During a weekend at home in Richmond, Chicago Fire midfielder Patrick Nyarko couldn’t keep his mind off of soccer.
Sitting at home in front of the television, his thoughts would flash to a mistake he had made during the two-week stretch before, when the Fire lost four of five games. He’d be lying in bed, and he’d think of a run he made or a pass that went awry. He also thought about how he’d tweak his play while hamstring and hip injuries bother him.
“I haven’t been myself the last few weeks,†Nyarko told MLSsoccer.com after the weekend off. “I have a pretty good mental image of how the game goes, all my touches, I have it in my head. I always go for the bad ones and try to correct them.â€
Nyarko’s cerebral approach paid off.
On Sunday, the Ghanaian midfielder cut up the New York defense in the Fire’s 3-1 win, notching a goal and an assist. And he hardly put a foot wrong all match.
Nyarko scored in the fourth minute of the game, leaping over defender Roy Miller to connect with a Sebastián Grazzini cross. His powerful header looped across the goal and into the top corner, well out of goalkeeper Ryan Meara’s reach.
In the 81st minute, Nyarko blew by Heath Pearce and made one of his patented runs to the endline before slotting a pass across the goal mouth to a wide-open Chris Rolfe, who tapped in an easy goal.
