The Chicago FireÆs 2-1 home win over Costa RicaÆs Deportivo Saprissa on Wednesday sends the Costa Ricans, who won the first leg, 2-0, to the CONCACAF Champions Cup final with a 3-2 aggregate win in the semifinal series.
Alonso Solis, taking advantage of a misplayed ball by ChicagoÆs Kelly Gray, scored in the 11th minute to put Saprissa up, 1-0, forcing the Fire to score three goals in order to earn overtime.
The Fire scored its first through Andy Williams in the 55th minute, marking ChicagoÆs first goal after being blanked in its first three MLS games and in the first leg of the semifinal series.
But the Fire failed to convert for the next half hour, with Williams, DaMarcus Beasley, Dipsy Selolwane and Damani Ralph all failing to exploit chances.
In the 86th minute, Nate Jaqua headed a Williams free kick to Jim Curtin, who re-directed it with a shot past Saprissa keeper Francisco Porras.
On a final chance to salvage Chicago hopes, Williams shot high over the goal in the 89th minute.
''We came up one goal short tonight,ö said Fire assistant coach Denis Hamlett, who ran the Fire from the sidelines for the suspended Dave Sarachan. ôWe took the game to them and had plenty of chances, but we just couldn't get that goal to push it to even up the series.
ôWe'd be a little bit worried if we weren't getting chances. When you have as many chances as we had today sooner or later they're going to start going in. Tonight was in some ways a good night because we finally scored some goals, now we've just got to build on that.''
CONCACAF Champions Cup, Semifinal, Second Leg
April 21 in Chicago
Chicago 2 Saprissa 1. (Saprissa wins, 3-2, on aggregate)
Goals: Williams (Selolwane) 55, Curtin (Jaqua) 86; Solis 11.
Chicago — Countess, Gray, Curtin, Brown, Griffin (Jaqua, 45), Pause, Mapp, Williams (Gray, 92+), Beasley, Ralph, Selolwane (Ibrahim, 77).
Saprissa — Porras, Nunez, Perez, Torres Gonzalez, Alfaro (Munoz, 68), Benneth, Phillip, Lopez (Centeno, 61), Solis, Santana.
Yellow cards: Chicago — Pause 43; Saprissa — Gonzalez 31, 93+.
Red card: Saprissa — Gonzalez 93+.
Referee: Gilberto Alcala (MEX)
Att.: 7,126