Fire Fall In Home Opener

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 12, 2010 2:00PM

Playing in front of 20,276 fans - the largest ever Opening Night crowd - the Fire fell short of opening the home season on a winning note as the team fell 2-1 to the San Jose Earthquakes. The Fire had opportunities early, including a beautiful chance inside the box in the 11th minute when a slight hesitation on a pass from Patrick Nyarko threw off Collins John's timing just enough that he missed a wide open shot at the goal. Missed opportunities like that would haunt the Fire later. The teams played to a scoreless tie at the half but San Jose opened scoring in the second half in the 49th minute when Fire goalie Andrew Dykstra collided with defender Tim Ward as both tried to defend the ball, leaving Arturo Alvarez to chip the ball into and open goal.

Just a few minutes later, in the 52 minute, Marco Papa got the equalizer on a beautiful shot in the upper right corner of the goal. It was the Fire's first in-play goal of the season, their previous goals coming on penalty and corner kicks. John got another great opportunity as a Nyarko pass once again found John with a shot on goal and the San Jose goaltender out of position, but John's rocket was deflected away at the goal line by the foot of a San Jose defender, keeping the score at 1-1. The Earthquakes, though, got the best of the fire as in the 81st minute Ike Opara headed a pass from Bobby Convey past Dykstra for what proved to be the winning goal, leaving the Fire winless on the season at 0-2-1.

Nyarko summed it up best after the game, saying, “It’s just a real disappointment. I was telling the other players ever since last year that we played the best soccer at home, we dominated the game and eventually we end up losing. It just sucks, and it’s very strange because we get punished by any mistake we make.” It was another disappointment for a team that only managed a 5-4-6 mark at Toyota Park in the 2009 season. The Fire will try to get their first win of the new season on Saturday night when they travel to Washington D.C. to face DC United (6:30 p.m., CSN); they'll next play at home on Saturday, April 24th against Houston (tickets).