A "Second-Half Team"?

The graphic on the screen during the Fire-Real Salt Lake match made the claim that the Fire are dangerous in the second half, because they have scored 10 of 16 goals after the halftime whistle.

Now, you can make the case that they are, in fact, more dangerous in the second half than in the first half, we're talking about an average of less than one goal per game here. After Saturday's match, the Fire have 18 goals in 19 matches, tying them for 11th in the 13 team league. That's not dangerous. At all.

The lack of offense, unfortunately, seems to have returned after a brief glimmer of hope in Blanco's first matches with Chicago. That may seem counterintuitive in a 2-0 victory, but the Fire in the run of play were terribly unimaginative, playing ineffective long balls up to new signing Paolo Wanchope instead of trying to pass the ball through the midfield. This effectively neutered much of the wing play that had been so encouraging in head coach Juan Carlos Osorio's first couple of matches. Save for one nice cross that Chris Rolfe almost headed into the back of the net in the first half, Ivan Guerrero looked as ineffective as he has in some of his poorer efforts this season.

No complaints about the goals themselves, though. Playing hack-a-Blanco might have given Real Salt Lake pause at the end of the first half, as they gave him far too much space just outside the box off of a throw-in so as not to get whistled for a free kick in a dangerous spot, and the Mexican midfielder made them pay with a brilliant volley. Then Wanchope muscled his way in on a corner kick to connect with the cross from Blanco in the second half to salvage what had been a fairly lackluster first start for the striker.

Back to the broadcast, though. I still blame Eric Wynalda for making sideline reporter Chris Doran sound almost completely ridiculous. When Wynalda first joined ESPN, he took on a hybrid role as a "sideline analyst," eschewing the normal third-man fluff for a bit more insight. Doran has taken this to heart a bit too much, with one of the by-products being that he doesn't actually ask coaches questions when he gets a few minutes with them on the sideline. He just makes observations and leaves them there, interrogative-free, for the coaches to agree or disagree with. It's kind of awkward, and maybe a little bit needy.

Then, suddenly, he'll flip into total cheerleader mode, gushing to Chris Rolfe in a halftime interview that the Fire's offensive combinations were, inexplicably, "incredible." If the view from field level is that much different than that on TV, I think maybe it explains why coaches, referees and now broadcasters make such seemingly unbelievable decisions.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there's a new, young, Columbian central defender reportedly on his way to the club that should help fill the gap left by injuries to rookie Osei Telesford and veteran Jim Curtin. Hopefully this will send Gonzalo Segares to the bench and not C.J. Brown.