Easily Impressed

It's been at least a couple of days since I smacked down Sam at the pseudo-Tribune, and for that I am sorry. Today's episode has our intrepid "reporter" once again talking up Carlos de los Cobos and his dedication to Attractive, Attacking Soccer (TM) by pointing to -- and I hope you're sitting down for this -- a second-hand report from a training session that included (gasp) ONE- AND TWO-TOUCH DRILLS!

I know, can you believe it?

Seriously, there are so many things wrong with this that it makes my head hurt. If Denis Hamlett wasn't having small-sided games like this, then yes, at least some of the criticism of the former coach is warranted, but I suspect that our helpful fan never watched any of Hamlett's training sessions. Or, apparently, got to matches early enough to watch the team doing one- and two-touch drills in pregame warmups, because that's pretty much what every team everywhere does.

Lest you think I'm just picking on Sam, well, I'm also picking on Charlie Corr, who has upped his game when it comes to repeating the spin coming out of the front office, and is now calling Hamlett "highly defensive-minded" instead of just "defensive-minded." He must be angling for a better seat in the press box, because it can't be for better access to Frank Klopas. Frank will talk to anybody.

I would really like for anybody to back up this assessment of the Fire's play under Hamlett with, well, anything. Just repeating it over and over doesn't make it true. Being too defensive and not being able to finish in the final third are two entirely different problems, and nearly every team in MLS struggles with goal-scoring chances. I want to take a closer look at the numbers to see just how ridiculous all this is in a more extensive post later on, because what these numbskulls are doing to Denis Hamlett has gone beyond just throwing him under the bus. It's practically character assassination at this point, and it's setting the team up for failure the first time they grind out a 1-0 win under the new coach.