Fire teams pull out late victories over SLSG Missouri

Meet FC Milwaukee Tuesday in key divisional matches

CLICK TO SEE U-18 PHOTOS

By Curt Herron

It wasn't pretty, but as far as the Chicago Fire Academy teams were concerned, Sunday still turned out to be a pretty good day.

That's because both the U-16 and U-18 squads boosted their playoff hopes by getting late scores to claim one-goal victories in Bridgeview.

St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri provided both teams with all that they could handle, but in the end, the Fire earned six points for the day.

The U-16s started the afternoon off by bouncing back from a scoreless draw that they settled for the day before against SLSG's Metro team.

They looked like they might be headed for another tie on Sunday before Manny Rios scored in the 74th minute to give the Fire a 2-1 victory.

In the U-18 match, the visitors did a good job of limiting Fire scoring chances and neither team had scored as things began to wind down.

With the prospect of a scoreless draw looming, the Fire got a goal from Wojciech Wojcik in the 73rd minute to pull out a 1-0 win in the finale.

As a result of the wins, the two squads head into today's key Central Conference Frontier Division matches at FC Milwaukee on a positive note.

The U-18s (8-2-3) and FC Milwaukee (8-4-3) are both tied with 27 points, which is good for third place in the divisional standings.

Colorado Rush AJ Auxerre is in first place with 37 points, but done with its schedule, while Sockers FC are in second with 32 points.

The Fire still has five matches remaining in divisional play, with a pair of against the Sockers (10-3-2), who have three matches left.

Over on the U-16 side, the Fire (7-4-2) has 23 points, which is currently good for only sixth place in its division.

Real Colorado (33), the Kansas City Wizards (32) and the Colorado Rapids (25) have all completed divisional play.

Sockers FC (27) and SLSG Missouri (27) are the other teams ahead of the Fire, who still have five Frontier Division matches remaining.

After taking part in the Spring Showcase in Sarasota, Florida over the upcoming weekend, regular season play concludes next weekend.

Click to hear coach Tony Kees interview

As for Sunday's matches, the teams moved over from their usual turf practice surface at Toyota Park to play on the adjacent grass field.

The U-18s had many more opportunities than did SLSG Missouri (3-9-5, 14) but had a difficult time connecting in the physical match.

Some of the reason for that was the play of keeper Tomas Gomez, who kept the visitors in the match thanks to several nice saves.

The Fire had close calls early in the final half, such as a Chris Prince shot that bounced off the post and a wide try by Trevor Wheeler.

Prince was also stopped up top by Gomez, who later made a leaping save to halt a free kick from just beyond the box from Manny Guzman.

Shortly after Jesse Ortiz had a shot try deflected, Wojcik entered the match for Prince and soon had a chance to put his team in front.

The eventual winning score was set up on a pass from Patrick Doody, who sent the ball to Billy McGuinness, who was moving forward on the play.

McGuinness then headed the ball in the direction of Wojcik, who connected from close range to finally end the scoreless deadlock.

Click to hear Billy McGuinness interview

SLSG Missouri had one more chance when Gomez came out of the net to place a threatening long free kick toward the Fire goal in the late going.

Tom Serratore posted the shutout while McGuinness was joined in back by Mitch Albrecht, Scott Lakin, Mike Enghofer and late sub Brian Lunar.

Also in the starting lineup for the U-18s were Tyler Engel, Art Garza, Connor Holloway, Harry Shipp, Prince and Wheeler.

In the day's opening match, Rios connected during the final minutes to help the U-16s claim four points from the weekend.

Victor Pineda competed with the U-16s again and gave his squad the lead when he converted a penalty kick in the 40th minute.

SLSG Missouri (7-4-6, 27) tied things up in the 47th minute when Kyle Malle connected and that's how it stayed until the late drama.

Beside Pineda, other starters for the U-16s on Sunday were keeper Sam Euler plus Keaton Albert, Luis Barajas and Peter Beasley.

Rounding out the starting 11 for the Fire were Elliot Borge, Drew Conner, Lalo Cuautle, Luis Medina, Patryk Ruta and Anthony Torres.