They've finally done it. Denis Hamlett's Fire have knocked out the New England Revolution from the MLS play-offs. After three years of futile play-off performances resulting in elimination at the hands of the Revolution each season, Chicago has advanced to the Eastern Conference Championship by winning last night's match in impressive fashion.
"It's a big relief to win this series because they have knocked us out of the playoff so often," coach Hamlett said. "New England has shown a consistency of being a good team, but tonight, our guys showed the will to move on."
But this one sided affair shouldn't have come as much of a surprise at all. During three regular season contests in 2008, the Fire had won all of the bouts by a total score of 9-1. Last night's 3-0 victory was just another impressive win over New England this year.
The scoring started right before the end of the first half as Chris Rolfe pounced on a rebound and struck the ball home in the second minute of injury time.
"I saw Cuauhtemoc (Blanco) sizing up a shot and thought it may have a chance to be deflected off Matt (Reis)," Rolfe said. "The ball came right to me and I was able to score. That goal meant a lot to us because we knew they wanted to keep the game at 0-0. When we attack and we are getting chances, we are a hard team to beat."
The Fire added two second half tallies with goals coming from defenders Wilman Conde in the 49th, and Gonzalo Segares in the 74th. The Revolution searched all of the second half for an answer to the productive offense they encountered but with key players missing, it was too much of a task for Steve Nicol's men.
"The injuries were huge," Nicol stated. "Losing Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman, it's been a struggle, it's been really tough. Plus, Sharlie (Joseph) was off tonight. But you try to stand up and get it done, but it just didn't work out today."
Chicago now has some time to rest as they await the winner of the battle between the Columbus Crew and Curt Onalfo's Kansas City Wizards, who will play the second leg of their series on Saturday.
What did you think of last night's game? Happy to finally see the Fire topple the Revolution? Think it would've been different had New England's trifecta been healthy and ready? Share your thoughts below.
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