CHANGE WOULD DO THEM GOOD
IT’S JUST MORE OF SAME AS FIRE APPEAR DESTINED TO MISS PLAYOFFS FOR 7TH CONSECUTIVE SEASON
After the Fire’s dreary 1-0 loss at Soldier Field to the last-place New England Revolution, coach Frank Klopas and captain Xherdan Shaqiri said the right things. They talked about the team’s effort and the work they’ve put in to improve and still seemed confident things would turn around.
“The only thing I can say is that when you go through difficult moments, the important thing with the team is we need to stick together, we need to believe,” Klopas said. “Because when you get in moments like this, you become stronger and better as a team.”
Unfortunately for the Fire (2-5-4, 10 points), it’s a message coaches and players have been selling to the media and their fans for most of the last decade. Nobody should buy it until something concrete is done.
Instead of changing course after last year’s 13th-place finish in the Eastern Conference, owner Joe Mansueto and the Fire effectively ran it back with their leadership. Sporting director Georg Heitz and technical director Sebastian Pelzer returned for a fifth season after four years outside of the playoffs, and Klopas was brought back despite his underwhelming coaching résumé and 2023 performance after the dismissal of Ezra Hendrickson.
Sure, the Fire seemed to make some strong moves in the offseason, signing pricey striker Hugo Cuypers and sought-after freeagent midfielder Kellyn Acosta. But while getting Cuypers appeared to answer their longstanding issues up front, Heitz and Pelzer neglected to sign an attacking midfielder who could get him the ball in the right spots. As one of the league’s highest-paid players, Shaqiri never has lived up to his salary and has been miscast as a central attacker, and Klopas temporarily dropped Brian Gutierrez from the starting lineup earlier this year because of his form.
Last Saturday, the Fire had their chances but didn’t capitalize on their three shots on target. New England went 1-for-4 and won, handing the Fire another deflating defeat.
“At the end of the day, we lost the game, and we are disappointed,’’ Shaqiri said. ‘‘We need to work hard to get better because we have big goals this season, and if you want to make the playoffs, there needs to be more, and we need to be better than today, for sure.’’
The Fire haven’t scored in 371 minutes and were second-best to woeful New England. The Revolution didn’t even play that well on the way to their second victory of the season. In second-half stoppage time, they failed to get a shot off on a 2-on-none break with only Fire goalkeeper Chris Brady to beat.
All of this adds up to more of the same, a club entering the game Saturday at St. Louis City (2-1-7, 13 points) in 13th place and appearing destined to miss the playoffs for a seventh consecutive season in a league that’s built for parity.
Until there’s actual change with the franchise — a little something more than a couple of big-ticket signings — that’s the only thing people should care about, not the platitudes coming from the coach and players. ✶