 After Chicago's 4-nil annihilation of the New England Revolution at the Fire's home opener in Bridgeview, none of the 15,553 present in the stadium had a bigger smile than rookie Head Coach Denis Hamlett once the game ended. In fact, the entire locker room was happy and smiling: it was hard not to feel like this year was going to be a little special.
During post game interviews every player was quick to credit almost every one of his teammates by name for their performance in the win. Watching some of the players change and joke around with each other, it was easy to see just how comfortable each player is on the team. And it seems to be showing itself on the field now.
Backdraft was there to soak in the winning atmosphere.
During the post game press conference, Hamlett spoke of how happy he was to see an early goal and to have his team come out strong in the first five minutes. When asked what he felt the keys to the game were, Hamlett noted how easily his team found players running down the flanks and their ability to shoot once they got into the box.
Hamlett discussed how well the new signee, Tomasz Frankowski, seemed to be fitting into the front line. He added that he was excited to see what else Tomasz could do. "He [Tomasz] gets half a chance on goal and he's pretty good as far as finishing. Tonight is what we saw all preseason, and I feel that it was a great night for him." Hamlett did state that although Frankowski scored two goals last night, there remained strong competition for a starting forward spot on the team and that battles at that position would continue for the rest of the season. "We want to have options up front ….they push each other and challenge each other and hopefully we make the right decision on game day," he said. Frankowski said he was happy with his performance after a quiet display in the season opener against Real Salt Lake.
Goalkeeper Jon Busch was was very quick to give the credit for the shut-out to his defenders. "Most importantly the boys in front of me played great. They eliminated a lot of what I had to do tonight… but the defense and even the midfield took very good care of me and made it a routine night."
Busch's counterpart, Matt Reis, tried to place the blame for the Revolution's defeat on the referee and the overall inexperience of his team. "We have a lot of guys out there that are inexperienced; we have a lot of young guys out there. It was definitely a learning game for us, a learning half, and I think in the second half we did all right," he said. He defended New England's performance, saying that "We did the best we could under the circumstances. You're playing against more than just the Chicago Fire out there, you're playing against the elements and you're playing against the referee."
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