Reserving A Spot In The Playoffs

In the first showdown between Cuauhtemoc Blanco and David Beckham, the clear winner was...John Thorrington?

I questioned the late season pickup on the premise that the Fire front office didn't try hard enough to acquire someone actually playing in the league today, but I'm going to have to admit that bringing Thorrington in for a second chance may have been successfully flying beneath the rest of the league's radar, if Sunday was any indication. When he entered the match for Chad Barrett, he had a greater immediate impact than a certain other midfield sub for the opposition, running his ass off and making smart plays all over the field. And, obviously, he finished his one-on-one chance, while at least three or four other Fire players missed theirs.

Now the interesting thing is to see if head coach Juan Carlos Osorio rewards Thorrington with a place in the starting lineup on Thursday in the playoffs, and at whose expense. The easy scapegoat would be Chad Barrett, who squandered more chances than the entire Galaxy team even took on Sunday, but as frustrating as Barrett may have been, Paulo Wanchope was worse. One of them needs to sit against D.C. United.

And while everyone keeps fawning over Wilman Conde's contributions since arriving from Columbia, both Dasan Robinson and C.J. Brown continue to absolutely own the central defense. What Conde's arrival has done is give Osorio options, so that he doesn't have to do things like start Chris Armas and Diego Gutierrez together. Now Thorrington gives the fire skipper options in the attacking half of the field, so the question is, will he use those options?

Blow-by-blow of the telecast may be forthcoming, but don't hold your breath.