William Hesmer makes career-high 11 saves as Crew tie Fire 0-0
By APSunday, July 12, 2009
Hesmer’s 11 saves give Crew 0-0 tie with Fire
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — William Hesmer made a career-high 11 saves to help the Columbus Crew to a scoreless draw with the Chicago Fire on Saturday night at Toyota Park.
The goalkeeper’s performance for the Crew (5-3-9) came one week after he had 10 saves in a 1-all tie against D.C. United. In his third game back from knee and back injuries that forced him to miss nine contests, Hesmer came one save shy of equaling the Crew record held by Brad Friedel (1996), Mark Dougherty (1999) and current Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch (2004).
Busch made four saves for Chicago (6-3-7), which moved into first place in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of Columbus and idle D.C. United.
The tie extended the Fire’s home winless streak to a team-record six games (0-2-4) since a 1-0 win against New York on April 5.
In the 25th minute, Hesmer made three saves in rapid succession. First, he stopped a point-blank attempt by Fire midfielder Marco Pappa along the end line. He followed that by tipping away Brian McBride’s header bound for the upper-left corner.
Hesmer then deflected a direct corner kick headed toward the goal by Chicago’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
Story from: STATS LLC, www.stats.com.
