the back of his third straight clean sheet.
"It's been amazing," Parkhurst said. "We were really struggling down the stretch, giving up a lot of goals, and it started right with the playoffs. We knew we had to change our mentality. We knew if we were giving up two goals a game we were done; we weren't going to advance.
“Everybody's been putting in the dirty work. Our defensive midfielders have been playing awesome, cutting down the lanes, cutting down passes, making our lives a lot easier. The three of us aren't making mistakes right now. Knock on wood; our lives have been pretty easy, just trying to pick up the pieces. Same thing with Matt -- he's making the saves when we need him to. It's been a collective effort."
The Revs head to D.C. for the MLS Cup Final on Nov. 18, where they will face the winner of Saturday's Western Conference Final between Kansas City and Houston.
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Technorati
Y! MyWebReturn to top