So this is why Marco Etcheverry is wanted in France.
D.C. United’s playmaking genius had a large hand in the Fire’s fifth straight loss, 3-1 Saturday night in front of 27,136 at Soldier Field.
With the score tied 1-1 in the 86th minute, Etcheverry sent a pass into the Fire goal box, looking to hook up with a front-running Richie Williams.
But Williams was unable to get a foot on the ball. Fire goalkeeper Zach Thornton was following Williams and when Williams failed to reach the pass, the ball slowly trickled into the net.
“It’s not the prettiest goal but we’ll take it,” D.C. United coach Bruce Arena said.
All the more frustrating for the Fire was that the goal came one minute after the Fire just missed taking the lead.
Fire forward Ante Razov was pulled down just outside of the D.C. penalty area to draw a free kick. Lubos Kubik took the free kick and banged his shot off the crossbar. Jesse Marsch sent the rebound over the crossbar. On the ensuing restart, Etcheverry worked his magic.
Two minutes after taking the lead, D.C. put the game away for good, with Etcheverry again acting as the protagonist. Etcheverry took the ball into the Fire penalty area from the left side, stutter-stepped to lose one defender and then sent a perfect cross onto the head of Ben Olsen, who guided it into an open net for his first professional goal.
The Fire was short-handed in two ways Saturday. First Peter Nowak injured his foot and had to leave in the 26th minute, replaced by Jorge Salcedo. Then Roman Kosecki was sent off with a red card for “violent conduct” in the 65th minute.
“We felt the rest of the guys did what they could to hang in there,” Fire coach Bob Bradley said.
The Fire took the lead in the ninth minute when Frank Klopas scored his fifth goal of the season off a rebound from Chris Armas’ shot. D.C. tied it in the 19th minute when Roy Lassiter blasted home a cross from Tony Sanneh from about 5 yards out.
