A Pretty Good Day

Saturday went pretty much as well as the Chicago Fire could have hoped, as Columbus and D.C. United started off the matchday by drawing 1-1, which set the stage for the Fire to climb back into a tie for first place as they finally beat Colorado in Colorado.

Not only that, but the Fire looked exceptionally good in the first half against the Rapids, like they had something to prove after three consecutive league losses and a somewhat embarrassing exit from the Open Cup earlier in the week. I feel like I need to continually point out how much faster Chicago moves the ball under Denis Hamlett than they did under any other coach in the team's history. And I don't know what convinced Hamlett to start his left-footed midfielder on the right and his right-footed midfielder on the left, but it totally worked. You can quibble about the second half effort, but they held on and got the result. At altitude, no less. Finally, as someone who has been critical of him in the past, I have to say that Wilman Conde had a great match.

As if that weren't enough, Logan Pause recorded an assist in his first cap for the national team, a 4-0 romp over Grenada that featured goals from everyone you wanted to see produce in the Gold Cup that isn't Kenny Cooper. Yes, it was against Grenada, but it still counts, and it was a sweet through ball to pick out the run of Robbie Rogers. I have to think that Pause getting named to this Gold Cup squad means, pretty unequivocally, that Pablo Mastroeni is out of the national team picture. You might argue that Bob Bradley wouldn't deplete the Rapids by taking both Kyle Beckerman and Mastroeni, but if Mastroeni is still a part of the puzzle, I would think Bradley would have actually picked him over Beckerman. I haven't heard any other explanations -- although I haven't heard anyone suggest this one, either -- so I'm going to assume I'm right until proven otherwise.