When Dominic Oduro takes the field Saturday night vs. Houston, he’ll be prepared to take on a team that was all too ready to cast him off earlier this season
Acquired in
a trade for Calen Carr last month, Oduro was seemingly run out of Houston
following a miss 68th minute miss in the Dynamo’s Opening Day 1-0
loss to Philadelphia on March 19.
The striker
didn’t let the miss or the trade, affect him.
“I’m just
trying to stay focused on the game and on the Fire,” he said Thursday. “As a
forward, you're going to have chances. I guarantee I'm not going to score all
the goals on all the chances that I get. You have to narrow your focus and work
on getting the right things correct.”
Just days
after his moved north, Oduro made his first appearance for his new club in the
Fire’s 3-2 win over Sporting KC on March 26. Since then, he’s appeared in every
match for the club and scored his first goal since that fateful miss to start
this season coming on as a sub in last Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Galaxy.
The
Ghanaian’s first tally in Fire Red came with the side trailing 2-0 late in the
match. Oduro, who entered the game in place of Mike Videira in the 59th
minute added instant credibility to the attack, using his speed to run at tired
defenders and stretch the backline.
With his efforts, he finally found the back of the net after getting on the end
of prayerful ball out of the back from Jalil Anibaba and beating two Galaxy
defenders before finishing from an acute angle past Donovan Ricketts in the 89th
minute. Despite a valiant effort to find a stoppage time equalizer, the Galaxy
still left Toyota Park with three points in the 2-1 victory.
Fire head
coach Carlos de los Cobos has been happy with Oduro’s on and off-field
contributions to the club, having employed him in a substitute role in every
game since joining the team.
“I knew before Dominic came that he was a very good player but the most
important thing that surprised me was his attitude,” said the Fire head coach. He’s
had a very positive attitude from the first day he arrived to work with us and
I like it. I’m very happy because we have another player that has a commitment
with his teammates and the club. Dominic is playing well, the times he’s played
as a substitute in the second half he helped to change the attacking side of the
team. He’s been looking for the moment
to score since coming here and he found it [Sunday]. It’s good because even
though he’s young, he has experience in the league and everybody respects him
because he deserves it.”
Coming in
the match before he faces his former club for the first time, the goal has
given the Fire newcomer some confidence heading into Saturday night while
recognizing the team’s need for a victory.
“I just see
it as any other game in the season. Regardless of it being my old team or any
other team, I just take it as our next game. We have three losses and need
three points, so I just think anything other than a win is unacceptable. It
being my old team, I’ll admit there’s a little bit of a revenge factor for me, that's not much on my mind but it would be
nice to put a couple of goals in the back of the net, God willing.”
Jeff Crandall is the Team Writer
for the Chicago Fire. Follow him on Twitter @JefeCrandall.
