McBride’s goal in 78th minute gives Fire 2-2 draw

McBride’s late goal gives Fire 2-2 draw

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — Brian McBride scored in the 78th minute to lift the Chicago Fire into a 2-all tie with Toronto FC on Saturday night.

McBride netted his team-leading seventh goal by heading a shot past Toronto goalkeeper Stefan Frei after midfielder Justin Mapp found the forward alone in the box.

The draw was the Fire’s third in a row, and with 41 points, Chicago (10-6-11) is five behind Columbus for the Eastern Conference lead with three matches remaining.

Toronto (9-10-8), which had its road winless streak extended to seven matches (0-4-3), has 35 points and is two behind New England and Chivas USA for the final two wild-card berths.

The top two teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs and the four teams with the next highest point totals gain berths as wild cards.

TFC opened the scoring in the sixth minute on a goal from midfielder Dwayne De Rosario, who leads the team with 11.

The Fire, who committed just two fouls, tied the game at 1 eight minutes later on an own goal by Toronto defender Nick Garcia.

Toronto regained the lead in the opening minute of the second half, when Chad Barrett scored his fifth goal of the season on an assist from De Rosario, who got his team-high seventh assist.

Chicago is 4-4-6 at home, and played without forward Chris Rolfe, who was a late scratch after re-aggravating a left hamstring injury during warmups. He was replaced by Patrick Nyarko, who was pressuring Garcia on the own goal.

Story from: STATS LLC, www.stats.com.