Fire U-15/16 records fourth straight shutout but settles for draw with Magic

By Curt Herron

It was a familiar story for the Fire Academy's U-15/16 team on Saturday when they returned from a long break to face the Chicago Magic.

The Fire continued their run of stellar defensive play by recording their fifth shutout in six Great Lakes Division matches this season.

But another trend also continued against the Magic, and that was the Fire's inability to themselves put the ball into the opponent's net.

Although the Fire had plenty of chances throughout, they wound up settling for a 0-0 draw at Toyota Park's practice field in Bridgeview.

It marked the fourth time that Chicago (2-1-3, 9 points) had been shut out in division play, with three of those being scoreless draws.

The Fire had chances both into the wind during the opening half and with a strong wind behind it in the final half, but couldn't connect.

But the positive note for the Fire was that it was able to record its fourth straight shutout after blanking the Magic (2-2-2, 8 points).

That was no easy feat, considering that the Magic is much improved from a year ago, when it only went 5-10-3 in Frontier Division play.

After getting blanked by Vardar in its division opener, the Magic had scored in the other five matches and had won its last two outings.

But keeper Christian Lomeli and defenders Louis Bennett, Charlie Oliver, Benjamin Kucera and Cody Witkowski put an end to that streak.

Lomeli turned away few serious opportunities from the Magic as he wound up posting his fourth shutout in division action this season.

Magic keeper Philip Huang faced more threats but was up to the challenge of blanking the Fire, who have scored four goals in six matches.

"When we score early, it changes the whole mindset," Fire assistant coach Tony Kees said. "We get into a rhythm and get some confidence and it seems like you can't take the ball away from us.

"Sometimes we get too cute, but we have guys who can shoot from distance. We had some good long-range shots that tested their keeper and we also had two pretty good looks in the first half, too.

"We thought things might go like that since we don't have a big-time marquee forward. There are going to be days where we're going to look really good and there will be days when we get skunked.

"But we can fall back on our defense and we're doing well with our goalkeepers and our backline particularly, so that's how we're living right now."

In the final half, Bennett applied the initial pressure when he sailed a free kick over the net shortly before the Magic had some good chances.

About 10 minutes into the second half, the Magic had some opportunities near the Fire net, with the biggest threat being broken up by Oliver.

The Fire were denied on a liner from Elliot Borge and a long shot by Manny Chavez, which led to a Jesus Medina corner that was punched away.

A bit after the midway point of the final half, Witkowski lined an attempt that went over the net and Medina was stopped on a short attempt.

The hosts suffered a big blow shortly after that when forward Manny Rios went down with an injury and had to be assisted off of the field.

In the late going, Joel Salmeron was just wide on one attempt while Medina fired in a long free kick that was punched away by the keeper.

While a scoreless draw is certainly not the worst outcome, the Fire felt that they could have walked away with a win over the rival Magic.

But Oliver, who played for the Magic a year ago, gave his old club credit for competing with an intensity that served them well on Saturday.

"The Magic came out hard and we knew that we had to come out hard, too," Oliver said. "But it took us a little while to realize that. We hung in there but when we started to push, it was a little too late.

"We got it more together in the second half and possessed better. Maybe we could have taken more outside shots since three or four of them were very effective and I think it took us awhile to realize that.

"As we've seen in our last few games, when we come out hard and fast, then we're more successful. And when we tend to not do that, then it becomes harder for us to get the type of result that we want."

Things were much more balanced offensively in the opening half, with both squads getting some good chances, albeit a rather limited number.

A few minutes after Lomelli stopped a liner from Alexandro Ayala, Medina looked to be taken down in the box, but no penalty kick was awarded.

Josue Chavez sent in a long free kick that Lomeli punched away shortly before Drew Conner had a line drive that was deflected over the net.

During the late stages of the opening half, Bennett was denied on a free kick and Manny Chavez fired in a long try that the keeper halted.

"This is a game of about scoring goals and we really should have finished some of our chances today," Bennett said. "We had a lot of them, especially when we had the wind during the second half.

"Give credit to other teams since they've been coming out hard against us, but there's no reason why we shouldn't come out as hard as they are because we think we're one of the better teams in the Midwest.

"Our expectation is to always come out of a game with a victory so anything less than that is disappointing. A tie may be a little less disappointing than a loss, but we still want to get the three points."

The Fire completes the initial round of Great Lakes Division play next weekend when it hosts the two Ohio teams, Internationals and Crew.