The Fire come into Thursday nights’ match against Chivas on the back of two straight losses in the league. Chivas have also lost their last two in the league and both clubs will be trying desperately not to lose three on the trot.

The Fire will be missing Conde, still out with a hamstring injury, and Segares who is on international duty with his native Costa Rica. The Fire will be boosted by the returns of Chris Rolfe, Diego Gutierrez and Brandon Prideaux who all missed Saturday’s loss in Dallas. Rolfe, along with Chad Barrett and John Thorrington, is available despite being called into the US squad for their second leg against Barbados on Sunday.

The starting lineup should have a few changes from the Dallas game with Diego either replacing Plotkin at left back or returning to the center of defense to partner Soumare with CJ or Brandon Prideaux going to right back in place of Washington. Rolfe should replace Stephen King in midfield allowing Thorrington to play a deeper role alongside Logan Pause in the engine room. The lineup should resemble the one used in the match against DC United on June 7^th with the Fire using their 4-2-3-1 formation.

The Fire’s fate rests in the hands of Cuauhtemoc Blanco, whose creative genius has been missing during the past two league games. Blanco has been the victim of some rough treatment from opposing teams recently and this, along with his anger at referees, has clearly distracted him. An added incentive for Blanco will be the thousands of Club America fans who will be there to cheer on their hero.

The Fire players will know that they face a 9 day break after this game until the next match against San Jose, so there will be no need for any of the player’s to be conserving their energy. Chivas have lost their last 2 league games by a score of 1-0 and will be missing their Cuban star Maykel Galindo who is out injured for at least another month.

Chivas’s weak point is their back 4 who have leaked a lot of goals so far this season and will find it very difficult to keep the Fire out for 90 minutes, especially without their first choice keeper Brad Guzan, who is also on international duty with the US.

If the Fire cannot unlock the defense, though, then they will have to rely on something special from Blanco who showed us all what he is capable of with this strike last year:

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1 Comments

Ben June 19, 2008	I think we need to show our 'killer instinct' and not lose back to back games. We did lost to DC and then Dallas, but there was the US Open Cup victory between those two games. We need to crush them at midfield.