Fire ‘keeper Sean Johnson saves late 85th minute penalty kick to preserve shutout
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (July 12, 2014) – The Chicago Fire (3-4-10, 19 points) earned an important 1-0 road win against the New England Revolution (7-8-2, 23 points) Saturday evening at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. Quincy Amarikwa scored the lone goal of the match in just the third minute and Sean Johnson tallied seven saves including a stop on Chris Tierney’s penalty kick in the 85th minute as the Men in Red earned the shutout.
The win was the second straight for the Fire, who improve to 3-4-10 on the season, while New England dropped their fifth straight game to fall to 7-8-2.
It didn’t take long for the Fire to ignite, sparked by a Jeff Larentowicz interception just before midfield that found the feet of Mike Magee.
With a quick turn Magee sent a pass up over the Revolution back line and into the box, where Quincy Amarikwa, who missed the Fire’s last game due to a yellow card accumulation, picked up the ball. He muscled out Andrew Farrell and right-footed a shot past Bobby Shuttleworth, giving Chicago a 1-0 lead in the third minute.
It was Amarikwa’s sixth goal in league play this season, and his second versus New England.
The Revs did hold an edge in possession in the first half, but did not get their first shot on goal until the 25th minute, when Teal Bunbury took a Chris Tierney feed into the Chicago box, but his shot low right found the extended reach of Sean Johnson (7 saves).
A bigger knock to the Revs came in the 26th minute when Andy Dorman, coming up on a loose ball, collided with Bakary Soumare and crashed to the turf with a right knee injury that sent him to the locker room.
New England came out in controlling the pace for the better part of the second half and put heavy pressure on in the 60th minute, with Tierney and Bunbury saw excellent bids pushed aside by the diving Johnson.
Chicago had a golden opportunity to put things away in the 78th minute when Matthew Fondy picked defender AJ Soares’ pocket and faced up Shuttleworth one-on-one from ten yards out, but hesitated and his shot was ultimately snuffed out by the Revs keeper.
The Revs were gift wrapped the opportunity to equalize after Jerry Bengtson was brought down in the box in the 84th minute, giving New England a shot from the spot, but Tierney’s blast was again saved by Johnson, giving the Chicago netminder his second shutout of the season.
The Fire return home to host the Philadelphia Union next Saturday while the Revolution hit the road for two games, starting with a Wednesday night tilt at the LA Galaxy.
Chicago Fire 1 – 0 New England Revolution
Chicago Fire: Sean Johnson; Lovel Palmer, Bakary Soumare, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Gonzalo Segares; Alex (Grant Ward 88’), Jeff Larentowicz ©, Matthew Watson (Chris Ritter 77’), Harry Shipp; Mike Magee, Quincy Amarikwa (Matt Fondy 71’)
New England Revolution: Bobby Shuttleworth; Andrew Farrell, Chris Tierney, A.J. Soares, Jose Goncalves ©; Andy Dorman (Scott Caldwell 29’), Diego Fagundez, Teal Bunbury, Kelyn Rowe (Jerry Bengston 65’), Daigo Kobayashi (Steve Neumann 75’); Patrick Mullins
Scoring Summary
CHI – Quincy Amarikwa (Mike Magee) 3’
Misconduct Summary
NE – Daigo Kobayashi (caution) 16’
NE – Jose Goncalves (caution) 63’
CHI – Patrick Ianni (caution) 84’
CHI – Grant Ward (caution) 92’
Referee: Jose Carlos Rivero
Assistants: Jeff Muschik, Jason White
Fourth Official: Kevin Terry Jr.
Attendance: 15,406
Source: Chicago Fire Communications