BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – Frank Yallop bemoaned what he called a “phantom penalty-kick” as the luckless Chicago Fire were held to a record-equaling 3-3 tie by D.C. United at Toyota Park on Saturday night.
Yallop believes referee Fotis Bazakos’ decision to award the Eastern Conference table-toppers a controversial 39th minute penalty changed the momentum of the game, and denied the Fire a victory that might have kept their slim playoff hopes alive.
There seemed to be little danger when Luis Silva floated a free-kick into the area and Sean Johnson punched clear, but the official blew for a foul with no obvious altercation apparent. Silva converted the spot-kick and added a sensational free-kick goal in the 54th minute, again awarded in dubious circumstances with the Fire head coach maintaining Razvan Cocis won the ball cleanly from Perry Kitchen.
That tied the game at 2-2 after the hosts had raced into a two-goal lead through Quincy Amarikwa and Jeff Larentowicz after dominating the first half.
“If you look at the first goal for them, I don’t see the call, and their second goal is not a foul,” Yallop insisted in the postgame press conference. “The free-kick is fantastic, take nothing away from the kid, but those things change games. I thought we played well tonight, I thought we deserved to win, but we didn’t.
“We deserved to win that, because two calls go against us in the match that cost us the game. Momentum is everything. We’re 2-0 up, he gives a phantom penalty-kick, I don’t know what the call is, so they go to 2-1 and they’ve got life. He gives them another foul that was not a foul, Razvan wins the ball, pokes it away and he gives the foul to a good player in a good spot. It was a great free-kick area for a great finisher like Silva is.”
The Fire were in complete control and looked to be heading for just their sixth win of the season, but their tendency to concede set pieces and their failure to deal with them cost them yet again.
And while Yallop admitted there were some positives to be extracted from a draw with the conference pacesetters, most notably the energetic performances of Amarikwa and Harry Shipp, he acknowledged his team lacked the necessary quality to see games out.
“I said it last week, something is missing from us as a group,” he lamented. “We’re going to keep going and keep fighting, keep doing our thing, but the table doesn’t lie. We’re in the position that we are because of us not being able to see games out or put the game away. It was two-fold tonight. The calls didn’t really go our way, and that’s being kind, and we didn’t really see the game out.”
Bobby Boswell was given credit for D.C.’s third goal after Kitchen’s initial effort appeared to have crossed the line, while Matt Watson scored his first of the season after a speculative strike from distance took a deflection to past Bill Hamid in the United goal.
That set up a frantic finale, but neither side could add to their tally as the Fire were held to their 16th tie of the season, a record-equaling run which is sure to be eclipsed with six games still remaining.
