Prideaux's MLS lift coming to an end soon
This is no time for Brandon Prideaux to look ahead, but occasionally he can't help it.
After 11 seasons in MLS, Prideaux will retire when the Fire is finished this fall.
"I hate to use the old cliché, but I'm just looking at this next game against New England and trying not to think about the big picture. If you look too far ahead, then you forget about what to do on a day-to-day basis, so I'm just going out and training hard and trying to get better every day.
"From time to time I think about retirement, but I try not to let it consume me and I'm just kind of focusing on what I can do to get better."
Prideaux will become an assistant coach at the University of Washington, his alma mater.
"It's bittersweet," Prideaux added. "I'm looking forward to a new challenge, but at the same time I'm going to miss the guys and coming out and competing every day, and the games. Everything, I'll miss it for sure."
Prideaux has been a solid and sometimes spectacular defender and hard-nosed competitor whose teams always seemed to win, including MLS Cups in 2000 with Kansas City and 2004 with D.C. United. He's a pro's pro, the kind of player who forms the backbone of MLS.
The latest must-win match: The must-win matches to take the Supporters' Shield and Eastern Conference title have come and gone without wins. Now the Fire is down to must-win matches to qualify for the playoffs, get a good seed and get some momentum. The team comes off a bye week with two games left, this Saturday night at old rival New England, and then Thursday, Oct. 22, at home against Chivas USA.
"They're a good, quality team," Prideaux said of New England. "They've played pretty much the same way for years and years. They like to get the ball wide and swing crosses in. They'll work hard, and you know they'll just give the effort out there, so it'll be a tough game."
It looks like the Fire will have Chris Rolfe and backup defender Daniel Woolard back from injury. Cuauhtemoc Blanco's status will depend on whether he plays Wednesday night for Mexico in a World Cup qualifier at Trinidad and Tobago. John Thorrington, Gonzalo Segares and Tim Ward remain out, with Segares looking like he might be the first to return from that group if there are no more setbacks.
Four teams - Columbus in the East and Chivas USA, Houston and Los Angeles in the West - have filled the league's eight playoff spots.
"Throughout the whole league there are big games this weekend," coach Denis Hamlett said. "Every game has implications, Wednesday night's game through Sunday night's game."
On to South Africa: It didn't win a lot of style points along the way, but the U.S. national team qualified Saturday night for its sixth consecutive World Cup with a 3-2 victory at upstart Honduras.
Fortunately, style points are irrelevant, and when they're going to Central America the players probably spend more time thinking about survival and dodging all the debris being thrown at them than putting on a show for the fans back home.
Now the United States can relax for the final qualifier - against Costa Rica, 7 p.m. Wednesday in Washington, D.C., on ESPN2 and Galavision - and start planning for a trip to South Africa in June.
It's been a busy year for coach Bob Bradley, for whom Wednesday's match will be a team record 22nd in 2009. There was the stirring run to the Confederations Cup final in June, followed by the run to the Gold Cup final, not to mention World Cup qualifying. The year isn't over yet. U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday the Yanks will play fellow World Cup-qualifier Denmark in a friendly Nov. 18 in Denmark.
After that the Americans can look forward to the December announcement of the World Cup's first-round pairings.
Get your thumbs ready: The Fire will host the North American launch of EA Sports' FIFA 10 video game Monday, the day before the game goes on sale, at the Best Buy store in the John Hancock Building in Chicago. Midfielder Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who is featured on the game packaging, will be on hand to sign autographs. More than 1.7 million copies of the game were sold in Europe in the first week it was available, making the game the fastest-selling video game ever.
oschwarz@dailyherald.com