In Fire, Dyanamo facing a team ‘under construction’
Coach sees improvement despite squad’s trouble scoring
The Dynamo travel to Chicago to face a Fire team that is winless in its last six games (0-4-2) and has lost three in a row.
Chicago’s most recent loss was a 1-0 decision on the road against the New York Red Bulls, who only managed one shot against the Chicago defense but made it count.
Coach upbeat
Fire coach Veljko Paunovic wasn’t discouraged after the game, saying his team fought hard and continues to improve.
“We are a young team,” Paunovic told the Associated Press.
“We are under construction still, but growing. We learn from the lessons like today and we just keep pushing hard.”
There were two good scoring chances in the first half, and they came minutes apart.
Chicago forward David Accam banged a roughly 35-yard shot off the crossbar in the 30th minute.
Meanwhile Bradley Wright-Phillips was wide left with an off-balance shot two minutes later.
New York’s Lloyd Sam and Connor Lade were knocked off the ball in the box in the opening minutes but referee Robert Sibiga saw nothing wrong with the plays.
Chicago has been shut out the last two games and four times this season. It has a league-low eight goals.
“We can take a ton of positives from the game,” Chicago goalkeeper Sean Johnson said.
“We defended for 90 minutes. We limited them to one shot on goal. To come in here against a team of that caliber and do that speaks wonders for our guys’ effort and performance. We won’t harp on mistakes. Mistakes happen. It’s how we recover and I think we responded well. Unfortunately we were not able to get the goal to bring it back level.”
New York’s Mike Grella, who scored the winning goal for the Red Bull, was impressed with Chicago’s defense.
Grella scored early in the second half after a Chicago turnover.
“They stacked the back,” Grella said about Chicago’s defensive style.
“I’m not sure if they were playing five at the back or eight at the back at times but they made it difficult for us, credit to them.”
The match in New York was the first of the season for Johnson.
“It felt great,” Johnson told Chicago-Fire.com. “It’s a long year and the feeling of playing at night under the lights is one that’s hard to describe. It’s good to be back out there and I’m just trying to do what I can to help the team win, that’s the most important thing.”
Close call
Despite seeing only one shot placed on frame by the opposition, Johnson was denied his 32nd career shutout when turned in a tidy finish in the 58th minute, helping the Red Bulls capitalize on a rare defensive miscue by the Fire.
“We wanted to make it very difficult for them to break us down,” Johnson said.
“They are a talented team attacking, especially from the wide areas combining and going forward.
“To allow only one shot on goal was great for us and to see how far we’ve come along this year and hopefully we can keep building.”
On the heels of a trying road trip — and an unexpected start to 2016 for the longest-tenured member of the club — Johnson is focused on looking forward.
“This game is behind us now, we’ll learn from our mistakes and move on,” he said. “I thought overall we have something really good to build on and now we’re starting to develop that confidence to really go on and push.
“We have to come out on Saturday with the mentality that we’re going to dictate the play at home and really take it to Houston.”
The Fire’s match against the Dynamo on Saturday will be its fourth in 11 days.