Shaking Down The Big Shakeup

If you read my analysis of the Fire's recent form, I'm clearly not in the camp that thinks massive changes were necessary. And to be fair, Denis Hamlett didn't have much of a choice on Sunday with Bakary Soumare suspended and Logan Pause getting downgraded from "questionable" to "did not appear in this film."

Hindsight is, of course, 20/20, and I'm here to tell you that given injuries to C.J. Brown, Dasan Robinson, it looks like rookie Austin Washington might have been a better choice to replace Soumare than Lider "I'm Not Carlos" Marmol. Or the only slightly injured Daniel Woolard, but I don't know if he's played centrally.

Then again, neither did Marmol. Excuse me, L. Marmol.

The other conclusion we can draw at this point is that Diego Gutierrez no longer has what it takes to hold down the defensive midfielder role all by his lonesome. Actually, the hindsight move here would have been putting Gutierrez in central defense -- which is a role he's inexplicably pretty good at -- and playing Stephen King in front of him.

Speaking of which, just look at what happens to our formerly impenetrable defense when Logan Pause isn't in the lineup. Yeah, Baky being out may have had something to do with it, and will give the Pause-haters all the cover they need. But I know the truth.

I know there's a current round of Andy Herron-bashing going on, but he made a strong case for winning a starting role by being the one guy willing to actually shoot the ball against Colorado. The only lineup move that doesn't pass the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" test is Mike Banner over Justin Mapp. There's a story here about how disappointed Denis Hamlett must be with Mapp's lazy performance against Houston to get him benched for three matches now, but no one is going after it.

If I were so foolish as to read message boards, I would invariably read calls for Hamlett's head, but let's be clear here: Denis Hamlett didn't make Wilman Conde suddenly look like complete and utter crap. Or maybe Hamlett has managed to make him not look like crap for most of the season, but his magic dust has worn off.

One thing I will take from this match -- okay, two things, because the "not without my dignity" goal from McBride in stoppage time was actually quite nice -- is how gutted John Thorrington looked after the final whistle blew. Jon Busch gets a lot of credit for bleeding Fire red, which is saying a lot for a guy who used to be such an integral part of the Columbus Crew, but for me, Thor is still the heart and soul of this team right now, and I don't think he gets enough credit for it.

Thursday is going to be tricky, because while I firmly believe that if you start a defensive-minded player over Justin Mapp on the left wing because you fear Terry Cooke, then you've already lost, it's a whole different ballgame with David Beckham. Hopefully Pause is healthy enough to deal with Donovan, and I'd maybe think of starting Woolard at left back and moving Segares forward to do battle with Becks.

And a final thought: I do believe this was the first time Blanco left a match early, and it didn't look like he was upset about it, but I didn't see what may or may not have happened when he first reached the bench.