Dockal has a foot in all goals to snuff the Fire
CHESTER » With a tinge of pride and less regret than you might expect, Jim Curtin admitted Wednesday that the Union didn’t give their best performance. Maybe the worst in a few weeks, even.
But in a sandwich game between Eastern Conference road trips, the Union’s 3-1 win over the Chicago Fire didn’t carry the usual strain of disappointment. Instead, it brought validation of a sentiment that Curtin and Union brass harped on last year: In games where the Union’s grind-it-out mentality isn’t executed or isn’t enough, can the team find difference-making players to, well, spell the difference between one point and three?
Borek Dockal, more than anyone else, stepped to the mark Wednesday, dishing two assists and converting a penalty kick. So did Ilsinho, with his stunning first-half goal. And the Union extended its unbeaten streak to four, returning to .500 for the season.
“Overall, you have to find ways to win the ugly ones as well,” Curtin said. “… Proud of the guys in terms of fight, grit and effort, but in terms of the quality of soccer we played tonight, I thought it was our worst performance at home.”
The win moves the Union (5-5-3, 18 points) to within one point of sixthplace New England. With a trip to Atlanta looming, three points was even more vital. And the game’s profile, the hosts scoring twice before allowing the Fire back in via Alan Gordon’s 56th-minute tally, had letdown written all over it. But not this team.
Ilsinho struck the first blow. The Union had struggled to break down an unorthodox system employed by the Fire (4-7-2, 14 points), using German legend Bastian Schweinsteiger as a sweeper behind man-marking of the Union’s front six. The tactics — Curtin called them “unique” and identified Mexican club Chivas de Guadalajara as one of the few to play that way this side of the 1970s — kept the Union off balance early. It required a decisive moment to puncture the Fire’s resolve.
That’s where Ilsinho stepped up. Dockal popped a ball over the defense, and the Brazilian split Schweinsteiger and Brandon Vincent in the area with a nifty elastico. All that was left was to finish, and he obliged with a rocket to the upper 90 that left goalie Patrick McLain no chance.
“I was looking for some situation like that one-vone all first half, and then they closed our space and then they made it a very good first half,” Ilsinho said. “I’m looking for that ball for the entire 45 minutes and I had one chance in the final minute and I’m so glad to score.”
“You’re actually not that surprised because you see it in training, and you guys have heard me talk about the things he’s done in training all the time,” Curtin said. “I can’t coach it. You can’t teach it. Certain guys are special in that regard. I wouldn’t know how to defend it because you know it’s coming. You know he’s going to snake the ball, and he has an ability to just get defenders’ bodyweight on the wrong foot and make them look foolish, to be honest.”
The deficit forced the Fire into a rethink, and Cory Burke capitalized on it in the 51st to double the advantage. Inserted to the lineup for the struggling CJ Sapong, the Jamaican pestered the backline all night in the Union’s high press. He found the correct run off the back shoulder of the far-post center back as the Union recycled a corner, Ray Gaddis spraying the ball wide to Dockal. His swerving cross was inch-perfect, and Burke pounded a downward header into the bottom corner of the net.
Burke earned the penalty kick in the 86th, falling under moderate contact. But his decisive run forced the issue, driving at the heart of the defense to elicit decisions from Vincent and then referee Fotis Bazakos. They came up on the right side for the Union, as did Dockal. After Sapong’s missed penalty kick last week, Dockal was pre-selected by Curtin as the primary shooter. The Czech midfielder sent McLain the wrong way for his third goal of the season, to go with six assists.
“Borek is a great player,” Haris Medunjanin said. “He always can create something. He always sees the game and when he gets the ball he already sees where he’s going to pass the ball. I think a lot of guys in front, sometimes they don’t understand each other because they don’t understand him, he just came here. I think it’s working step by step. He’s going in a good direction. You see today he had a great pass to Ilsinho first and after that a great pass to Cory and he scores a penalty. He’s getting more and more comfortable every game. Hopefully he continues this all year.”
The Union were denied a third straight shutout when Gordon tapped home a cross by Brandt Bronico. Andre Blake was equal to the task of the seven other shots to find his cage, the most challenging a low drive by Aleksandr Katai in the 36th minute. And the Union had to weather the early exit of Mark McKenzie — who was denied his first pro goal on a sensational McLain save in the first half — in the 61st minute with a right knee injury that will require an MRI.
Curtin readily admitted it wasn’t pretty. But for a team that’s gotten hot, that ability to raise the standard of play to earn points says something about progress.
“It’s as mad as I’ve seen our team and our staff at a 3-1 victory,” Curtin said, “and maybe that’s a good thing.”