Chicago blanks United

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — This is no time for a slump, but that is exactly where D.C. United finds itself.

United, which posted Major League Soccer’s best regular-season record, appears vulnerable after last night’s 1-0 first-round playoff loss to the Chicago Fire in front of 17,834 at Toyota Park.

“It’s disappointing that you lose, but it’s a two-game series,” United coach Tom Soehn said. “So now you go home and you know what you have to do. And you come into our building and it’s not an easy place to play. We’re going to make it really tough on them.”

Chris Rolfe scored in the 14th minute with a laser shot from 16 yards out on a ball that was cleared from Chicago’s end and deflected through United’s defense.

It marked the second straight loss for United, which fell 3-2 to Columbus on Saturday and lost key strikers Luciano Emilio and Jaime Moreno to ankle injuries in the process.

The playoff loss is damaging but not devastating. United will play host to the second leg of the total-goals series Thursday night at 7:30 at RFK Stadium. If the teams are tied after that game, they will play a 30-minute overtime, then move on to a shootout if necessary.

“To get down a goal to that team is the last thing you want to do because they do know how to defend,” United midfielder Ben Olsen said. “It’s important for us next week to push early and get that goal early. But overall, I think we’re in good shape.”

Moreno and Emilio, who had a league-leading 20 goals in the regular season, both entered in the second half last night, but they could not make a difference.

“We knew we couldn’t run them too long, but we knew we could get something out of them,” Soehn said. “The important thing is they came out healthy.”

Guy-Roland Kpene and Christian Gomez started up front last night, but Emilio and Moreno are expected to be back to full strength for the second leg of the series, Soehn said.

Chicago controlled the midfield in the first half with tenacious pursuit and crisp passing. While the Fire outshot United only 4-3 in the half, they had more quality attempts.

Rolfe had a solid attempt from the top of the box that Troy Perkins tipped over the net in the eighth minute. Just four minutes after Rolfe’s goal, Perkins had to make a diving save on a shot from Mexican star Cuauhtemoc Blanco.

United is trying to reach the MLS Cup, which will be played Nov. 18 at RFK Stadium. An MLS championship would be United’s fifth in 12 seasons and first since 2004.

United goalkeeper Troy Perkins said there will be some extra pressure in the second game of the series, but he’s not concerned.

“We’ve got to really take it to them and do what we have to do,” he said. “We just have to go out and keep playing our game.”

United, which was 1-0-2 against the Fire during the regular season, became more aggressive in the second half but couldn’t push in a goal.

The team’s best chance came in the 67th minute, when Gomez used his head to redirect a cross but put it directly into the belly of Fire goalkeeper Matt Pickens.

The game got chippy as the minutes ticked down. United’s Brian Carroll and Moreno, and Chicago’s C.J. Brown and Diego Gutierrez drew yellow cards.

“That’s the playoffs,” said Soehn, who won the MLS cup with the Fire in 1998 and spent three seasons as an assistant in Chicago before joining United. “It’s intense, and that’s how it should be.”