On a night in which everything that could have gone right did for the Fire, Bob Bradley could only shake his head as he began his postgame comments.
“I guess soccer is a weird game,” the Fire coach said after watching his team score four second-half goals, and three in a 6-minute span, to thoroughly dominate the Colorado Rapids in a 5-0 victory in front of 23,789 Saturday night at Soldier Field.
The victory was the third straight for the Fire and evened its record at 5-5. After scoring 11 goals in its first eight games, the Fire has now scored eight in its last two.
“You think you’ve played pretty well and then everything goes right,” Bradley said of the Fire’s recent stretch. “In the second half, everything went right.”
The Fire led 1-0 at the half as C.J. Brown scored his first professional goal, heading in a corner from Peter Nowak. For Nowak, it was the fifth straight game in which he’s either scored a goal or recorded an assist.
“It’s been a long time,” Brown said. His last goal came while he was in college at San Jose State. “It feels great, especially here at such a high level.”
What’s also important about Brown’s goal is that it came directly off a set-piece, something the Fire has struggled with so far this season.
The Fire blew the game open in the second half with a three-goal outburst in 6 minutes. Lubos Kubik started things by sending a perfect ball off a free kick almost 50 yards in the air and right onto the foot of Ante Razov.
Razov found himself all alone, walked in on Colorado keeper Paul Grafer and easily beat him to make it 2-0 in the 51st minute. The goal was vindication for Razov, who missed on a glorious chance in the first half.
“I was annoyed with myself,” Razov said of his missed opportunity. “But you have to put that behind you.”
Four minutes later the Fire struck again. Peter Nowak played the ball to Razov on the left wing, Razov sent a perfect through ball to an on-rushing Jerzy Podbrozny, who deked past Grafer and had an open net.
One minute after that, Podbrozny picked up a loose ball and started a four-on-three for the Fire on the beleagured Colorado defense. Podbrozny sent a perfect pass to Roman Kosecki, who easily converted to make it 4-0.
