Earlier this season, a confluence of scheduling changes left the Chicago Fire playing only two matches in the month of April.
Consider such measured days long gone.
Also changed in recent weeks is the new attitude palpable in the locker room. Harry Shipp has spoken of it. Patrick Nyarko believes the Men in Red discovered something about themselves while fighting back for a draw in Houston. Now, as one of three MLS teams that have played 17 games or fewer, the next two weeks offer a great chance to make up some ground.
The Fire will play four matches (including their Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal) by July 25, with no more than three days rest between any of them. The next two will be against Columbus Crew SC, a team against which the Fire got a big road point on May 22, providing a chance to erase the six point differential that separates the two clubs in the standings. The challenge for Yallop is maintaining a first-choice lineup and continuity in the side while not overextending his club.
“It’s not easy,” Fire head coach Frank Yallop said Monday via teleconference. “We haven’t got a ton of guys to call upon, and you don’t want to rip apart a team that’s just had a great result. It’s more just trying to rest the guys that played on the weekend and try to recreate that 90-minute game again with the subs and whatever we’re going to do on Wednesday.”
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The back line will be a key part of it. Already without Jeff Larentowicz, Chicago loses another center back in Adaílton for Wednesday due to yellow card accumulation. Yallop said he expects either Matt Polster or Chris Ritter to step into that void. And if Polster is the option, Ritter still has a good chance of being selected in the midfield.
Yallop doesn’t like having to break up a back four that just secured a clean sheet, but it helps to have someone as reliable as Eric Gehrig. Whether playing centrally or at outside back, the former Crew SC man possesses a knack for breaking up play at the critical moment.
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“I think his last-ditch challenging and tackling and putting his body on the line is his best attribute,” Yallop said. “And I think at centerback, you get more of a chance to do that. … He wears his heart on his sleeve, and he’s fully committed to anything he does, but he does love those last-ditch challenges and blocks and all those things that come into being a good centerback. He’s done well.”
The focus has turned to Wednesday’s match, and as soon as that’s done, Yallop and his team will move on to the next one. There’s not much time to celebrate during a stretch like this, something he noticed after Jason Johnson’s stoppage-time goal on Saturday.
“Everyone felt the same emotion from that goal: relief,” Yallop said. “We got a win. Now, we’ve got to build on that. Wednesday night’s coming up quickly. Enjoy the moment, but now we’ve got to focus on the next game, which is Wednesday.”
