Revolution Notebook

After game, Fire coach hot

Hamlett disputes the deciding goal

It was pretty heady stuff from the Revolution’s Jeff Larentowicz and Fire’s Baggio Husidic. (Adam Hunger/Associated Press
)

By Frank Dell’Apa

Globe Staff / November 2, 2009

Text size – +

FOXBOROUGH - The Revolution will take a one-goal advantage to Bridgeview, Ill., Saturday for Game 2 of their playoff series with the Fire. But Chicago coach Denis Hamlett disputed yesterday’s deciding score, a goal by Shalrie Joseph in the 75th minute.

“If you go back and watch,’’ Hamlett said, “we have a guy, Brian McBride, who gets the crap beat out of him, and Shalrie Joseph goes up front and throws his weight around and gets away with it. Two-hand push on C.J. Brown and the referee just looks the other way. You know what? We expected it was going to be a battle like that, because that’s what they’re about. Now, we’ll come back Saturday and play some soccer.’’

The sequence was set up as Brown fell, allowing Pat Phelan an open header off a corner kick. After goalkeeper Jon Busch stopped Phelan’s shot, Joseph finished Jeff Larentowicz’s cross.

“We created a lot of chances and we feel very confident heading back home,’’ Hamlett said.

Both teams were missing key performers. The Fire could recover central defender Wilman Conde (hip) and left back Gonzalo Segares (knee), who entered yesterday as a late substitute.

“The guys we had today, we had enough chances to win the game,’’ Hamlett said. “We’ll make sure we fine-tune in the final third as far as finishing chances and, if we do that, we’ll be OK.’’

Perfect timing

Defender Emmanuel Osei, in his first playoff match, scored his first goal since joining the Revolution this season.

“He timed his run and it was a great finish,’’ said Kenny Mansally, who provided the free kick that led to Osei’s strike in first-half stoppage time. “He said to me, ‘Great ball, thanks.’ He was so happy when he got that goal.’’

Osei, who played for Ghana in the 2004 Olympics and Livorno in Italy’s Serie A, also had a close shot, just wide of the left post, in the 40th minute.

“He’s been itching to go forward the last couple weeks,’’ defender Jay Heaps said of Osei. “The way they concentrate on Shalrie, it’s a great play because now they’ve got to start watching everyone.’’

Heaps of experience

Heaps has performed in every Revolution-Fire playoff series, the Revolution holding a 4-3 edge. The Revolution have a 7-6-1 record in playoff games against Chicago. “It was definitely wide open,’’ Heaps said. “Posts and crossbars. Physical, definitely. There was a lot of stuff going on. You could definitely feel the rivalry, for sure. I’m glad [the Fire] feel confident, that’s the way the game goes. We feel confident, as well. We’ve gotten some good results on the road. We want to them to be confident. We don’t need them to tell us when we need to be confident, we create our own confidence.’’ . . . The Revolution had not defeated the Fire in eight games since Nov. 8, 2007. Since losing to the Revolution in the 2007 Eastern Conference title game, the Fire had a 5-0-3 record and a 16-3 goal differential in the series before yesterday.

Frank Dell’Apa can be reached at f_dellapa@globe.com.