BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – Brazilian striker Guly do Prado doesn’t expect the absence of David Accam to derail the Chicago Fire’s impressive home form when they entertain Real Salt Lake at Toyota Park Saturday afternoon (3 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
Accam will sit out the encounter with RSL (2-2-5, 11 pts) after receiving a straight red card for violent conduct against Jalil Anibaba in the 89th minute of the Fire’s 1-0 defeat at Sporting Kansas City Sunday.
And while Accam’s loss will be a disappointment after it appeared the Ghanaian had begun to find his form, do Prado is confident the Fire can return to their winning ways at home, where they’ve won three straight, against injury-hit RSL.
“We have got a good team, good players, so if David is out, someone else is going to come in and we will be the same,” do Prado told MLSsoccer.com Thursday when asked if the team would struggle without Accam. “We are a team, we don’t think about single players.”
Much has been made of the Fire’s lack of productivity from their forward players, with Accam the only true forward to hit the net and an overall return of just six goals in seven games.
With two starts and 192 minutes under his belt, the 33-year-old do Prado has managed just two shots, one on target, but believes today could be the day to open his account.
“I don’t think we’ve a problem, every game is a different history,” he said. “It happened on Sunday, we didn’t score, but now we forget the game and now we look forward to the next game at home, where we are going to score.”
Head coach Frank Yallop remains confident that the former Pergugia, Cesena and Southampton forward has the quality to make an impact in MLS.
“I like the way he slides around,” Yallop told reporters at Toyota Park. “I like him, he’s a good footballer, he knows the game and I think he’s done pretty well. He’s obviously not quite had the impact that he wants and we want, but again it does take a little while and I think he did some good things [against Sporting KC].
“He could have scored when he did that one check on the edge of the box, had a left-footed shot and sometimes they squeak in at the far post and we wouldn’t be saying, ‘How’s he doing?’ He’d be doing fine.”
