The Chicago Fire's recent trend of not finishing games off and squandering leads has head coach Denis Hamlett openly disturbed heading into the remainder of the MLS season.
The Fire gave up a late equalizer to D.C. United and then the game-winner off a corner kick in extra time, to bow out 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday, despite outplaying the home side for most of the match.
The loss was the Fire's first ever to United in any knockout match in the club's history. Chicago defeated the four-time MLS Cup champions 3-1 in 2006, their only other U.S. Open Cup clash, and in all seven of their MLS playoff matches or series.
"Very simple - we don't finish our chances and we make one mistake and we get punished for it," said Hamlett.
The Fire gave up a late goal in a 2-2 draw with Columbus in league play last Saturday after also thoroughly outplaying the Crew as well.
"We get some very good looks and our guys right now, they have to step up to the plate and finish those chances because at the end of the day, that is what this game is about," Hamlett continued.
The Fire took the lead on an opportunistic but skillful goal from Daniel Woolard in the 36th minute and got out of the half relatively unthreatened.
"It's the same old story," said midfielder John Thorrington. "It's the same thing that happened on Saturday. We get up deservedly through our play and doing what we are supposed to do in implementing a game plan go up a goal and then our chances to make it more than one and we don't capitalize on those. We make a bad mistake and they capitalize."
United opened the match in an unusual 4-5-1 formation and with Jaime Moreno on the bench. Head coach Tom Soehn inserted the Bolivian into the creative midfield role versus his normal attacking position up top in the 62nd minute for an ineffective Rod Dyachenko. It was Moreno's settling qualities that tilted United over the top after coming out at the start of the second half with more urgency to get the equalizer.
"We went out and played our game -- that's all we're concerned about," said Hamlett. "We felt it didn't matter what players they put out on the field, we just had to go with the right attitude and the right mentality, compete and get the ball moving and we did."
The corner kick that led to Bryan Namoff's game-winning goal was created from the Fire's own poor judgment. Wilman Conde, who otherwise played a solid match, chose to take an extra dribble instead of simply clearing the ball away from the Fire's penalty area, leading to a costly turnover.
The Fire withstood early but marginal pressure from United before settling in and created the better chances to take a well-deserved lead in the first half. Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch might have seen more shots than his counterpart Zach Wells, but Wells saw the better quality chances through much of the night.
"We knew we needed to, first and foremost, stand up to that (pressure) before we could open up and play like we wanted to," said Thorrington. "Defensively we were very sound; I don't think Buschy had too much to do and then we got a really good goal and a couple more chances after that that we didn't score."
Hamlett is concerned with the lack of finishing, but would be even more distraught if those opportunities were not coming.
"It's not like we aren't creating chances; it would be a concern if we weren't creating chances (but) we are not finishing those chances," Hamlett said. "We can't continue creating chances and not finishing those chances because that is not going to be good enough."
Chris Snear is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
