Fire drop home opener to San Jose

By Kent McDill

The Fire's difficult start to the 2010 season continued Saturday in Bridgeview with a 2-1 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes, a team coming off a 3-0 home loss two weeks ago.

Ike Opara scored a header in the 82 minute on a looping pass by Major League Soccer veteran Bobby Convey to give San Jose the surprise 2-1 victory.

The game was played before 20,276 fans, the largest crowd for a Fire opener in the history of Toyota Park.

The Fire gave up an embarrassing first goal when defender C.J. Brown and keeper Andrew Dykstra collided and knocked each other down chasing a ground ball heading straight toward the goal from outside the box.

San Jose's Joey Gjertsen was chasing the ball, forcing Brown and Dykstra to make quick and disastrous decisions.

When the ball bounced off them and out to the top of the box, San Jose's Arturo Alvarez lofted the ball over the fallen opponents and into the net for the first goal at the 49th minute.

The Fire scored immediately after that when forward Collins John, standing just inside the top of the box, laid the ball off to Marco Pappa a few feet outside, and Pappa pounded the ball into the top right corner for a 1-1 tie in the 52nd minute.

But poor defensive positioning set up the Earthquakes' final goal.

Convey had the ball high right of goal, and had an open look at the box. He sent a looping ball to dead center, where Opara had position on defender Tim Ward for an easy access header.

"The two goals were defensive mistakes," Brown said. "It reminds us to concentrate the whole game. That was one of our problems last year, concentration for 90 minutes.

"You can't teach focus. You have to get that yourself. You have to be tuned in."

The Brown-Dykstra collision was a result of two players trying to get onto a ball before the opposing player could get there.

"It wasn't communication," Dykstra said. "It was a misplayed ball. Me and C.J. are just trying to make a play and it ended up the way it did. It was unfortunate."

It was especially unfortunate for the Fire considering the size of the crowd at Toyota Park. The outcome dropped the Fire to 0-2-1 in the young season.

The Fire's goal was a reward for Pappa, who had the most energy of any player on the field.

John should have had a goal in the 73rd minute. Patrick Nyarko drew Earthquakes keeper Joe Cannon out to the top right corner of the box, then sent the ball to John at the top of the 18.

A rocket shot by John was at a goalkeeper-free goal, but Earthquakes defender Jason Hernandez charged over and kicked the shot away.

There were a few unusual moments in the game that could have resulted in goals but did not.

In the 11th minute, Nyarko beat Ramiro Corrales deep to the right side and sent a ground ball toward the goalmouth, where John put his foot on the ball but sent it barely left of goal.

In the 37th minute, San Jose's Gjertsen got a nice pass from Andre Luiz and sent the ball from left to right toward goal. Dykstra was 12 yards out and had to make a diving second-grab save.

At the start of the second half, San Jose survived what would have been a more embarrassing moment than the one they scored against the Fire.

Opara sent a back pass toward the San Jose goal but Cannon was far away from where the ball headed. Luckily for San Jose, the ball rolled just wide left of the post.

The Fire changed their lineup for the first home game, moving Baggio Husidic into the midfield for Justin Mapp and starting Pappa in place of Logan Pause, who has a leg injury.

Also on defense, Fire coach Carlos de los Cobos placed newcomer Deris Umanzor of El Salvador and last year's all-star Wilman Conde in the starting lineup in place of Krzysztof Krol and rookie Kwame Watson-Siriboe.