The Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake each disposed of USL opposition in the first full weekend of MLS preseason action. The Fire defeated the USL1 Puerto Rico Islanders 1-0 on Saturday, while RSL battled to a scoreless draw against the PDL Ventura County Fusion on Sunday.
Also over the weekend, the Kansas City Wizards played MLS competition for the second time in a week, battling to a wild 4-4 draw in a preseason game played at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. on Saturday morning.
Chicago Fire 1, Puerto Rico Islanders 0: Former U.S. international Brian McBride scored the lone goal, slotting home an eighth-minute penalty kick to lift the Chicago Fire to a 1-0 victory against the Puerto Rico Islanders of the United Soccer Leagues First Division in a preseason match at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. on Saturday.
After Patrick Nyarko was fouled inside the box, the Fire was awarded the penalty and McBride stepped to the spot and calmly placed the ball low to the right of the Islanders' goalkeeper for the game's lone goal.
The Fire nearly doubled its lead in the 62nd minute when C.J. Brown headed Justin Mapp's corner kick toward the right post where McBride nodded the ball into the goal. But the goal was called back when the assistant referee ruled McBride to be in an offside position.
The Fire will return to the field to face Toronto FC Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the IMG Academy.
Real Salt Lake 0, Ventura County Fusion 0: Real Salt Lake and Ventura County Fusion of the United Soccer League's Premier Development League played to a scoreless draw in a preseason match at Buena High School in Ventura, Calif. Sunday night.
Alex Nimo had RSL's best scoring chance, firing a shot past Fusion goalkeeper Trevor Styles, bit Rodrigo Lopez pushed the shot off the line with his right foot in the 25th minute.
Kansas City Wizards 4, New York Red Bulls 4: Trialist Lionel St. Preux had a second-half brace, the second goal coming in the 84th minute to give New York a late 4-3 lead, but defender Raushawn McKenzie had the 89th-minute equalizer, finishing off Michael Kraus' flick of a Kevin Souter corner kick to forge the 4-4 draw.
Claudio Lopez gave the Wizards a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute, latching on to Josh Wolff's through ball and beat Red Bulls goalkeeper Danny Cepero with a left-footed kick following a 40-yard run.
The Red Bulls leveled the match three minutes later when veteran Mike Petke volleyed Jorge Rojas' free kick past goalkeeper Boris Pardo. Dominic Oduro headed in a Dane Richards cross in the 42nd minute to give the Red Bulls a 2-1 lead at the break.
Receiving a well-timed diagonal ball through the defense from Josh Wolff, Graham Zusi flicked the ball over Jon Conway from 10 yards out to equalize in the 56th minute. Zusi then turned provider on the hour mark, feeding Wolff, who played a perfect through ball to Lopez. The former Argentinean international rounded Conway and slid the ball into the open net to give the Wizards a 3-2 lead.
St. Preux equalized nine minutes later, capitalizing on a Wizards mistake in the defensive third. The Haitian international tapped in a rebound six minutes from full time to put the Red Bulls back in front 4-3.
But McKenzie scored his second goal in two preseason matches to tie the match as the Wizards improved to 2-0-1 in the preseason after beating the U.S. under-17 national team 7-0 and besting the Chicago Fire 3-2 in the midweek.
The Red Bulls are now 0-1-1 after losing to the U-17s 1-0 on Wednesday.
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