Dallas vs Fire Game Preview

By: irish_steve | March 20th, 2009

Last night we saw the first MLS game of the season with Seattle trashing New Jersey 3 nil. Tomorrow, the real business starts when the Fire kicks off their season away to Dallas.

Traditionally, the Dallas/Chicago rivalry was one of the strongest in the MLS but in recent times, New England have moved forward to take the title of Chicago’s biggest rival.

Last season the Fire continued their woeful streak away from home against Dallas by losing 1-0 to a Kenny Cooper goal in one the Fire’s worst performances of the season. In the return fixture, Dallas handed the Fire their worst home loss of the season 4-1.

The Fire have not won in Dallas in 10 years and I think this is their best chance to overturn that terrible statistic. The Dallas squad hasn’t improved much in the offseason and the Fire will be clear favorites going into this game. Even Scott over at the Dallas Offside blog isn’t very optimistic about his team’s prospects in tomorrow’s game:
http://dallas.theoffside.com/team-news/fcd-v-chicagobrimstone-cup-time-baby.html

Anyway, on to the game itself. The Fire will definitely be without Brandon Prideaux at right back and Chris Rolfe and Cuauhtémoc Blanco are major doubts. With that in mind, the Fire’s expected lineup is as follows:
————–Busch—————–
–Ward—–Soumare—Brown—–Segares
–Pappa—-Conde—–Pause——–Mapp
———–McBride—-Nyarko————-

The only thing I would change from the projected lineup is starting Thorrington at center mid with Pause and putting Conde back to the center of defense replacing CJ Brown. If needed, the Fire will have a very strong bench to call upon with Blanco, Rolfe, and Banner leading the list.
Dallas’s only real attacking threats are strikers Kenny Cooper and Jeff Cunningham. If the Fire can cut off the supply to Cooper and Cunningham, I don’t see Dallas scoring. At practice yesterday Dennis Hamlett warned his defense that Dallas constantly try to play Cunningham in behind and they must be aware of where he is on the field at all times.

Prediction: I personally believe that the Fire are not going to get a better chance than tomorrow to beat their Dallas losing streak. McBride and Nyarko will show that their great partnership in preseason was not a fluke. 2-0 Fire with goals from McBride and Nyarko.