The Chicago Fire's most recent loss was their eighth straight and, yet again, was another heartbreaker. But they haven't lost their self-belief just yet.
On Saturday, Chicago fell to the Montreal Impact2-1 north of the border. Down 1-0 after six minutes, the Fire fought to equalize through Nemanja Nikolic in the 70th minute before conceding a 20-yard volley in stoppage-time from Daniel Lovitz, his first MLS goal in 90 matches.
Now, the Fire are set to host Columbus Crew SC on Thursday night (7 pm ET | TV & streaming info). Despite the skid, members of the Fire aren't short on confidence and have found positives to take away from the loss.
"We had a good second half, we had some good actions we just couldn't finish," Nicolas Hasler said on the Fire's 'In Focus'. "Other than that, we take the positives from this game and keep working hard during the week. I'm positive we're going to make a result at home."
Indeed there were positives from the road loss. The Fire held firm for much of the match against a club above the playoff line and came close to taking the lead in the 74th minute as Michael de Leeuw pulled his shot just wide.
De Leeuw, who recently returned from injury, echoed Hasler's sentiment. He, too, isn't short on belief in his teammates.
"(Columbus is) a good team, they have good tactics," said de Leeuw. "It's going to be a tough match and we're playing at home and we're confident of our own quality with what we have and we just have to work hard."
But with the losses piling up, something might have to change. On Saturday, a frustrated Veljko Paunovic alluded to potential lineup alterations for their match against the Crew.
“It always comes to the same mistakes from the same people," Paunovic said after the match. "Just training and doing preparations doesn’t get better. So we have to make some decisions."
