Missed opportunities doom U-15/16 in 1-0 home loss to Vardar

By Curt Herron

If there's a theme to the Fire Academy's U-15/16 from its opening weekend in Great Lakes Division play, it's missed opportunities.

That not only sums up the story of Sunday's home match with Vardar, but also of its meeting with Derby County from the day before.

While the Fire certainly could have walked away from the weekend with a six-point showing, instead they had to settle for just one point.

Knowing how difficult things should be in the toughest division in US Soccer Development Academy play, taking care of business at home is critical.

However, after going 0-1-1 against the two squads from the Detroit area, the Fire faces a key road trip next weekend at FC Milwaukee and Sockers FC.

After struggling to get anything going in Saturday's 0-0 draw with Derby County, the Fire had all sorts of scoring chances on Sunday against Vardar.

But for the second straight day, the Fire was unable to find the net while their opponents made the most of one of their limited opportunities.

The result was a 1-0 victory for Vardar at the Toyota Park practice field in Bridgeview in a match that was complicated by gusty wind conditions.

While the strong southerly wind limited the visitors in the opening half, it didn't necessarily benefit them during the final half, either.

After taking advantage of the wind to get countless shots before the break, the Fire still had more chances than Vardar after the intermission.

But whether they had the wind to their backs or were going into it, the hosts simply couldn't find the right combination to result in a score.

The match's lone score came in the 35th minute when Jeffery Adkins took advantage of a miscommunication on defense to connect from close range.

"You see this scenario play out a lot and it's maddening," Fire assistant coach Tony Kees said. "A team pretty much inflicts its will on the opponent, who's playing for a mistake, and then they get it and capitalize on that.

"Maybe we were even better going into the wind since we like to keep it on the floor and the wind didn't affect us as much as it would have a more-direct team. We moved the ball quicker and were more urgent today than yesterday.

"We swarmed the goal but couldn't score, so it's a tough one to swallow. It was a tough weekend for us getting only one point out of six. You have to realize that it happened so now where do we go from here? That will be the key."

Other than a pair of corner kicks early in the match, Vardar (3-2-1) only had a couple of other first-half chances, all just prior to their goal.

Meanwhile, the Fire (0-1-1) was putting consistent pressure on keeper Matthew Smolinski, who did a good job of keeping the ball out of the net.

Charlie Oliver and Jesus Medina started the opening-half barrage while Louis Bennett was denied when his liner deflected off a defender.

Then Manny Rios was halted on a free kick and a liner before Medina forced a corner kick from him which resulted in a wide try by Manny Chavez.

After Rios was just wide on another grounder, Medina sent a good pass to Joel Salmeron, whose attempt was blocked by the Vardar keeper.

Mixed in between two long free kicks from Adkins, Drew Conner had a liner deflected away for a Salmeron corner kick, which was punched away.

Shortly after Fire keeper Christian Lomeli deflected a shot, he could do nothing to stop Adkins as he put in what proved to be the game-winner.

Just before the break Salmeron had three more corners, with the first being deflected and the second being a deflected header by Cody Witkowski.

It took the hosts nearly 20 minutes to put a shot on goal in the second half, with Elliot Borge getting denied on an attempt from close range.

Lomeli then stopped a liner by Tyler Jugon and a header from Yousseff Bajaidar following a corner kick just prior to the midpoint of the half.

The Fire tried for one last push by substituting in several players, such as Francisco Sajuan, Ruben Chavez, Yacir Herrera and Mike Winhoffer.

Shortly after Lomeli stopped a shot by Bajaidar, Sajuan had a liner that was deflected away by a Vardar defender with about 10 minutes left.

Benjamin Kucera sent in a long attempt and Ruben Chavez was wide on another shot try, accounting for the final serious threats for the Fire.

Just before the final whistle blew, Vardar nearly added another score but Lomeli came up with a pair of big stops on on close-range attempts.

The Fire returns to action on Saturday when it plays at FC Milwaukee and also hits the road for a Sunday match with Sockers FC in Glen Ellyn.