Red-hot Fire faces another test at Houston
The Fire isn’t just rolling into Houston for Tuesday night’s Major League Soccer match.
It’s rolling, period.
A three-game winning streak, capped by Friday’s victory at Sporting Kansas City, confirms the Fire (8-5-3, 27 points) is playing its best soccer of the season heading into Houston (7:30 p.m., NBC Nonstop).
“We try not to think about it,” midfielder Patrick Nyarko said. “We’re really locked in and figuring out what’s going right for us and trying to accomplish that every game.”
Goalkeeper Sean Johnson garnered player of the week consideration for his performance at Kansas City, Marco Pappa is playing up to his potential, Chris Rolfe is just what the doctor ordered, and Arne Friedrich is back from injury to help out the back line.
“It’s been awhile since we won a game like that,” captain Logan Pause said of Friday’s 1-0 result. “This was just a total grind. … Listen, those are games when you need guys to step up, and Sean single-handedly won us that game.”
Houston presents a formidable challenge for the Fire. It’s undefeated at its new home, BBVA Compass Stadium, and it’s right behind the fourth-place Fire in the Eastern Conference standings with 23 points.
Pause cited the recent international break in the schedule for getting the Fire motivated.
“We came out ahead of that two-week break hungry, losing a couple of games,” Pause said. “The work we put in every single day doesn’t always show in the standings.
“I think what we’re starting to see is we kind of catch up, where we’re starting to become more familiar with each other. we’re becoming more confident in each other and more comfortable, and it’s paying off in results. Guys are really buying in to what we’re doing.”
For a second straight game the Fire will play without midfielder Sebastian Grazzini, whose contract option the team picked up last week to finish the season.
“He still has some personal issues he’s got to deal with, so he’s not traveling,” Klopas said.
“He adds different qualities,” Pause said of the playmaker. “We use the different personnel that we have in different ways, and I think Chris Rolfe came in and played underneath and did a great job for us.
“That’s kind of what it’s like. You need to be able to count on different guys for whatever reason.”
The Fire will host defending MLS Cup champion Los Angeles Galaxy in a nationally televised game Sunday at Toyota Park before a big crowd. Other than making sure players are as rested and healthy as possible, the Fire doesn’t want to look ahead to Sunday (2 p.m., ESPN).
“We can’t think ahead,” Klopas said, more concerned about conference foe Houston. “It’s a difficult match (Tuesday). We’ll have enough time to regroup for Sunday and prepare for that. Now just our main focus is on Houston.”