The Monday Firing Line

Could this be a new, regular "feature" of the site? Don't know.

Tom at Section 8 Chicago reads into Wilman Conde's behavior at Sunday's reserve match, and gives a a pretty astute read on the match itself. One possible explanation is that Conde got chewed out for blowing the match on Saturday night with a dumb foul and a dumber reaction to it, and subsequently wasn't feeling very warm and fuzzy, but that fits into the overall discontent as well.

Watching his twenty or so minutes in the Houston game was pretty instructive, though, because it highlighted what's been so good about this Fire team so far this year and perhaps why Conde is so terribly overrated. What I've noticed lately is how, defensively, Fire players are not at all afraid at stepping up to make a tackle. At one point on Saturday night, Bakary Soumare followed a Dynamo player -- I think it may have been Dwayne DeRosario -- all the way to the touch line about forty yards from goal. I get the feeling that players know someone has got their back when they make that kind of play, and that sense of trust, of knowing where your teammates will be, could be a big part of the improved passing and possession game as well.

Conde, on the other hand, seems unpredictable and out of control, so he may be disrupting the team's collective Zen when he enters the match. Or he could be passive aggressively trying to diminish his trade value, but while that conceivably hurts the team, it hurts him as well, so I don't think it's all that likely.

Meanwhile, the Fire's lack of depth on the right side of the midfield reared it's ugly head again, and keeping Chris Rolfe far from the goal almost certainly played some part in the offense sputtering. I'd still like to see Chad Barrett and/or Calen Carr shipped off to San Jose or Houston in exchange for a right-sided midfielder. If we could find a way to pry Ronnie O'Brien or Brian Mullan from their respective clubs, even better. That would also create more room at the forward position in case the Brian McBride rumor is to be believed.

All in all, I'm not too worried about the outcome of Saturday's match, even if it was one the Fire should have taken. In Jon Busch's defense, the first goal was a fluke and the second was offside. Even if noted Bridgeview-hater Bobby Boswell wasn't the guilty party, having someone coming right at the goalkeeper in an offside position like that cannot possibly count as being "passive."

Finally, coaches need to keep their mouths shut until they see tape. Clark's foul seemed egregious enough for a card from the replays, although Chris Doran inexplicably postulated that the referee was writing Clark's number in his book without actually booking him.