Fire gets tie to advance

WASHINGTON -- The Chicago Fire scored two first-half goals and survived a D.C. United comeback in a 2-2 tie that sent Chicago to the Eastern Conference final.

The result gave the Fire a 3-2 aggregate win in the two-game, first-round Major League Soccer series, following its 1-0 win at home last week.

The Fire will visit the winner of the first-round series between the New England Revolution and the New York Red Bulls in next week’s conference final. The Revolution and Red Bulls, tied 0-0 after the first leg, will play the second Saturday.

For the second straight year, United failed to convert the league’s best regular-season record into a championship. After falling behind 2-0, United played desperate but magnificent soccer in the second half but couldn’t get the third goal needed to tie the series and force an overtime period.

Chad Barrett and Chris Rolfe stunned the RFK Stadium crowd by 19,438 by splitting the middle of the defense with similar goals two minutes apart in the first half.

Clyde Simms scored in the 69th minute for United and Christian Gomez tied the score five minutes later.

In the frantic moments of injury time, Gomez put the ball in the net, but the goal was disallowed.