Borge scores twice as Fire blanks Colorado Rapids

Fire can't find net in 1-0 loss to Kansas City Wizards

CLICK TO SEE COLORADO RAPIDS PICTURES

By Curt Herron

A goal in the opening seconds of a match can be either a good thing or a bad thing.

While it's definitely great for a team to be able to get off to a fast start, but it can also lead to a sense of complacency.

That pretty much was the story for the Chicago Fire Academy's U-16 squad when it took on the Colorado Rapids on Saturday.

The Fire got a goal from Elliot Borge within the initial dozen seconds of the Central Conference Frontier Division match.

Chicago added another score shortly before halftime and wound up settling for a 2-0 victory at Argo High School in Summit.

The win improved the Fire to 3-0-1 during the month of April, but that streak got halted the next day.

Anthony Brown scored in the 60th minute to lead the Kansas City Wizards to a 1-0 win over the Fire at Saint Xavier University.

The Wizards (5-0-6, 21 points) and Fire (5-2-1, 16) are two of the favorites in the division race among the U-16 squads.

While things had been looking up for the Fire thus far, coach Tony Kees feels that the squad is capable of performing better.

Click to hear Tony Kees interview

In Saturday's match, the Fire stunned the Rapids (3-9-1, 10) when Borge struck quickly for his first of two goals on the day.

Lalo Cuautle made the assist on the scoring play, which proved to be all of the scoring that their team would eventually need.

That was due in part to the work of Cuautle, Peter Beasley, Keaton Albert, Johnny Contreras and Anthony Torres on defense.

Their play made life easy in the net for starter Zak Allen, who got injured late in the match and was replaced by Sam Euler.

Click to hear Lalo Cuautle interview

Luis Barajas followed up on Borge's quick score with another good shot attempt, but this one was halted.

Neither squad threatened again until about 30 minutes in when Allen punched away a shot and Albert cleared the ball.

Drew Conner and Luis Medina followed with shot tries a short time later before Borge put two more good attempts on goal.

He finally connected again in the 39th minute after Albert took a shot which deflected off a defender and went to Borge.

The Fire looked like they might add to their lead shortly after halftime when Victor Pineda was driving toward the net.

Although he looked like he was taken down in the box, no foul was called, and the Fire maintained their two-goal lead.

Henrik Egly entered the match a short time later and accounted for one of his team's few shots on goal after the break.

Click to hear Henrik Egly interview

After Allen stepped in following an injury to Euler in a match last weekend, the two keepers reversed roles on Saturday.

The Fire returns to action next weekend for their first scheduled matches this year at the practice field at Toyota Park.