Not satisfied with first place, Fire says it can play better
They're in first place in the Eastern Conference at the midpoint of the Major League Soccer season, but you won't catch any Fire players standing on top of Toyota Park, howling with joy.
These players and coaches believe in their hearts they're a better team than they've shown, and while it's nice to be even with D.C. United at 24 points, the Fire still hasn't reached any of its team goals.
"It was filled with ups and downs, you know?" Fire defender Bakary Soumare said of the first half of the season. "There were some games I thought we played really well. Sometimes we were happy with the results and other times it was a bad thing. Overall I think we did OK."
Soumare wasn't the only one striking a sober tone Tuesday.
"We have a very talented group, so by no means are we content," midfielder/forward Chris Rolfe said. "I think that we can still be better than we're showing. My expectations? We're in first place, so that's something that I expected, but we have the talent that if we put it together the right way, we can do even better."
"(We're) not disappointed," coach Denis Hamlett added. "Given what we have here we feel that it should be better. But at the same time we're in first place with two games in hand. We hold a high bar that we hold ourselves accountable to every day."
The team is 6-3-6, having played two fewer games than D.C. United. Columbus, which visits Saturday night, and Toronto are close behind, each having played 16 of their 30 regular-season games already.
While it's done fine on the road, the Fire hasn't defended its home turf very well, going a measly 1-2-3. Nine of the remaining 15 games are at Toyota Park.
"We're going to try to win more games at home," Soumare said. "We're going to try to get our home record to be better than that. We're going to try and get as many points as we can so we don't have to fight the last few weeks of the season, try to clinch a playoff spot early."
While the attack has done well - not great, but well - the defense has given up 20 goals.
"We all know it should be better, especially our record at home. In terms of defensively, we're giving up too many goals," Hamlett said. "These are things that we've talked about in the last week that we want to make sure we correct for the second part of the season."
Another reason the Fire isn't gloating is because it's a long way from the league's top spot. Houston is setting the pace with 31 points, followed by Chivas USA and Seattle Sounders FC. The Fire falls to fourth on the league table.
"We want to finish in first place," Rolfe said. "I personally would love to win a Supporters Shield. I know the fans would love to see that too. We definitely want to win the SuperLiga and MLS Cup. Those are obvious goals, but in order to get to those it's a daily process. You come to work and figure out what we can improve on every day. That's really what it comes down to."
Don't expect the Fire to make any big personnel moves in the summer transfer window. In fact, it might not make any moves at all.
"You're always looking to see how you can improve your team, but we have a good group of guys so far that have shown a commitment to work hard, so we don't feel there's a big need to get a player to go out and help us, but we're always looking," Hamlett said. "That's nothing to send alarms to our guys. It's just part of the business."
oschwarz@dailyherald.com