With MLS playoffs still in reach, Fire must pick up the pace
It doesn't take a thesaurus to sum up the first half of the Chicago Fire's season.
"Mediocre" works just fine. Throw in "enigmatic" for good measure.
The Fire has played very well at times. Just not often enough.
The Fire has played poorly at times. Fortunately, not too much.
You never know what you'll get from this team, but we know what we've gotten.
Seventeen games into a 34-game regular season, the Fire is 5-7-5 for 20 points, good for seventh place in the Eastern Conference of MLS. The top six teams qualify for the playoffs.
"For my money it's not good enough," Fire captain Dax McCarty said earlier this week. "We shouldn't be happy or satisfied with where we're at. That's something that I think in the locker room we feel that. We recognize that. ... But we also have to realize that we're right in the middle of the playoff race. We're not out of it."
Last year the New York Red Bulls earned the sixth and final spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs with 50 points. The Fire is on pace for 40 points. That's a drop from last season, when it earned the third-best regular-season record in MLS before being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
"We gave away 7, 8 points at least," German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger said. "Very simple. If you could add 7, 8 points in our standings, we would probably be a little bit more happier."
Actually, the team and its fans would be a lot happier. Unfortunately, that's not how MLS works.
"We have to feel good about the fact that we started the season poorly and we're starting to play a little bit better. And now the results just have to match the play on the field," McCarty added.
They can also feel good about reaching the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup. Considering their status as a borderline MLS playoff team, the Open Cup looks like the Fire's best chance at a trophy this season.
Injuries and a lack of impact players on the roster are the big reason the Fire enters the second half of the season needing to play catchup. On the bright side, Fire midfielders Michael de Leeuw and Lemont native Djordje Mihailovic, each of whom tore an ACL late last season, worked with their teammates at training for the first time Tuesday and hope to be available for selection sometime in July.
The team will work them into the lineup slowly and carefully. They were among eight Fire players unable to go full tilt with their teammates Tuesday due to injury.
The lack of quality will be aided by the return of de Leeuw and Mihailovic, but the Fire also needs to be busy in the summer transfer window, which opens July 10. The Fire has one more designated player spot it can fill on the roster, and another impact player or two looks like what this club needs to win its first playoff game since 2009.
The Fire also has to decide whether to extend the loan that brought Aleksandar Katai here from Spanish side Deportivo Alaves or buy his contract outright. That decision is due Saturday, but team president/general manager Nelson Rodriguez offered no guidance on the choice Tuesday.
Katai is tied for the team lead with 6 goals and also has 3 assists. The 27-year-old is the only player on the roster with the technical skills to consistently create his own shot.
Without more players like Katai, the Fire must continue to rely more on effort and character than pure skill.
"We're a never-giving-up team," Schweinsteiger said. "We came back in a lot of games."
Added coach Veljko Paunovic: "The team have more pieces to play and more guys who know and understand each other and who know how to get 3 points, how to win and how to perform."
The Fire has 17 more games to show that never-say-die attitude, starting with Saturday's home game against second-place New York City FC (7 p.m., ESPN+).