Glad I Asked

I have a media credential for the Chicago Fire. I think this was meant as a consolation prize from the front office after they spiked my column on the team's website, which they did after I had finally reached an agreement (that had been approved at the highest levels of the organization) to be paid for what had been a volunteer effort previously, but that's not really the point.

The point is that I have a credential, and not a lot to do with it other than park in the media lot and grab a bite to eat in the press box before games. So, with the announcement of new head coach Juan Carlos Osorio, I decided it would interesting to start going to the post-game press conferences to see what he had to say. And, let's be honest, because I could.

I originally wanted to be a fly on the wall, but if you know me, you know that never happens in any sort of interactive environment. After the 2-0 win over Kansas City, all the questions were about Blanco, so I figured I'd throw something out there to balance the discussion. I asked Osorio how he felt about Paolo Wanchope's contributions and performance, both in this game and in general.

His answer was exactly what I wanted to hear, and something I've said a million times. While he'd obviously be happier if Wanchope -- and Chris Rolfe -- were getting goals, he would much rather they get in dangerous positions and not score than not even get any good chances, so he's happy with both of them. Granted, I didn't see either of them getting much in the way of chances in this match, but I tend to defer to someone who knows the game better than I do.

And I don't want to be too tough on the press covering the coach, but it seemed like the Fire coach wanted to talk about the flow of the game despite no one asking him about it. Osorio stated very clearly that he wasn't happy with the team's play in the first half, and that he took his players to task in the halftime locker room and was pleased with the results after the break. Given the amount of speculation that used to go on about what Dave Sarachan may or may not have been telling his players in terms of adjustments, I thought it was revealing that Osorio made such an effort to communicate this amidst all the Blanco questions.

Osorio also took a pretty tough shot at Lothar Mattheus in describing how Blanco is fitting in with the team and not looking down at his teammates because he considers himself a superstar, drawing a comparison to Osorio's time with the MetroStars. No one picked up on that in the articles that followed the match, at least the ones I saw.

I'm a little worried that I overstepped my boundaries by participating in the press conference, but I also think that I was doing some kind of service in broadening the conversation and maybe giving someone in the "real" media something else to write about -- and Luis Arroyave picked up Osorio's answer to my question in his story on the game.

As for the game itself, I thought Kansas City had a pretty clear strategy going forward in the second half, using combinations between Sasha Victorine and Michael Harrington to try to unzip the right side of our formation, while trying to isolate Eddie Johnson in what KC skipper Curt Onalfo surely saw as a mismatch between Johnson and either Diego Gutierrez or Ivan Guerrero, but those tactics didn't do the trick before the Fire turned the tide in the second half.

I'm still a little worried that the outside midfielders are falling back to their old habits of not getting up into the attack quickly enough, but the result moots that point just a bit. And I would not be surprised if rookie Bakary Soumare loses his starting role any day now. His passing has been bad -- overhitting balls in the air and consistently putting balls on the ground either behind his teammates or straight into double-coverage -- while his penchant for dribbling out of the penalty area is downright scary. Plus, his tackles are reaching a Gonzalo Segares-level of recklessness. I was joined by former GM Peter Wilt for a stretch of the second half, and suggested that Soumare needs some reserve team minutes. Wilt countered that, unfortunately, Soumare really needs first team minutes, and that we just need to be patient and sort of suffer through his growing pains. Point taken.