2011 Second Round

After spending 48 hours in Madison, starting a game and taking the lead only to have it abandoned due to lightning Tuesday night and finally playing their second-round US Open Cup match Wednesday, the Chicago Fire PDL team headed back to the Windy City with a sense of satisfaction – and a marquee matchup in the next round.

Creighton’s Andrew Ribeiro, a Wisconsin native, and substitute Thierry Zahui scored in a three-minute span in the second half as the Fire knocked off the Madison 56ers 2-0 at Breese Stevens Field.

The Fire advance to play Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City in a third-round match Tuesday at the new, $200 million Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.

“It’s a great feeling. I honestly couldn’t be more proud of our players right now,” said Fire coach Mark Spooner, whose team was playing its fourth game in eight days – not including the 17-plus minutes Tuesday. “The adversity they’ve come through just so far in this young season is only going to stand them in good stead. They deserve this opportunity.”

Both teams had chances in the opening half, but Fire goalkeeper David Meves and 56ers counterpart Kyle Dillman kept it scoreless, making two saves apiece.

Madison was content to let Chicago control possession and looked to hit the Fire on counters. That led to three quality opportunities in the opening 45 minutes – Meves made a nice stop on Jed Hohlbein’s 15th-minute strike and gathered up a shot by Trevor Banks in the 33rd, and Keenan Newallo flashed a shot wide in the 38th.

“We knew we had to kind of sit back and counter, because if we chased them all day they would break on us,” 56ers midfielder Tenzin Rampa said. “And I thought we did a great job of that in the first half. We hoped to pop one in and kind of defend and let it play out.”

The Fire, who saw Dillman deny center back Johnny Raj with a great save in the sixth minute after a free kick bounced around on the right side of the box, kept their poise.

“There was one moment when we had the ball when we counted on the bench and they had nine guys behind it all around their penalty area,” Spooner said. “It was frustrating for us and it was working for them. We talked about being patient and the ability to draw players out of positions.”

Chicago created chance after chance in the first 10 minutes after halftime, including a shout for a penalty kick in the 56th minute. The Fire wanted a handball called on the 56ers’ Henry Aiyenero after Paulo Vaz headed a corner kick into the 6-yard box, but referee
Margaret Domka didn’t share their opinion of the play.

Ten minutes later, Ribeiro got the breakthrough.

Fire midfielder Harrison Petts laid a pass back to the Green Bay native, who drilled a shot from 20 yards out on the left side. Dillman dove and got a hand to the blast, but the ball spun off the keeper’s hand and into the net at the far post in the 66th minute to open the scoring.

“I’d say a ball like that, one out of 10 will go (in). And this one did,” Ribeiro said of his first goal of the year. “The keeper made a nice save, but it was a little too hard for him. I got a little lucky.”

“He’s been looking forward to this game for a while,” Spooner added. “His performance tonight was well worth it, he was fantastic. I think he covered every blade of grass twice. He was great tonight.”

Two minutes later, Zahui, a 24-year-old from the Ivory Coast, ripped a shot from the right side that deflected off 56ers midfielder Keith Dangarembwa and past Dillman to double the lead.

“I guess I’ve got some travel arrangements to make now,” Spooner said with a smile.

Meanwhile, the home side lamented a number of plays that were close but not close enough, from their chances to grab the opening goal to Dillman just missing keeping out Ribeiro’s shot.

“It’s hard to think about it right now,” Hohlbein said. “To have a chance like that and then miss out on an opportunity (to play an MLS team), it’s pretty tough.

“In higher-level games, you don’t see teams get tons of chances. You get four or five quality chances, and you’ve got to finish one or two of them. … I’ve obviously got that running through my mind right now, I had a few quality chances that I probably should have finished. It’s tough.”

UPDATE: Chicago Fire Premier punched their ticket to the Third Round with a 2-0 victory over the Madison 56ers. The Fire received goals from Andrew Ribeiro in the 66th minute and Thierry Zahui just two minutes later to seal the victory. Chicago moves on to play Sporting Kansas City on Tuesday, June 28 at LiveStrong Park at 8:30 p.m. EST. We will have a full recap of the match later tonight courtesy of WisconsinSoccerCentral.com [+]

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REPORT FROM TUESDAY NIGHT:

It was a strange night of soccer Tuesday at Breese Stevens Field. And in the end, not very much soccer.

The Madison 56ers and the Chicago Fire Premier played just more than 17 minutes of their Second Round US Open Cup match before the game was halted by lightning with the Fire ahead 1-0.

A little more than 2 hours later, officials postponed the match, which will be replayed in its entirety at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Breese Stevens. The 56ers announced that admission will be free.

“It’s a little weird. (Stuff) happens,” 56ers coach Jim Launder said.

“It’s good and bad. It’s a replay, so we just erase the goal and start over. It’s not good because we lost a huge fan night … It’s not good because we’ll play in a dead stadium tomorrow, because nobody will be here at 4 p.m. And it’s not good because I think we’re going to be missing two players, maybe three.”

The Fire certainly wanted the game to resume, having taken the early lead on Chris Estridge’s goal in the ninth minute.

Indiana midfielder Harrison Petts, who pounded a shot from 23 yards out off the corner of the crossbar and left post in the fourth minute, chipped a ball for Estridge over the 56ers’ backline and the Wake Forest midfielder calmly finished against Madison goalkeeper Kyle Dillman (Madison La Follette).

Estridge raced over to celebrate with about 25 members of the Fire’s Section 8 supporters group who made the trip north. They lived uo their reputation, pounding on drum, singing songs and waving massive flags.

Four minutes later, Fire forward Paulo Vaz also got in behind the 56ers’ backline, but Dillman made a sliding save on the Lynn University striker.

“Two times when we didn’t get pressure on the ball and we didn’t step back and we just let guys run in behind us,” said Launder, who added that he would re-evaluate his lineup overnight. “I wasn’t impressed with our defensive stance. All of our backs did the same thing, they all just stopped.”

Referee Margaret Domka suspended play 17 minutes, 19 seconds into the match as storms rolled into the area and lightning was spotted. Heavy rains followed, and intermittent showers and lightning persisted. All the while, the Section 8 group kept drumming and singing.

“It was a little surreal,” Fire PDL coach Mark Spooner said. “We were trying to get updates and (the officials) weren’t that forthcoming with them, so it was frustrating. But it is what is; nobody can do anything about the weather.

“The thing that I don’t like, obviously, is now you start 0-0 again for 90 minutes. I would think that there would be a better method than that in a competition like this.”

If the match had reached 45 minutes, it would have been declared a result.

However, for the game to be resumed, 20 minutes needed to pass without lightning in the area, and there still were regular flashes in the skies as the teams left the stadium. Also, the lights at Breese Stevens need to be turned off by 11 p.m. due to a local ordinance.

“They would want to get that half game in and win the game – I would, too,” Launder said. “It wasn’t going to happen.”

So for the Fire, it was yet another night spent in a hotel. They had three road matches last week and have logged more than 1,500 miles during trips to Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin.

“It’s just one thing after another,” said Spooner, whose team requested Wednesday’s replay be moved to 4 p.m. from the scheduled 7 p.m. start time to help them get back to Chicago earlier with a PDL match Friday.

“You know, though, it’s good for their development. This whole program is designed around them becoming pros, and this is part of it. We have to react now to it and see where we can go.”

Speaking late Tuesday night, Spooner said when they got to the hotel, there weren’t enough rooms.

“What a fun night,” he deadpanned.