Rolfe goal gives Fire early jump

In reshaping his attack for Thursday night's playoff opener with D.C. United, Chicago Fire coach Juan Carlos Osorio wanted Chris Rolfe playing forward -- very forward.

"I wanted to play Chris Rolfe farther up the pitch, hoping that we could get him in the same position we had been having with Paulo (Wanchope) and Chad (Barrett)," Osorio said. "Without taking anything from those two, Chris Rolfe is the best finisher we have."

Rolfe proved just what kind of finisher he can be in the 14th minute of the Eastern Conference semifinal in front of 17,834 at Toyota Park.

Gonzalo Segares sent a long ball toward the top of the D.C. United penalty area. Barrett rose with United defenders and the ball went off one of the defenders' heads.

Rolfe never stopped running, took the ball and beat Troy Perkins for the game's only goal.

"As a forward, for the majority of the time, the ball's coming to you in the air," Rolfe said. "I was just anticipating some sort of bounce coming my way, and fortunately it went right to me."

Rolfe said he didn't see whom the ball glanced off of before he reached it with only Perkins to beat.

"I was just trying to anticipate," he said. "Those guys went up for the ball and they left me alone. It was great."

The 1-0 victory gives the Fire a slim margin heading into Thursday's second match in the two-legged semifinal series. The series will be decided on overall goals scored in the two matches.

"I thought it was a good result at home," said Fire captain and defensive midfielder Chris Armas. "It's not a given. You always say you want to win at home. But you've still got to put it away."

Scoring chances were limited for both teams, though the Fire had a brief spell immediately after Rolfe's goal when it appeared a second goal might come. Cuauhtemoc Blanco had a shot saved by Perkins in the 18th minute.

"If we want to go to the conference final, it's going to have to be enough," Armas said. "You'd like to get a few more, but it is what it is. We could be headed to D.C. being level. Even if we'd have scored 2, we'd know how good we'd have to be in D.C."

Even before Rolfe scored, the Fire applied a tight defense on D.C. United's high-powered attack. Through the entire 90 minutes, the visitors never had a clear scoring chance on the Fire goal.

"It's an interesting mind-set going into the game," Armas said. "You want to get the result, especially the first goal. So it's very important to keep it tight, but it's easier said than done."

D.C. United started with Jaime Moreno and Luciano Emilio on the bench. Moreno came on at halftime, while Emilio played the final 12 minutes. Those players, along with Fred, Ben Olsen and the other attacking United players were mostly kept quiet throughout the match.

"It's not a secret that we played against a good attacking team, the best in the league," Osorio said. "It's a very difficult team to play against. And we limited them to very few chances. I'm very pleased with the defensive side of things."

The increasing defensive concentration made things difficult for the team's forwards. Substitute Calen Carr chipped just wide in the 69th minute with the last strong scoring chance of the match.

"It was very difficult for us," Rolfe said. "(D.C.) has a great attack and they're a great possession team. Especially after the goal, we made sure we kept everything in front of us and we could counter."