Overthinking

Luis points out that two of the Fire's worst performances of late were yesterday in Denver and the loss in Houston a couple of weeks ago.

It just so happens that there's a common theme to those two matches. In Houston, Denis Hamlett put Blanco up top with Brian McBride, slotting John Thorrington into the middle and Chris Rolfe on the right in the midfield. Against Colorado, it was the decision to start Stephen King on the left instead of Justin Mapp. Both of these decisions made conscious efforts to break things that were working in the interest of trying to adapt to an opponent. And both of them negated one of the Fire's flanks in the process -- Rolfe isn't as effective as a wide player at Thorrington on the right, and King clearly doesn't press the wide attack the same way Mapp does.

While I understand Justin Mapp's shortcomings and the reasons Hamlett has dropped him to the bench, the most important thing for the Fire to do right now is to find consistency, and in order to do that, he's got to play his lineup to its strengths. That means McBride and Rolfe up top, Mapp, Blanco and Thorrington from left to right in the midfield in front of Logan Pause, and the back four we've run with all season (yellow card suspensions notwithstanding).

The problem yesterday may have been compounded by the fact that neither Mike Banner nor Marco Pappa were available, although I'm not sure either of them had the defensive mettle Hamlett wanted against Terry Cooke. Then again, I think that tweaking your lineup because you're afraid of the likes of Terry Cooke is proving to be a bad idea.