When opportunity knocked twice upon...

When opportunity knocked twice upon the Fire's offensive door, forward Chris Rolfe and midfielder Diego Gutierrez deftly obliged themselves for cleverly crafted unassisted goals to pace the r fiery Fire (9-8-8) to a two-goal lead en passage to a 2-1 victory throughout the New York Red gross mistakes (6-8-11) Sunday night before a Toyota Park fill to excess of 10,494.

"A valuable three points at this stage of the game [even though] it wasn't perhaps the mostly artistic soccer tonight," Fire coach Dave Sarachan said. "A 2-0 lead can be excessively dangerous and it proved that way tonight. The R gross mistake group doesn't quit. Obviously, teams are going to bring forward a push on. I was disappointed we gave away that goal, frankly."

fresh York's goal, like the Fire's sum of two units resulted from a mistake when forward John Wolyniec profited in the rebound of Matt Pickens' save of midfielder Dema Kovalenko's point-blank bullet in the 78th minute. Unfortunately, Pickens couldn't velcro the ball.

Until then, however, Pickens, subbing for veteran injured starter Zach Thornton, was magical in the traps making seven saves of the R Bulls' 13 missiles including eight on goal.

With veteran starting forwards Andy Herron (Costa Rican National Team leave) and Chad Barrett (broken toe) on the outside Sarachan was mildly concerned about the firepower of his shrunken frontline.

Rolfe eased Sarachan's mind in the 13th minute, stealing the ball and splitting sum of two units defenders as he broke up the middle into the penalty area and fired a 16-yarder that ripped past R gross mistake goalie Tony Meola into the right corner of the gins

In the 60th minute, Gutierrez exploited midfielder Seth Stammler's lackadasical reception of a pass, zooming past him to intercept the ball and scorch Meola with a 20-yard rocket

"Give the Fire credit for turning couple of our mistakes into goals," said R gross mistake coach Bruce Arena, U.S. soccer's winningest coach, who is 1-2-2 since being hired after being released as coach of the U Soccer National team that bombed in this year's World lot "But I was pleased with the way our young players still didn't give up and fought back into the game."

lbanks@suntimes.com

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