ON FIRE: Kovalenko scoring drought continues

http://www.cybersoccernews.com

Fire, United draw 0-0
Fire, United lay eggs as Kovalenko continues scoring drought
by Ivaldo Basso

Chicago, July 31 (CSA) — Dema Kovalenko stared at his shoes. 20 minutes after another 0-0 draw with D.C. United and the little Ukrainian still donned his soaking wet kit in the locker-room.

While Ante Razov and Josh Wolff had some misreads with each other and others during Wednesday night's match, Kovalenko had good positioning and created chances.

"This year I haven't scored a goal yet in MLS. I go home and wonder all the time about why that is, what I am doing wrong. It's frustrating when it doesn't go in," said Kovalenko.

Just minutes before, coach Bob Bradley lamented about his fiery striker, "Sometimes, you feel sorry for him from the standpoint that we all see how much he puts into the game.

"In the second half when it takes one play to win the game, he's pushing and pushing to try to make a difference. He gets himself into some terrific positions, but at the end of it all he gets a little bit unlucky at times. I know it's frustrating for him," added Bradley.

"An important thing is that I'm having chances, but I hope the goals start coming soon," Kovalenko conceded.

Twelve days prior to last night's match, the Fire and D.C. United provided MLS with its first scoreless draw of the season in Naperville. Wednesday night the teams repeated the feet in front of 10,444 at the same venue.

It was a game that left you scratching your head as to what either team should have done differently, besides score a goal.

Bob Bradley didn't have the answer, "Some nights it's like that. It's frustrating. I don't know where the answer lies; that's the way the game goes sometimes."

To the trained eye, the game was not a carbon copy of the match two weeks ago.

United pressed heavily for a long stretch during the middle of the second half, which was more than they could muster last time.

"They had a little bit more going through the midfield and I thought that they were able during that period of the game to even things out more," said Bradley.

"We had a period in the second half where I thought we didn't play as well, but then I thought towards the end of the game we picked it up again and had some very good chances near the end and maybe one or two in overtime."

Nick Rimando made several decent saves, but Thornton had the best of the night on a 78th minute drive to the lower left-hand corner of goal by Bobby Convey. Thornton stretched and got his fingertips to the uncontested shot from 18-yards and through corner-kick traffic.

The Fire defense put in another solid effort, bringing its scoreless streak to 237 minutes.

When asked if it was frustrating seeing the forwards unable to score, Carlos Bocanegra said, "Yes its frustrating, but it's the same I'm sure when we get scored on. They get frustrated at us to its just a part of soccer. They're probably more frustrated as anyone that they missed their chances tonight."

Bradley was complementary towards Nick Rimando after the match.

"The thing that Rimando does very well is he comes out so quickly. When you get chances and you're going in, he's going to cut the angle down very quickly and come off his line very quickly," Bradley said.

"When you have your head up and see him and have to decide whether to dribble by him or take one more pass, when you see how you want to beat him, he puts the pressure on the attacking player because he comes out and gets to their feet very quickly," added Bradley.


Ivaldo Basso can be reached at ibasso@cybersoccernews.com.
© Basso/Cyber Soccer Associates, LLC 2002