Fire can’t find way to get win

The Fire just can’t seem to get that song out of its head.

“I’m really disappointed,” Fire midfielder Dominic Oduro said. “We went into this game really, really motivated to get 3 points. But at the end of the day we didn’t lose the game.”

Another tie — 2-2 against the visiting San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night — means the Fire (1-4-6, 9 points) has gone a club-tying nine games without a win, a streak dating two months. The Fire can’t seem to make it stop, no matter what it does.

“It’s heavy, it’s painful,” forward Diego Chaves said. “We want to win every game. We can’t do it. We’re just on a really bad streak, and we have to turn it over right now.”

How do they do that?

“Working.”

It’s the same thing players and coaches have said since the streak began. There’s nothing else they can do, nothing else they can say. The beat goes on.

The problem, said coach Carlos de los Cobos, is balance and concentration. In other words the team has to stop allowing bad goals, which at this point pretty much means any goals. They’ll work on that.

“At some moments we are playing good,” de los Cobos said. “The team is not playing bad. But it’s difficult to make a conclusion when you have sometimes good moments in the game. But in the other way you have these distractions sometimes. When you have these problems you don’t deserve to win.”

“As a unit, yes, those things that needs to stop, and we need to take ownership over it,” veteran defender Cory Gibbs said. “It’s got to stop. Every game it’s something else. It’s a sad position we’re in. We can’t afford to give up those kinds of chances and be distracted.”

Twice the Fire had these problems Saturday night, on an Anthony Ampaipitakwong corner kick to Ramiro Corrales and an Ampaipitakwong cross to Chris Wondolowski, both for headers tucked neatly inside the far post.

Those Earthquakes goals were answered by Fire goals by Dominic Oduro, who cleaned up when a Cristian Nazarit shot hit both posts and popped out front, and a diving Gibbs header. All the scoring came in the second half.

“It’s really disappointing, to the team, to the fans, to the whole organization,” Oduro said. “But at the end of the day, it is what it is and we just have to work hard, I guess.”

Boy, would they like to change their tune.

oschwarz@dailyherald.com