Chicago Fire players starting to think postseason
With five games left in the Chicago Fire's regular season and a playoff berth all but certain, the players are beginning to let themselves look ahead a little bit.
"We can start mentally getting ready to treat I think these five games like they are playoff games, mentally getting ready for it," said Fire midfielder Dax McCarty after practice Tuesday. "We haven't clinched anything yet, so I don't think we can take any of that granted.
"Obviously, with a couple of good results in a row now we're feeling pretty comfortable about making the playoffs. Now it's about positioning. We want to get a first-round bye, so, like I said, these next five games for us, from our perspective, are playoff games."
Coach Veljko Paunovic, not surprisingly, is looking only toward Saturday's game at Philadelphia (6 p.m., CSN-Plus). It's too soon for him to think about the club's first playoff appearance since 2012.
"It is until we get there mathematically and until we get the best possible spot in the playoffs," he said.
The Fire (14-9-6, 48 points) is in third place in the Eastern Conference. The top two teams get first-round byes, with No. 3 playing No. 6 in a one-game knockout round and No. 4 meeting No. 5.
If the playoffs were today, the Fire would host sixth-place New York Red Bulls (12-10-6, 42 points) in the knockout round Oct. 25 or Oct. 26 at Toyota Park.
If the Fire wins the knockout game it would play second-place New York City FC in the conference semifinals Oct. 30 or Oct. 31 - but the Fire trails NYCFC (15-8-6, 51 points) by only 3 points in the standings, close enough to make a run at the No. 2 seed.
The missing man formation:
Central midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger missed practice again to work in the stadium training facility with club medical personnel, hoping to rehab a leg injury in time for Saturday's match. Schweinsteiger has missed the last two games.
"We are evaluating now on a daily basis. Still the same thing we said as in the past," coach Veljko Paunovic said.
"Him being out is another opportunity for someone else to step up and prove that they deserve to be on the field and can help us," Dax McCarty added.
Central midfielder Juninho also missed training again with a knee injury.
If Schweinsteiger and Juninho are not available Saturday, as seems likely, second-year pro Drew Conner, a homegrown player from Cary, probably will get the start alongside McCarty again.
Conner had the secondary assist on Brandon Vincent's diving header, the Fire's second goal in a 3-0 victory over D.C. United on Saturday.
"I thought Drew was fantastic," McCarty said. "I thought he played really well. I thought it took our whole team a little while to get into the game, started really slow for 10, 15 minutes there. But once he settled in and once he got involved in the game, I thought he helped the game for us in a big way.
"Defensively, he covered a lot of ground, he won a lot of duels, won a lot of tackles. And then when we had the ball he was a calming presence. He was a guy that kept it simple.
"I always tell Drew he's got a lot of talent, but when he keeps it simple and plays in the middle of the field, that's when he's going to help our team the most. Just keeping possession, moving the ball from side to side, and he was a part of the buildup on the second goal."