The New England Revolution and Chicago Fire
square off in the second and deciding leg of their Eastern Conference
Semifinal series on Saturday night at Toyota Park.
The Revs own a 2-1 advantage in the total goals, home-and-home series are will
be aiming to knock off their Eastern rivals.
"The object was to win the game," New England coach Steve Nicol said after the
first leg win. "We would have preferred it went 10-nil, but we know that's not
happening. But we're ahead, which means they have to come out and come at us."
"We went out with the mind set that we wanted to get a win, and obviously
they're at home and they obviously wanted to get the win," Fire coach Denis
Hamlett said. "I didn't think the game was as open. I thought both teams
pushed to get the win."
Major League Soccer MVP finalist Shalrie Joseph scored the winner for New
England in the first leg, providing a boost to the home side.
"I think we were pushing up a lot of numbers in the box. Pat [Phelan] tried to
tip it on and missed it, and it came right to me," Joseph said of his goal. "I
wasn't really expecting it. I had a heavy first touch and tried to recover.
But I tried to pounce on it and get a toe on it, and luckily it went in for
me."
"What do you say about Shalrie? He scores goals, he starts the play; you stick
him up front, he holds the ball up," Nicol said. "But it's always good to be
able to put Pat [Phelan] in there and push Shalrie further ahead. It always
makes the other team take a step back when it's somebody like Shalrie, [with]
reputation and all these other things."
The Fire will be aiming to open things up in an attempt to score more goals on
Saturday.
"I think Brian [McBride], in particular, got in a lot of good spots [in the
first leg] and made it tough for the defenders," Fire attacker Chris Rolfe
said. "I think Baggio [Husidic] also did a good job getting in there, and
[Cuauhtemoc Blanco] did a good job holding up balls and putting in some good
service. As long as we can continue that stuff, we should get the chances.
Playing off the turf, we'll get some bounces."
The Fire will be without one of their better defenders in Gonzalo Segares
because of a knee injury, while defender Wilman Conde is questionable with a
hip injury.
The revs will be without defenders Chris Albright and Gabriel Badilla,
midfielder Steve Ralston, and forward Taylor Twellman, while forward Edgaras
Jankauskas is questionable, and midfielder Jeff Larentowicz is probable, all
with injuries.
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