Chicago Fire suffers 2nd loss

Saturday's Chicago Fire loss was about quality players.

The Montreal Impact has them, the Fire still doesn't.

Didier Drogba and Ignacio Piatti each scored a second-half goal and the first-place Impact (4-2-0, 12 points) came from behind to defeat the Fire 2-1 Saturday at Toyota Park. The loss showed just how far the Fire still has to go to repair its roster.

"There is a long way to go," Fire coach Veljko Paunovic said. "We have to learn from these games. We have to learn how to play when we have a lead and we also have to learn to take advantage of the opportunities that we create. We have to mature."

The Fire (1-2-3, 6 points) managed a meager 2 shots on goal and just 41.8 percent possession. Alarming stats like those are trending for this team.

"Working on that," Paunovic said. "Training, practicing. Always talking about it, having meetings. Obviously, we have to improve on that."

More practice will only take the Fire so far. This team needs the kind of difference-makers the Impact has, but they're not likely to arrive this season.

"It's nice to have a player like him," former Fire midfielder Harry Shipp said of Drogba, now his Montreal teammate. "It gives you confidence. At the end, no matter what the score is, there's always a chance we're going to come back in the game. You bring Didier back, there's a sense that we're going to win games at the end, and I was at the wrong end of those the last couple of years here, and it's really nice to be on the winning end."

When the Fire traded Shipp to Montreal in February, it traded one of its few skilled attacking players.

A self-described "role player" in Montreal, more would have been expected of Shipp if he had stayed in Chicago.

With speedy midfielder David Accam missing his fourth consecutive game due to a knee strain, the Fire are left with only Kennedy Igboananike and Gilberto as true attack-minded players.

Igboananike scored his team-leading third goal of the season in the 29th minute off an assist from Gilberto. But Gilberto's touch betrayed him most of the game, and the striker has yet to score this season. In five games he has 11 shots, 2 on goal.

Drogba has a goal in just 60 minutes this season. Piatti has 4 goals.

"I think we gave our best," Igboananike said. "Everybody did well. It's just our mistakes, they took advantage of it."

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