On Fire: Nyarko, Oduro dynamic duo in win over TFC

CHICAGO -- Despite the fact that he scored the fastest goal in Chicago Fire history, forward Dominic Oduro relied on opportunism more than his vaunted speed when he got on the scoresheet after just 25 seconds into Saturday’s 3-2 win against Toronto FC.
“I’m glad to make history and that my name is now in history, but at the end of the day I’m glad that we were able to get an early goal, get settled into the game,” Oduro said afterwards.
WATCH: TOR-CHI Highlights

Oduro had a chance to register his first multi-goal game with the Fire in the 11th minute when Patrick Nyarko sprung him through on goal, but his breakaway shot was saved by Milos Kocic. Oduro wasn’t able to find his second of the day despite his decided speed advantage over the Toronto defense.
“It is my job to make it as hard as I can for the defense,” Oduro said. “I have speed and I try to use it as much as possible. Their defenders don’t have much speed and they [tried to sit]  back and make it uncomfortable for me.”
Nyarko gets on the board
After Nyarko sprung Oduro free twice, Oduro returned the favor to his fellow Ghanaian in the 58th minute. Oduro’s pass found Nyarko, who was able to dribble past Kocic and find the back of the wide-open net.
The goal was just Nyarko’s second since the pair began their strike partnership late last season.
“It feels good. It shows that we can be dynamic together,” Nyarko said. “Either one of us can play that pass, we can use our pace to get behind defenders.  It’s a great team win today, we really fought hard.  It was a nervy end but everyone worked hard to get this one.”
Fire weather the storm
Toronto narrowly missed tying up the game and picking up their first point of the season three times in the last 30 minutes.
The first chance came in the 63rd minute off the foot of Torsten Frings, who beat Fire goalkeeper Sean John but fired his shot just past the post. Ryan Johnson had a wide open chance in front of the goal but hit the post on a header. Moments later he clipped an open look wide of the far post.
Sean Johnson was grateful the Fire were able to squeak by.
“I think it was an immense amount of concentration,” Johnson said. “We battled and we battled we got to 13 minutes left I turned to Jalil [Anibaba] and told him that we are just going to have to weather the storm and to fight through this battle. It’s not going to be pretty, they are going to push numbers forward and we will have to deal with the numbers.”