Forget the hoopla surrounding the Fire’s courtship of Marcelo Salas, says the Daily Southtown’s Nick Firchau, the best move Chicago coach Dave Sarachan made last week was the introduction of the young Brazilian William Oliveira, who scored one and assisted one in a 3-2 home win against the Columbus Crew. On the heels of a five=game winless streak, the Fire absolutely had to win — and score — to give the team’s badly flagging a confidence a boost. The Fire was made to work for its dinner, however, as Chad Marshall’s 84th goal for Columbus set up a tense final six minutes after Chad Barrett had put the Fire up, 3-1.
Prior to the match, Chicago fans knew Sarachan had to do something more substantial than drum up media interest over an aging Chilean star. The insertion of Oliveira (it was his second appearance for the club) proved to be an inspired decision. “He’s young, but he showed much better this week than he did last week,” Sarachan said of the 23-year-old, who became the fourth Fire youngster to earn an MLS start in three weeks. “We signed him for a reason,” Sarachan said of Oliveira, who was playing in Trinidad & Tobago’s pro league.
Oliveira’s corner kick set up Jeff Curtin for Chicago’s opener in the 25th minute. His deflected indirect free kick then found its way past Andy Gruenbaum in the 61st. “I’m just very thankful for the chance I had,” Oliveira said after the match. “It’s nice to have [Sarachan] reward me for working hard in practice all week. I will always work hard for when they need me.”