After a 1-0 loss to the visiting Kansas City Wizards, the mood in the Fire locker room was glum to say the least. The players walked around with their heads low, and there was none of the usual joking around. It was obvious that this was a game the players felt they should have come away with at least a point from.

Kansas City's lone goal came in the 4th minute, a goal for which Chicago's backline blamed themselves. Fire defender Gonzalo Segares explained that "We just kept pushing and pushing and they got a quick goal. It was one of those mental lapses at the beginning of the game that we got to get better at." Goalkeeper Jon Busch was quick to take the blame for the mix-up that allowed the first goal scored by an opposing player this season. "It [the ball] just sticks as soon as it bounces and I'm in no-man's-land and I'm screwed. Everybody is thinking, what the hell is he doing? It's not an excuse, it's reality, and I take the responsibility for it."

Speaking to BackDraft and the Spanish-language media, Fire forward Tomasz Frankowski suggested the Chicago weather might be partially to blame for the early goal. "We were surprised by the weather. Yesterday it rained a lot and the day before also. Today it's a nice field, nice weather, but that is not an excuse."

Despite the early goal by Kansas City, the Fire's strategy afterwards changed very little. When asked what the Fire's reaction was after the Wizards goal, Diego Gutierrez, another Fire defender said "We didn't panic, you know, we try to go out there and create opportunities and try to finish them, I think we did that, we created a lot of opportunities and unfortunately we weren't able to put them in."

In fact, those sentiments seemed to be echoed by a number of teammates and one player was quick to step up and take responsibility for the failure to score. Forward Chad Barrett said "I feel bad, I take the blame for this loss….we put a lot of good stuff together." Barrett went on to talk about missing what seemed like an easy goal, and how he gets over mistakes like that mentally. "You just gotta make a positive play, keep trying to do positive things… After that I was involved in a lot of plays towards goal and we would liked to have gotten one more shot, but I didn't get one more shot and that's going to stick with me too."

In his post game press conference, Head Coach Denis Hamlett praised the team's defense, but admitted that the Fire struggled to execute in the offensive third of the field. Overall, Hamlett seemed happy with his team's performance. "There's going to be days when you dominate the game and you just can't get that goal." When asked about Kevin Hartman's performance in Kansas' goal, Hamlett the Fire did a lot of Hartman's job for him. "I think our guys hit a lot of balls right at him."

It was that kind of a day for the Fire.

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3 Comments

giaco April 21, 2008	While I'm glad individuals are willing to admit the mistakes--now they need to put those lessons in action during the course of play next time out. With the season Colorado are having thus far, they will be out to prove teir recent form is no joke/fluke; especially after their recent loss. We had better be ready.
BOOGLET108 April 22, 2008	IT HAPPENS, WE ALL HAVE BAD DAYS. JUST HOLD YOUR HEADS HIGH AND LOOK TO YOUR NEXT GAME AGAINST THE RAPIDS. TRADITION, HONOR, PASSION FIRE 4 EVER
Ben April 22, 2008	It does happen. I'm not down on the team or Barrett, just Mapp. One missed sitter isn't a reason to worry. Four games of sluggish play is.