Chivas offense stalls in defeat

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- Patrick Nyarko justified his first Major League Soccer start with an early goal to give the Chicago Fire a 1-0 win over Chivas USA on Saturday night, then left because of a head injury before halftime.

It was an eventful night for the former Virginia Tech player, who suffered a concussion after he and Chivas defender Claudio Suarez knocked heads in first-half injury time.

Suarez was taken to a hospital and was being evaluated.

Half an hour earlier, Chris Rolfe recovered a ball from Chivas USA and passed it forward to Nyarko, who lobbed a high shot into the net in the 16th minute to end Chicago’s scoreless streak at 196 minutes.

The victory gave the Fire 29 points and put Chicago within four of Eastern Conference leader New England, though Columbus is between the teams with 31 points.

Chivas USA’s Atiba Harris had the team’s only two shots in the first half.

Chivas turned up the heat in the second half, though.

Paulo Nagamura and Francisco Mendoza forced Jon Busch to make saves in the 58th and 70th minutes. Busch grabbed a loose ball in the 87th minute and survived a close call in injury time to hold on for his eighth shutout of 2008.

Chivas USA goalkeeper Zach Thornton started his first game of the 2008 MLS season after he was traded from the New York Red Bulls on Friday. Thornton made one save.

Chivas Coach Preki missed the match because of a two-game suspension.

“In the first half we were a little bit sluggish,” Preki said in a team news release. “We didn’t play with a lot of energy like I expected. We made one mistake and they scored a goal, but in the second half we got better. We were pushing forward . . . we are not sharp in the last part of the field.”