U.S. Open Cup play is Josh Wolff’s time to shine.
The forward entered Wednesday’s semifinal match with the Los Angeles Galaxy in Fullerton, Calif., as the tournament’s leading scorer with 11 points. In the Fire’s quarterfinal victory over Dallas two weeks ago, Wolff had four goals.
Wolff started Wednesday’s match on the bench as Hristo Stoitchkov made his second straight start. But Wolff was in the right spot at the right time–the 112th minute to be exact–to knock home a rebound of a DaMarcus Beasley shot and give the Fire an improbable 2-1 overtime victory before 7,124 at Cal-State Fullerton University.
The Fire advances to the Open Cup final against the winner of the MetroStars-Miami Fusion match. That match will be played in Long Island, N.Y. on Sep. 12. The final will be held after the Oct. 15 MLS Cup.
The Fire played the final 61 minutes down a man and scored both of their goals after rookie defender Carlos Bocanegra was given a red card ejection for his shove of Galaxy forward Luis Hernandez in the 51st minute. It was one of many chippy plays in a match that resembled a street-brawl more than a match between two teams with championship hopes.
“The team showed incredible heart and determination to fight back with 10 guys,” Fire coach Bob Bradley said. “It means a great deal to get back to the final and especially the way it was done.”
In all, referees Sergio Vega and Terry Vaughn pulled out yellow cards 15 times. Los Angeles players were booked seven times and committed 26 fouls while the Fire committed 19 fouls and had eight players cautioned and Bocanegra sent off. Bocanegra will be suspended for the final.
“Basically we got tangled up and he threw an elbow and I pushed him after the whistle,” Bocanegra said. “It was a stupid thing to do and I just have to deal with it.”
The bone-jarring match also produced two more injuries to an already depleted Fire squad. Defender Andrew Lewis had to leave the match in the 16th minute after bruising his left ankle while being tackled by Ezra Hedrickson.
Peter Nowak had a brilliant, and painful, match. After setting up Ante Razov’s tying goal in the 85th minute, Nowak was clipped from behind by Hernandez three minutes into second-half stoppage time and then was kicked in the head by Hernandez. Nowak didn’t play in the overtime after suffering a concussion. His status for Saturday’s match in Tampa is questionable. Lewis is doubtful.
Fire goalkeeper Zach Thornton kept his team in the match with a handful of brilliant saves. His best came two minutes into second half stoppage time when he came out to try and collect a corner kick. Los Angeles’ Danny Califf got his head to the ball first and a retreating Thornton made an acrobatic save to keep the match tied. In the 61st minute, Thornton dove to his left to parry aside a wonderfully struck free kick from Greg Vanney.
