Bridgeview, Ill. - Less than one minute after hitting the right post with a clear shot on goal, Robbie Findley received a well-deserved penalty kick and delivered it to give Real Salt Lake a 1-0 victory over the host Chicago Fire Thursday at Toyota Park.
Findley's goal came in the 39th minute of the first half when Fire defender C.J. Brown used his elbows and maybe a hand to bring down Findley in the box. This came one minute after Findley was given an opportunity to score from the top of the box but hit the right post after getting the shot past Fire keeper Andrew Dykstra.
On the penalty kick, Findley went to his right, and so did Dykstra. Unfortunately for the Fire, Dykstra's right is the opposite of Findley's right, and the goal was easily tallied.
The Fire had more scoring opporutnities than the visitors, and most of them came from rookie defender Steven Kenney, making his first MLS appearance. Kenney had numerous dangerous crosses and also had two headers on corner kicks that hit posts and popped out.
Kinney was one of two first-time starters for coach Carlos de los Cobos, who was dealing with numerous injury issues. Stefan Dimitrov started on top, although he was replaced by slightly hampered Brian McBride at halftime.
The backline also included Kwame Watson-Sirboe as Dasan Robinson sat out with an injury and Wilman Conde was pushed up to a defending midfield position.
The Fire play again Wednesday in the first game of the 2010 SuperLiga. They face Monarcas Morelia of the Mexican Premier League.
Prior to that game, Manchester United has a training session at Toyota Park. You have to have a ticket to the SuperLiga game to get in and watch ManU.
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