The Fire can clinch a playoff berth by beating New York City FC in their regular-season finale Sunday, but this team can’t be counted on to grind out victories.
The Fire can clinch a playoff berth by beating New York City FC in their regular-season finale Sunday. But this team can’t be counted on to grind out victories. The Fire didn’t win a regular-season road game and enter the matchup at Soldier Field without a victory in five games. In their first 22 games, they turned two 2-0 leads into 2-2 draws and have been plagued by costly mistakes in front of both goals. “Yeah, what is it?” Fire coach Raphael Wicky said. “Is it focus? Concentration? Is it bad luck? Is it quality? I cannot tell you. I can’t give you the answer.” Even without a victory over NYCFC (11-8-3,36 points), the 10th-place Fire can still sneak into the 10-team Eastern Conference playoffs if other results go their way. But the enlarged field should mute any celebration if the Fire do advance, and qualification shouldn’t silence questions about why they made it so hard on themselves and whether the club made any tangible on-field progress this year.
