FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- If there was ever a night where the Chicago Fire could have come into a road playoff game at Gillette Stadium as the favorite, Thursday night would have been it.
The New England Revolution lost Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston to injuries. Khano Smith and Gabriel Badilla missed out through suspension. The Revs hadn't won in six games heading into playoffs and had lost their last three contests.
Never mind the fact that Chicago had tallied not even a draw in six previous playoff games at Gillette, nor the fact that the Revs had dumped them out of the playoffs in three consecutive years.
Some teams might have overlooked the Revs or taken an eye off the task, but Fire head coach Denis Hamlett said he knew his team would face a challenge as the teams opened their Eastern Conference Semifinal Series.
"We knew that they were going to put a competitive team on the field," Hamlett said. "They won SuperLiga with some guys missing and they're still the defending Eastern Conference champions. We knew that this was going to be a hard game. We didn't come in here thinking they're missing all these guys (or) that this was going to be an easy game, because if we did that we would have just basically set ourselves up for failure."
A 0-0 draw certainly doesn't count as a failure for a Chicago side that had fought all season to set up a winner-take-all scenario at Toyota Park in the second game of a potential first-round series.
"I think that's the reason we put a lot of emphasis on trying to finish second because home field does make a difference," Hamlett said.
Playing on the road impacted the Fire. The fluid counterattacking play of last Thursday's 5-2 home win against New York wasn't on display as both teams slugged it out in midfield. The play turned choppy quickly and there wasn't much time and space on the ball for the Fire attackers to exploit the Revolution defense.
"We knew it was going to be a tough, physical game," goalkeeper Jon Busch said. "They're a physical team and we knew we would have to match that here and see what we could come up with. There wasn't much soccer played on either side."
With only limited forays forward in the first half, the Fire relied on their defense to keep the score level. New England preferred to attack Chicago through the air and central defenders Bakary Soumare and Gonzalo Segares looked steady against the quick strike pair of Kheli Dube and Kenny Mansally.
For a Fire defense that had sputtered in recent weeks, the performance restored confidence.
"I was happy with the boys in the back getting a clean sheet after six or seven games of not getting one," Busch said. "We also talked all week about getting that clean sheet because we knew going into the playoffs, everything was going to get tighter. Teams tighten things up and one play is the difference."
Keeping the clean sheet placed the Fire exactly where they wanted to be in order to exorcise the Revolution hoodoo and oust New England from the playoffs for the first time since 2003.
"There really wasn't much soccer played tonight, but I think our guys competed," Hamlett said. "Our back group defended well. We're happy with keeping it at zero. Now we go back home and take care of business."
Revolution eager to prove worth vs. Fire
Mantovani Ecstatic Following First Serie A Goal
McBride set to make Fire debut
