We got our arses spanked on national TV - again
By: Tom | May 25th, 20072-0 down after three minutes. My television was lucky to survive. In the end, a 3-0 defeat that makes it four straight defeats for the Fire. That includes eleven goals condeded and three scored in those games. It’s conceivable the Fire could slip to second bottom in the Eastern Conference if results go against us the rest of this weekend.
The Fire were too slow and ponderous on defense last night, for the fourth game in a row. They seem to be disorganised or unclear on their assignments. How many times in the past three games have we seen an unmarked man have a clear shot from inside the penalty area on a cross or pullback?
There was some decent passing by the Fire until the final third given the initial deficit, and I have to say, the Red Bulls looked very vulnerable at the back. The scoreline flattered them. The Fire had 21 shots to the Red Bulls 14 - though it’s always tough to know how to play when up 2-0 so early.
Mapp was able to skip past defenders at will, as usual, and it’s hard to imagine the Fire wouldn’t at least have scored had Chris Rolfe been available. Calen Carr is a mixture of exciting and infuriating - his physical attributes get him in the position to make things happen, but too often, those things don’t happen. Perhaps it’s a matter of time. I’d like to see him paired with Rolfe and see how he develops the next few games.
Whilst this is a largely young team, the problem for the Fire is that their experienced players - former internationals - like CJ Brown and Chris Armas are not taking charge defensively. Or are no longer physically able to, which is just a little sad to watch.
Is it time for Dave Sarachan to go? Many say yes, some say no. How much of the blame for this can be attributed to the front office or the players, rather than Dave? What’s your view?
Category: Team News
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I am hereby bestowing my own award to the Fire:
“Most beautiful play by a team unable to put it in the net.”
Previous winners include my beloved France National Team, so you’re in good company.
Seriously, the Fire’s passing game is art. Really beautiful. And the inability to finish is painful to watch. Just like France during the past year.
But all of that will be fixed with Anelka…er…Blanco starting, I’m quite sure.
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I thought the question of Sarachan’s tenure would come up, though my answer to the question took shape last night right around the time I caught the 2-0 score-line.
For those who aren’t interested in following the link, here’s my answer: you let Sarachan do what he can with the current year, letting the chips fall where they will, and get to the rebuilding - post-Sarachan (with one exception) - when the season is over.
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I’d love to agree, Laurie, and there was some good passing in the midfield certainly. But I kind of felt the Red Bulls were happy to let us do that, knowing that (a) they had a two goal lead; and (b) we looked lost around the penalty area anyway.
I even found myself agreeing with Wynalda quite a lot last night. Is he more reasonable than people think, or am I going crazy with all these defeats?
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Don’t fall into the Wynalda trap. He will occasionally say something that might make sense only to put his foot in his mouth the next minute.
As for the Fire, it’s too bad Mapp can never finish any of his runs with a score. That boy got skills!
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Yeah, I did wonder how much of the lovely midfield play was just New York saying, “Let them have their pretty triangles.” It was still very pleasant to watch (from a neutral’s perspective.)
RBNY is not a perfect team, but I’m thinking Angel may trump Beckham in the “most beneficial acquisition” department. And I’m also guessing that both LA and Chicago will think twice next time before signing a superstar who can’t make it till midseason.
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Laurie, good point about the midseason signings. I imagine the Fire front office felt the team were mediocre enough to scrape it into MLS’s generous playoff contention without Blanco - unfortunately, that might not be the case (though we’re not this bad).
Wasn’t it amazing how much space the Red Bulls forwards had around the box?
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This is so dumb. I’m really sick of hearing about Blanco…I’m sure he’s a great player but he is not going to save us, mid season or not. We are playing very mediocre with a lot of mediocre players and one great player isn’t going to save us. We have all of these new players we signed, where are they? Oliviera, Soumare, Telesford? All in the reserves I presume, with two of our most expensive players being some of our least impressive, Brown and Armas. New York was a team smart enough not to try and find a niche market, but a good player in Angel and Fire and LA are both going to be forced to see the error of their ways when we’re both sitting at the bottom of our respective tables mid season.
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My comments about Blanco and Beckham being team saviors were somewhat sarcastic. You can’t build a team around one player, especially when that player will miss half the season. I think Chicago’s chances are better than LA’s, though. Blanco has the potential to deliver what you lack, i.e. the ability to finish. Beckham can do beautiful corners, free kicks and crosses, but those aren’t necessarily the slots we need filled.
Thing is, Chicago is better than their record. I watch them play and spend 95% of the game thinking, “How have they lost their last four?” I can’t necessarily say the same thing about LA. LA’s management seems to lack the ability to a) know exactly what the holes are and b) recognize the players best able to fill them.
It could be a long season.
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I agree about Blanco and Beckham, Laurie. I think one major thing frustrating Fire fans is something Blanco definitely won’t fix - their defensive woes. As Giuseppe points out, veterans like Armas and Brown are not getting it done at that end of the field; it seems to me that the Fire front office felt their defense would be good enough, despite losing Sanneh, to invest hugely in one offensive player. But if we leak goals like we have been recently, it won’t matter what Blanco does.
In terms of Oliviera, Soumare and Telesford, I agree Sarachan needs to try young blood. Oliviera though was only signed and cleared to play very recently and Telesford is injured. I’m unsure why Soumare hasn’t been given a start given the woes of the Fire backline for four straight games. I’d love to see him given a chance. Why not at this point?
By the way, Laurie, you might be pleased to learn that Soumare grew up in Paris and loves the French national team. Hopefully he’ll be even half (or a quarter) the player of his hero, Patrick Vieira.
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Y’know, I love the Fire. I loved them before reading that interview, but now I love them even more now. For the record, I adore Vieira. He’s volatile and entertaining, yet solid enough to be the NT caption. But then again, the last captain was Zidane, so…
And yes, defensively you have kind of sucked recently. Your guys would do twenty or thirty beautiful, perfect one- or two-touch passes, controlling the ball for minutes at a time, and then NY would intercept a pass and two seconds later would be in the box and ready to shoot. Oops. How did that happen?
Maybe it’s my passionate love of French-style, possession-oriented play speaking, but I think the team is better than that. You don’t need wholesale slash-and-burn corrections. I really think that minor changes would make the difference.
But don’t ask me what those changes are.
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I agree about Soumare, we let our highest goal scorer go for him and he hasn’t been playing nearly as much as some of the other draft picks, and I’m not sure if I have more faith in Chicago than LA right now, it seems like the Galaxy officials are flying all over the world to find players and fix the problem, right now the Fire seem to be content with what they have. I hope they figure it out soon, i’m becoming one incredibly frustrated fan
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