The Chicago Fire return home from a two-game tour of the Pacific Northwest to take on an LA Galaxy side concluding a three-game Eastern swing when the clubs meet Sunday afternoon at Toyota Park. The Fire dropped both games in Cascadia, last a 4-2 loss to the Portland Timbers on Thursday. The Galaxy have played to a pair of draws on their week-long trip, coming off a scoreless draw at Toronto FC.
REFEREE: Niko Bratsis. SAR (bench): Colin Arblaster; JAR (opposite): Mike Kampmeinert; 4th: Edvin Jurisevic MLS Career: First game.
INJURY REPORT: CHICAGO FIRE – OUT: MF Mike Banner (L Achilles tendinitis); DF Steven Kinney (R Achilles repair); QUESTIONABLE: MF Marko Maric (L ankle sprain) ... LA GALAXY – OUT: DF Gregg Berhalter (L knee MCL sprain); FW Adam Cristman (L knee surgery); QUESTIONABLE: MF Landon Donovan (R knee inflammation); MF Hector Jimenez (R wrist surgery)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: LA: David Beckham (yellow card accumulation; through April 17); Juninho (through April 17);Jovan Kirovski (through April 17)
WARNINGS: SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: none SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: none
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (34 meetings): Fire 15 wins (1 shootout), 42 goals ... Galaxy 15 wins (0 shootout), 40 goals ... Ties 4 AT CHICAGO (21 meetings): Fire 9 wins (0 shootout), 23 goals ... Galaxy 7 wins (0 shootout), 19 goals ... Ties 1
RETURN MATCH: 7/9: LA Galaxy vs. Chicago Fire, 10:30 p.m. ET (FOX Soccer)
LAST YEAR (MLS): 8/1 LA 2, CHI 3 (Donovan 37, 81 – Pappa 4; John 5; Banner 19) 9/4: CHI 1, LA 1 (John 88 – Gonzalez 90)
- The Fire have come away with victories on two of their last three visits to The Home Depot Center to take on the Galaxy, winning 3-2 in a wild affair last year, and also winning 1-0 in 2008.
- The Fire last defeated the Galaxy on their Toyota Park home ground in 2008, a 3-1 win on Sept. 25. The Galaxy won in 2009 on their lone trip to Bridgeview; the teams played to a draw there last year.
- Coaches record: Carlos de los Cobos vs. LA: P2 W1 L0 D1 ... Bruce Arena v CHI: P13 W7 L4 D2
CHICAGO FIRE
The Chicago Fire lost for the second time on their two-game Cascadia road swing, falling 4-2 to the Portland Timbers on Thursday night in the first MLS game at Jeld-Wen Field. The Fire have 4 points from 4 matches on the year, in a three-way tie for seventh place in the Eastern Conference.
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LAST MATCH
- Colombian striker Jorge Perlaza scored the first goal at Jeld-Wen Field in the 29th minute. He ran onto a pass from Kalif Alhassan, cut back against a defender and onrushing Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson, and fired into an empty net.
- The Timbers doubled their lead nine minutes later. A Jack Jewsbury free kick from the right flank was weakly cleared and Rodney Wallace raced forward and pounded the loose ball into the net from 20 yards.
- After the break, the Timbers made it 3-0 when Wallace's cross bounced away from Johnson and Perlaza pounced on on the loose ball and tapped it into the net.
- The Fire pulled a goal back in the 66th minute. Marco Pappa tried to cut through the Timbers back line and Eric Brunner slid in to tackle it away, but succeeded only in driving the ball into his own goal.
- The visitors then close the lead to one in the 81st minute, when Pappa took a pass in the right side of the area, turned, and curled a terrific shot over goalkeeper Jake Gleeson and off the underside of the bar in the left corner.
- But the Timbers sealed their historic win three minutes later, when a scrum off a corner kick sawDasan Robinson bounce the ball into his own goal with Futty Danso also trying to prod it home.
- Fire head coach Carlos de los Cobos made no changes to the team that fell 2-1 to Seattle Sounders at Qwest Field.
- CHICAGO FIRE (4-4-2): Sean Johnson – Jalil Anibaba, Dasan Robinson, Cory Gibbs, Gonzalo Segares – Patrick Nyarko, Logan Pause, Michael Videira (Marko Maric 46 / Orr Barouch 64), Marco Pappa – Gaston Puerari (Dominic Oduro 57+), Diego Chaves.
TEAM NEWS
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“Our goal was to come out here [to Portland and Seattle] and get six points,” Pause said. “If not six at least come away with something. We felt like we did enough in Seattle to at least come away with something and tonight really just wasn’t our night. We’re going to hopefully learn from this, make the adjustments needed and move forward.”
LA GALAXY
The LA Galaxy played to a draw for the second time on their three-game Eastern swing, this time reaching a scoreless result with Toronto FC on Wednesday evening at BMO Field. The Galaxy have 9 points from 6 games on the season, sitting in second place in the Western Conference.
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LAST MATCH
- The Galaxy three times hit the woodwork on the night, including midway through the second half when David Beckham curled a freekick around the wall and beat TFCgoalkeeper Stefan Frei, only to see it come crashing back off the left upright.
- Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts made three saves, including a game-saving stop late from close range on a Joao Plataheader.
- It was the third consecutive draw over the past two seasons between Toronto FC and the LA Galaxy.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made one change to the team that played to a 1-1 draw with D.C. United at RFK Stadium. Chad Barrett returned to the lineup in place of Miguel Lopez. LA GALAXY (4-4-2): Donovan Ricketts – A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, Leonardo, Todd Dunivant – Sean Franklin (Paolo Cardozo 88), Juninho (sent off 94+), David Beckham, Mike Magee (Bryan Jordan 75) – Chad Barrett, Juan Pablo Angel (Miguel Lopez 84).
TEAM NEWS
“We have got a long way to go,” Arena said. “Certainly, when you walk off the field and you don’t have three points, you know you have a lot of work ahead of you and we do.”