Fire's playoff future clearly on the line against Chivas
It's come down to this:
A win Thursday night against Chivas USA at Toyota Park (7 p.m., ESPN2) and the Fire is in the playoffs.
A draw and the Fire is in.
A loss and the Fire is sweating out the weekend, desperately hoping for some help.
This is about the fifth consecutive "must win" for the Fire. That's what happens when you go two months without a win. That's what happens when your goals go from winning the Supporters' Shield and the Eastern Conference championship (and home-field advantage for the playoffs) to just trying to at long last clinch a playoff berth.
"It's an interesting weekend for the league, that's for sure," said Fire forward Brian McBride. "With so many teams in it, I'm sure it will be a first. That part will be exciting for them. For us it's just about trying to make sure we take care of business on Thursday."
As the Talking Heads might ask, how did we get here?
"You had a good start to the season. We were playing well there for a while," Fire captain C.J. Brown said Tuesday after practice. "And not to say that we weren't playing well there toward the end of the season, but we were scoring goals when we were defensively not holding up, and then defensively we'd hold up and then not score goals."
"It's been a strange, strange season," McBride added.
No doubt about that.
Injuries have been a factor, with too many players to mention. Bakary Soumare left for France in August in a difficult divorce from the team. Toyota Park, where the Fire is just 4-4-6, has not been the team's beautiful house. And as anyone who saw Chris Rolfe get taken down by New England goalkeeper Matt Reis on Saturday knows, the referees haven't been generous to the men in red.
"We've been playing good soccer," coach Denis Hamlett insisted. "We've been victimized by bad calls by the referees. Take the last game for instance. That's a penalty kick and a red card. We just haven't had any breaks.
"We create some chances. I think we're playing good defense. So now it comes down to one game, and you're playing at home and you know that if you get a positive result you get yourself in the playoffs. We feel very good and we're looking forward to the big game on Thursday."
It is a big game. It's the regular-season finale, it's on national TV, team stalwart Chris Armas will be inducted into the Ring of Fire, and we might finally learn if the Fire is going to the playoffs or if we're watching a once-in-a-lifetime collapse.
"There's not much you can say about it because it is what is," Brown said about the team's frustration level. "You hope we have enough this next game to get ourselves in the playoffs. It would be a big disappointment if we didn't."
And if the 70th minute comes along Thursday and the Fire is trailing?
"If that's the case," McBride said, "I'm sure you'll see everybody piling forward. There's nothing to lose, is there? But we hope not to be in that position."