Another draw 'defines' struggling Fire's season

For the fourth time in the past five seasons, the Chicago Fire will not advance to the Major League Soccer playoffs.

Let that sink in for a while.

Sunday afternoon's 0-0 draw against the Montreal Impact - the league-record 18th draw of the Fire's season - only made official what has been obvious for many weeks.

That's not the message the Fire (5-8-18, 33 points) wants so desperately for fans to hear, but it's a fact no high-priced downtown public relations firm can overcome.

"It's never a good thing, because you start working in January from preseason in preparations for the postseason," veteran defender Lovel Palmer said. "Whenever it ends early, it hurts. But all in all I have to lift my hat to the guys. We've been battling all season. We fought every single game trying to find results, trying to find ways to win games. Unfortunately, we didn't win as much games as we wanted to."

The three remaining games on the Fire's regular-season schedule will be solely for players to audition to come back next year and as a sendoff for retiring midfielder Logan Pause.

"I've been looking to next year for a little bit moving forward here," Fire coach Frank Yallop admitted. "Tonight's game, it defines our season, if you like. Not quite good enough to win the game but kind of did OK in the match."

The Fire's usual late-season playoff push never materialized this season because victories never materialized. The opportunity to seize on World Cup fever came and went while the Fire languished in ninth place in the Eastern Conference.

It's been a disappointing season all the way around for the Fire. Attendance has been so-so. Coverage in local newspapers has fallen off. The local television stations, never regulars in Bridgeview, can't seem to find 71st and Harlem with a GPS.

But then the team hasn't given them a reason to make the trip. The Fire never signed the type of player who earns attention.

"If you look at our team, we need some difference-makers in our lineup," Yallop said. "That's the difference between a tie and a win, and I think that's the big thing that we are missing. We couldn't quite get over the hump in a lot of our games."

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