September 9, 2012
LOOKING GOOD
Klopas happy with reserves’ performances against Santos Laguna

Fire coach Frank Klopas got what he wanted out of Saturday night’s 2-2 draw with Santos Laguna at Toyota Park. Linda Cuttone/Sports Vue Images

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill.--The Chicago Fire’s 2-2 draw with Liga MX champions Santos Laguna on Saturday gave coach Frank Klopas a chance to see some guys who normally don’t play. And he liked what he saw.

“Obviously I was happy. I wanted to get certain things out of the game and obviously you walk away and the good thing is a lot of guys got some valuable minutes which is good,” said Klopas.

” Showed me where certain guys are at this point and obviously it was a good second half for the group. We played a very good team and scored two goals, so what I wanted to see and what we wanted to get out of the game was good. So I think we got what we wanted; we walked away with no injuries guys, got valuable minutes to play and it’s good to see guys being sharp. Obviously good to see Corben [Bone], the way he played this game and obviously scored a very good goal and I think that’s important for guys that haven’t gotten enough minutes to see that they’re in good form and ready to step in and help the team.”

Bone scored the equalizer. Little-used Michael Videira also scored, while homegrown player Victor Pineda made his first start.

“It was good. I felt pretty ready for it,” said Pineda. “I thought I was going to be a little more nervous than I was. I felt good. I thought the team and myself did a lot better in the second half. We started a lot slower than we wanted to in the first half and we gave up easy goals, but I think it’s good that we got after it the second half and we won the second half, which was our goal.”

“It was good for those guys to get minutes and to play,” said Klopas. “Obviously I know where they are at this point. When you don’t play it’s very difficult. We were playing a very good team. The speed of the game was very fast. You’re playing against a good team with technical players, so I think it was good. I thought that those guys did well for players that haven’t played a lot during the season. It’s never easy. Training and playing games is two different things, but I think they guys gave everything they had.”

Santos Laguna took a 2-0 first half lead on goals by Benjamin Joya in the 24th minute and Daniel Luduena in the 29th.

But the Fire youngsters turned things around in the second half.

In the 48th minute, Daniel Paladini found Videira charging through the box and the Fire defender volleyed his effort past Miguel Becerra from close range to take the score to 2-1.

The Fire found the equalizer in the 63rd minute, when Dominic Oduro dispossessed Juan Pablo Rodriguez at midfield. The fleet Ghanaian sped towards goal before finding Bone up the right side and the third-year Fire midfielder made no mistake, placing his effort under Becerra and inside the back post.