Just Played A Team Called Dynamo Hum

I wasn't really expecting the Fire to win in Houston last night, but nor was I expecting the sort of match we ended up getting. The really short version of what happened is that Bakary Soumare had an absolutely abysmal first half. He should have slid left to pick up Kai Kamara on the first goal, although you might argue that Daniel Woolard shouldn't have gotten caught upfield on that play as well, and he didn't even try to close down Ricardo Clark in the box on the second goal, casually assuming that Jon Busch would get to the ball first.

That being the case, give full credit to Denis Hamlett for yanking Baky at halftime. It was exactly the right thing to do given his performance after 45 minutes, not that it will matter to anyone who has it in for the head coach. Whatever he told the rest of the team seemed to have a positive effect right out of the locker rook as well, as Chicago very quickly turned a miserable match competitive again. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough.

I can begrudgingly live with the third goal. Watching that matchup all night, it seemed inevitable that Corey Ashe was going to beat Brandon Prideaux sooner or later, and the fact that it happened so late in the match probably contributed to a poor decision on where and how Prideaux made his last-ditch effort to stop him. And he pretty clearly swept Ashe's legs out from under him, so I have no idea why Glenn Davis and Sam Stejskal thought it was controversial. Would Tim Ward have shut him down? Maybe. Probably. Not that it matters, because he wasn't available. Hopefully we hear something about his status, as most of the injury oxygen in the room was taken up by Brian McBride, Wilman Conde and John Thorrington.

It's tough to see this match as anything all that different from what we should have expected. On the one hand, the Fire had chances to grab a point from the league leaders, and may feel a bit hard done by. Blanco hit the post late, and was too casual on the ball in the box on a chance in the first half, getting dispossessed before he could shoot. Patrick Nyarko had a great chance in the first half that he should have buried, which is a phrase that I should be able to type in my sleep by now. On the other hand, Houston also had their chances to put the game away much earlier, with Kamara missing in the first half and Brian Ching making an absolute mess of a gift-wrapped opportunity in the second.

Whatever. Chicago still sits somewhat comfortably in second in the Eastern Conference, and while they can't catch Columbus just by winning their game in hand, they only have to match DC United's results to hold their place, even if they lose to DC at the end of the month. Barring any major collapses from any of the top three clubs -- which is why I don't factor in Toronto FC just yet -- the Eastern Conference race might not get interesting until mid-September when Columbus comes to visit.