Five Passes That Restored My Faith In The Fire

At about 1:20 of the video. This 10-second sequence was the best offense the Fire have put together in two and a half years, even if it didn't result in a goal.

On Sunday, the Fire were once again entertaining to watch. The easy answer is that Cuauhtemoc Blanco made all the difference, but I think it's a combination of a couple of things:

• First, Blanco is a big part of it. I was bitching a few weeks ago about how no one on the Fire seemed to be able to "read" the game more than five or ten yards past where they were standing. Blanco stretched Celtic's defense, getting wide when he needed to, and showing for the ball in the middle of the field whenever he could, opening up runs for other guys on the team that simply haven't been there lately. He's got that soccer IQ we've been so sorely lacking.
• The other lazy analysis is that Juan Carlos Osorio has waved some kind of magic wand. Again, this is only partially true. One of the biggest hindrances to the Fire's offense lately has been the inability for players to get forward and support the attack. Osorio has switched to three in the back, and seems to have given the wing midfielders more license to get forward. Add Blanco to that mix, and you've got better possession in the middle of the field and much better support. Chad Barrett still takes too long to pass the ball, but at least now he's got someone to pass to.
• Part of that wing support has been new signing Bruno Menezes. The kid has some speed and can cross the ball. Ivan Guerrero also seems to be finding his form and picking his spots better. Heck, even Logan Pause looked dangerous offensively in the first fifteen minutes of the second half, despite the insistence of the BigSoccer know-it-all's that he's of no value whatsoever.
• As an aside, that stretch of the second half made me realize something about Pause. Players like him only look as good or as bad as the guys around him, because they are tasked with doing the dirty work and plugging the holes. If the team is performing badly, there are a lot of holes, and Pause ends up having to try to clean up too many messes. He's stuck in the context of broken plays. When the team is performing well, it allows him to be a bit more proactive instead of reactive, and he's a smart enough player to be able to do that effectively. He just hasn't had a lot of chances.

We could be set up for a late-season run of New England-esque proportion, especially if the rumored signing of Paolo Wanchope comes through.

As to what this Sunday teaser says about the Dave Sarachan era, it doesn't really change much from my previous opinion. Sarachan was simply too loyal to his guys, which meant not dealing for more dynamic players who could read the game faster and more effectively, and back-loading starting lineups based on that loyalty that were positionally unable to support a dangerous attack. The pre-season gamble on the forward corps (corpse?) of Chris Rolfe, Chad Barrett and Calen Carr was a disaster, and the result is where we are now.

There's still time to make up for those losses, though. We'll see if Sunday's spark leads to, well, a roaring Fire.