Embarassment, The Great Motivator

I need to start by saying I have no real idea whether or not home-field advantage in the MLS Playoffs matters in the first round. So, in the grand scheme of things, dropping a 4-1 decision to the lowly Columbus Crew doesn't really mean all that much. The best silver lining you can put on it is that you'd rather have your lull now than in, say, two weeks. And the team will hopefully want to wash this taste out of their mouths and good.

After a quick Fire goal, it looked like the story would play out the way you'd expect from your U.S. Open Cup champion and a team that isn't going to the post-season. Twenty minutes and a few squandered chances to go for the throat later, that plot was starting to get lost, and by halftime, it was lost for good.

If the game meant anything, it might have been interesting to see how the Fire would respond to being down a goal at halftime. It might have been a good opportunity to show some resiliency. Instead, the Fire lost any sense of shape and cohesion. The thing that worries me the most is that I thought I saw flashes of the "bad" Tony Sanneh, as his confidence of the last two months looked like it was turning to arrogance, like he didn't feel like he needed to exert himself in order to have his way with his old club.

i feel bad for goalie Matt Pickens. That last goal from Joseph Ngwenya looked like the kind of play I end up facing in my recreational leagues when my defense has decided, en masse, that they're not going to, well, defend.

The thing is, there's nothing you can -- or should -- do, lineup-wise in reaction to this match. This was the first team, and this should remain the first team. As much as I might like to see rookies Dasan Robinson and Brian Plotkin in the starting lineup over Gonzalo Segares and Diego Gutierrez, I don't think that's going to happen. As far as I'm concerned, there's no one else on the bench that provides any kind of clear advantage over the guys who were out there on Saturday, so Head Coach Dave Sarachan -- who, according to the post-game quotes, isn't sure that home-field advantage means all that much right now, either -- doesn't seem to have much choice except to get those guys mentally prepared for the first-round series with New England. And that may include resting those starters in the regular season finale against DC United next week. In retrospect, he maybe should have given the first team an extended break after the USOC victory, because it seems like they may have taken one anyway. Hopefully they get back from their mental vacation in time to prevent an early physical one.