It seems that the Fire have seen a lot of Red Bull in a
short amount of time this season. Joel Lindpere and Marco Pappa traded goals in
the side’s 1-1 draw on June 26 at Toyota Park, while just two days later the
teams found they would meet again as they both advanced out of the third round
of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
With that, back Red Bull came to Chicago, this time sending
a weakened roster, failing to even send head coach Hans Backe and only playing
one regular starter in Mehdi Ballouchy as the team was trounced 4-0 in the Open
Cup quarterfinals.
That match highlighted two teams with very different
priorities: A Fire side that had renewed interest in the tournament by which
much of the club’s history has been made vs. Red Bull who put more of a
priority on a European preseason tournament against the likes of Arsenal and
Paris Saint-Germain.
To be fair, Red Bull won the Emirates Cup late last month,
despite that, many of the club’s own supporters were upset with the side that
was sent to Chicago in July.
Either way it didn’t upset Chicago Fire striker Dominic
Oduro, who scored the opening goal in the match against his former team.
“We didn’t take offense [to the way they treated the
tournament],” Oduro said this week. “At the end of the day we played against
the New York Red Bulls. It wasn’t ‘Red Bull B or C’ we beat New York. It was
their coach’s decision to send the team he sent -- some coaches really take the
Open Cup seriously, others don’t. Here we do because of the history for this
team and if you win, it takes you to the CONCACAF Champions League. They had
different priorities than us -- that’s all.”
Oduro, who had a brief ‘cup of coffee’ stint with Red Bull
in 2009, has had a bit of a career rebirth this season, passed his MLS season
high of five goals with his impressive strike in Sunday’s 4-2 loss at
Vancouver. That, along with Orr Barouch’s second half goal were the lone bright
spots in what was an otherwise poor performance against the MLS expansion side.
Despite that performance, Oduro is quick to put the team’s
play out west behind in the past.
“We know we had a terrible game against Vancouver and that’s
behind us. New York is a good team. We’re just going to compete as we always
do. We played pretty well against Red Bull in June. There’s nothing left for us
to do except compete and work hard. We get a couple of wins and you never know
where you’ll be.”
Oduro has appeared in every match for the Fire since joining
the team via trade from Houston one game into the season and perhaps that’s due
to his versatility. Certainly being one of the fastest players in the league
has kept him in the lineup, but the Ghanaian attacker has been deployed on both
wings, as a second striker and most recently as the lone forward up top in a
4-2-3-1 formation.
There’s no reason to expect him out of the lineup Saturday
night as he celebrates his 26th birthday with fellow Fire striker
Cristian Nazarit.
“I found out the other day Cristian and I shared a birthday,
it’s pretty funny actually. I’m just trying to get myself a present with a goal
or two hopefully in New York. More than anything though, I just want us to win
Saturday, that would be the best present. A goal or two would be the icing on
the cake.”
Jeff Crandall is the
Team Writer for the Chicago Fire. Follow him on Twitter @JefeCrandall.
