In Fire We Trust?

If there was a single infuriating element to the Chicago Fire in Sunday's 0-0 draw against Real Salt Lake, it was the abject lack of movement off the ball. I can distinctly remember two moments, one where goalkeeper Matt Pickens had the ball at his feet, and one where defenders Jeff Curtin and CJ Brown were knocking the ball back and forth between each other at the edge of the defensive third.

Both times, every other Fire player was standing still. They looked like an abandoned foosball table.

I think this may shed a lot of light on what is so wrong with this team right now. If you don't make a run to get open, I think a lot of the time it's because you don't think you're going to get rewarded for that run. You don't trust your teammates to find you. Or to support you if they do find you, as evidenced by the lack of bodies in the box when somebody, anybody, makes a run to the end line.

This is the same thing that happens on defense. If you've got a chance to win a tackle, but it's only a chance, you've got to know that there's help behind you if you miss. If you stop believing that your teammates have your back, you start to play more conservatively, and that snowballs into giving attackers too much space to operate.

I don't think this team believes in each other, at least to the point where they play as a team. There's very little "telepathy" between teammates, where they instinctively know where they're going to be and exploit that knowledge. Maybe they need to start practicing blindfolded, or something like that. Maybe they need one of those corporate team-building exercises where you fall backwards knowing someone will catch you. They clearly need something.

With a team that is both hemorrhaging goals and not scoring them at the other end, Dave Sarachan seems to have taken the predictably safe route by switching from three to four players in the back, looking to stop the bleeding first. Unfortunately, by addressing the problems one at a time, Sarachan is making the second problem worse. We don't need more defense, we need better defense. We need trust.

Were there any bright spots on Sunday? I thought Willian Oliveira showed some signs of inventiveness, although he needs to not be quite as lazy on the ball. That may just be the difference between training speed and game speed. On the right side of the field, the combination of Logan Pause, Brian Plotkin and Chad Barrett looked like the telepathy might still be possible, particularly with Pause releasing Barrett on a couple of breaks at midfield. That said, Barrett needs to keep his head up and look to pass the ball a bit more in the penalty area. That he doesn't, again, points to this notion that too many guys are trying to dig us out of this hole by themselves, instead of as a team.

Defensively, I don't think we can fix anything significantly until Dasan Robinson and Osei Telesford are healthy. The change for change's sake at center back becomes problematic when those two, who would likely be your second and third choices at the position, aren't available. Gonzalo Segares does not make good decisions, and makes too many wrong passes, so the sooner we can move him to the bench, the better. I have no idea how he ended up with Man of the Match on Sunday.

I had figured that a loss to RSL would have to cost Sarachan his job, so naturally, he came as close as he could to that without explicitly setting off that trigger. Same rules apply for Columbus. If we can't beat the Crew at home, our chances of turning this season around under Dave are between slim and none. The bigger question at that point is whether or not a new coach can inspire this team to trust each other.