Fire desperately in need of 3 points this weekend
The Fire is undefeated, but it's in a slump.
Brian McBride, who leads MLS with 5 goals, was voted by the North American Soccer Reporters as the league's Player of the Month for April, but the Fire (2-0-5, 11 points) hasn't won a game in a month.
The team has looked great - except for a few momentary lapses when it allows goals you wouldn't expect a professional team to allow.
Confused yet? Concerned?
So are Fire technical director Frank Klopas, coach Denis Hamlett and all the players.
"We've been a little frustrated," veteran midfielder Logan Pause said after Tuesday's practice. "We feel like we've been playing some really good soccer, we just haven't gotten the results. We're looking at a lot of tape and trying to fix things a little bit, but some of it is just the ball bouncing one way or another. Some of it is just lack of concentration.
"It's still early in the season, and obviously we're still unbeaten, which we're happy about, but we need to start turning some of these ties into wins."
If you feel like you've read that quote before - with all due respect to Pause, a true professional on a team with several of them - it's basically the same thing the players and coaches have said the past few weeks. A frequent refrain has been how these recent ties feel like losses because of missed opportunities.
The team has fallen to third in the Eastern Conference standings, tied for fifth overall.
Something has to change.
Chris Rolfe has become the team's super sub, but he's aching to get back in the starting lineup, and not just because it's a contract year for him. Who thought a guy called into the national team camp in January wouldn't be able to crack the First XI in MLS?
In Brandon Prideaux, Dasan Robinson and C.J. Brown, the Fire has three proven defenders on the bench, all former starters eager to be called on.
Hamlett admitted there could be changes in the lineup Saturday night when the New England Revolution visits, but they would have more to do with injuries. Gonzalo Segares is day-to-day, but at least he didn't break his leg last weekend against Seattle as Hamlett first thought. Cuauhtémoc Blanco missed Tuesday's practice with a contusion to his right leg, but he's expected back Wednesday. Defender Wilman Conde missed practice to attend to "issues," Hamlett said, "nothing serious."
"It could be a combination," Hamlett said of why a lineup change might happen. "The injuries are always the No. 1, to make sure a recovery is on the end of it, and then obviously you might say, 'Hey, you do need to shake it up,' because now you've gotten in a situation where you've got two results that are not as favorable as what you would want.
"That's not to say the team has been playing bad. It just might be now that we feel a guy is a little sharper and a little hungrier and might bring something different to the team, then maybe you do make that change. But it's only Tuesday, so we'll beat it out on Wednesday and Thursday and then make that decision."
So far the only change has been at the backup goalkeeper spot, where Andrew Dykstra replaced Nick Noble on Saturday night. Neither is likely to unseat starter Jon Busch anytime soon.
Regardless, with three straight road games looming after this Saturday's game against struggling New England, "Three points this weekend is a must for us," Pause said.
"You have that feeling of taking your foot off the gas a little bit, which we need to fix and become a harder team to break down. At least we're not playing bad soccer and giving up goals. We're playing good soccer and giving up those goals, which is not a good thing, but there's not a whole lot we need to fix."