'Topsy turvy' Fire drops second straight

The Chicago Fire remains a mystery, even to itself.

Is it the club that won three consecutive home games, taking advantage of an opponent's red card in each?

Or is it the team that fell 2-1 at Toyota Park on Saturday to Real Salt Lake, taking its second consecutive defeat?

Even coach Frank Yallop had to admit afterward this season has been "topsy turvy."

Scoring remains a sore spot for the Fire (3-5-0, 9 points).

It's not a good sign that the only Fire player with 2 goals this season is center back Jeff Larentowicz. The captain stepped up in the 88th minute to convert a penalty kick and cut the Real Salt Lake lead in half.

"It tells you that a few of us have all scored rather than one main person scoring 5-6 goals," Fire designated player Shaun Maloney said of Larentowicz breaking a six-way tie at 1 goal apiece. "It just basically means that probably we are lacking that person that is prolific. If you look at the other teams in the league, there's generally one person that strikes 6-7 goals. I think one of us in the forward areas is really going to have to step up."

The question remains, is that person in Chicago?

"There's players here," Maloney continued. "We get Mike Magee hopefully back (in June). We've got good enough players. It's just now going out and doing it."

The Larentowicz penalty kick ended a Fire scoreless streak of 248 minutes.

Scoring had been a sore spot for Real Salt Lake. It hadn't scored a goal for itself since April 5. RSL broke that drought with Alvaro Saborio's goal from the top of the penalty area in the 13th minute. RSL's Luke Mulholland added another for good measure in the 56th for a 2-0 lead.

"I wasn't happy with the first-half performance," Yallop said. "I just thought our energy wasn't there like the last three home games we've had. I told them at halftime we have to pick it up. I felt the effort in the end was kind of there, but it was kind of too late."

The Fire heads to New York City FC on Friday hoping looking to break its losing streak.

Larentowicz isn't concerned the Fire is on a downward slope to match or exceed its season-opening three-game losing streak.

"No, not at all. No, I don't think so," he said. "The belief is there. It's just the result and the product isn't. At times we're a little naive in thinking that we're better than we are. We're playing better. We're together as a group. This week and last week are lessons that we have to learn from to move forward."