What About Bob?

It's easy to get down after the Fire put out another poor effort on Friday in Kansas City. The slide from first place has been a difficult one for fans and, I would imagine, for the team itself.

And while the play hasn't been inspiring, all is certainly not lost. We can complain about the heavy road schedule resulting from conflicts at Soldier Field, but at the end of the season, I will go so far as to guarantee that the Fire have a shot at redemption. Because, in no uncertain terms, the Men in Red will make the playoffs.

Make no mistake about it, getting in might not be pretty, but we will get in. And the reason is simple. Former Fire coach Bob Bradley's Metrostars will either continue to struggle, or they won't.

It's really pretty simple. Seven of Metro's eight remaining games are against teams in front of them in the East. And while they've got firepower in front from the likes of Ante Razov, Youri Djorkaeff, Eddie Gaven and Amado Guevara, the team is still notoriously deficient in the back. Michael Bradley is promising, but not good enough to hold down the defensive midfield on his own. Jeff Agoos is getting slower by the minute. And Ryan Suarez is quite possibly the worst active defender in MLS.

As a result, New England and Kansas City should be able to beat up on Metro in each of their two matches. DC United has a good shot as well. Metro needs to win half of those six matches to keep pace with a single win by the Fire in our next five. It's not gonna happen.

On the flip side, if Bradley's side does manage to win some games, it will also be at the expense of other teams in the East, which keeps us very much in the playoff mix. Kansas City, in particular, has two against the Galaxy and one each against Dallas and New England on top of their two Metrostar tilts.

The goal, then, is for the Fire to focus on getting their collective shit together for the playoffs. That means getting healthy, getting some lineup consistency, and fixing a leaky defense that has allowed far too many goals. Winning lots of games in the stretch would certainly help, but oddly enough, it's not essential.