Fire Fighters

Another game, another early hole, another good result, all things considered. If this team stops giving their opponents a head start, they'll be absolutely devastating.

As much as I like to rip on Wilman Conde, Chicago actually missed his early long balls out of the back. For the record, I don't think they're inherently bad, just that they can't be the only way the Fire try to generate offense. On Saturday, they overcompensated by just trying to play small ball for much of the first half.

And I still like both Dasan Robinson and Brandon Prideaux, but both of them looked excessively rusty and in over their heads for long stretches in San Jose, costing the Fire all three goals between the two of them. That said, it's also not hard to believe Conde would have fouled somebody in the box at some point in that match, seeing as how the whole field at Buck Shaw seems to consist of the two penalty areas and about another 100 square feet of grass, tops.

Should Hamlett have gone with his second half lineup out of the gate? Well, yes, we know that now, but every single coach in the Fire's history likely would have done the same thing. Except maybe Juan Carlos Osorio, who would have tried playing McBride at center back and Mike Banner as defensive midfielder, or something. With Thorrington out, the default is to go with the player that most resembles the role Thorrington played, and I don't dispute that Tim Ward looked like that guy. He performed well in that spot for the second half last week, and if Denis is guilty of anything, it was overrating his and Prideaux's performances against the Red Bulls. I would have won a starting spot if you based it on how ineffective the New York attack was.

The point being, you're on the road, and Blanco has struggled to find space in the past on small pitches. So tenderizing the defense with the first half lineup and then unleashing the Mexican star in the second may have actually worked better than starting him, but we'll never know that for sure. Therefore, it must be true, since that's how Internet soccer fans think.

What's perhaps more important here is that Hamlett may have found a solution to his aging legs up front, and that's backing them up with as many speedy midfielders as possible. While I'm not a huge fan of playing Nyarko or Rolfe in the midfield, I'm not going to argue as long as it works. Taken to its logical extreme, that might move Thorrington into a contest with Tim Ward for the right back position in order to keep all that speed on the field. Which means that I think we may have seen the last of Brandon Prideaux until the Open Cup.

Other notes on the game? The second yellow on Shea Salinas was weak, but then, so was the penalty call on Dasan Robinson. The replay showed a bump, but not even enough of a bump to knock over Keira Knightly. It looked like he was going to plow him over before the actual contact, though, so the referee probably based the call on circumstantial evidence. That happens sometimes. And, because I'm a big fan of his, I'm going to claim that Logan Pause had the wherewithal to pass the ball to Marco Pappa's left foot on that first goal, because if he got it on his right, he probably wouldn't have scored. The goals from McBride and Rolfe were just beautiful, and I am in no way surprised that Troy Dayak wears a bolo tie. Or that he doesn't seem to actually understand the rules of soccer.