In his first official MLS game as interim coach of the Chicago Fire, Denis Hamlett was faced with the same problems that haunted his predecessor.
Chicago could not generate a goal in its scoreless tie against the visiting Colorado Rapids on Sunday at Toyota Park in Bridgeview.
"It's no secret that we've been having a problem scoring," Hamlett said. "I don't know if it was the weather or what, but I thought we would get off to a better start, but for whatever reason we never got going.
"I thought we prepared well this week. I give Colorado a lot of credit. As soon as we played the ball wide, they kind of jumped us."
Hamlett made three substitutions in the second half to generate offense. Among them, Calen Carr came on for starter Jerson Monteiro and Thiago came in for Chad Barrett for the final 20 minutes.
"We tried to mix it up with as many attackers as possible but it just didn't work out for us," Hamlett said. "From the start, our passing and movement was not good enough."
The good news for the Fire is that Thiago and Chris Armas returned to the playing field after being injured with groin strain and hip pain, respectively. Armas came in at the 56th minute for Willian Oliveira.
"It's nice to have Thiago back after five weeks and also to have Armas back," Hamlett said. "We had them in the second half and Thiago was limited in the amount of minutes for (Sunday)."
The Fire attack was not fluid on the night as Chicago was called for being offside nine times.
"It seems like when we're getting a chance, we're not putting it away," said Barrett. "You can't do that against good teams and expect to win. We're a good team but we need to put in those chances."
Diego Gutierrez said he still has faith in his club although the Fire have won just once in the past two months.
"I'm proud to say that this team is a strong group of guys and we're better than this," Gutierrez said. "When we started the season 3-0, I said we were not as good as our record showed and after these last eight games, we are not as bad as our record shows."
Gutierrez also said Hamlett has been doing a fine job since taking over for the since-departed Dave Sarachan in late June, but he believes the status of a permanent coach needs to be addressed.
"I'm not sure what the coaching situation is but it needs to be resolved," Gutierrez said. "Denis has been a gentleman and he has done a good job communicating with the guys and he has been positive."
Frustration hit a boiling point for the Fire in the 83rd minute. Bakary Soumare was dribbling the ball upfield and got tangled up with Rapids forward Roberto Brown.
Soumare was upset that a foul was not called against Brown and as he was yelling, Colorado midfielder Colin Clark got involved with Soumare and he grabbed Soumare's arm. The Fire midfielder pushed Clark to the ground and was immediately sent off. Clark was shown a yellow card for his part in the event.
"I guess he (Brown) tackled me from behind," Soumare said. "He (Clark) pushed me and I lost my head."
Tim Hilton is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
