There is a saying in soccer that, on the surface, sounds incredibly silly.
"A two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in soccer," the saying tells us.
Really? You would rather have a one-goal lead than a two-goal lead? It doesn't seem to make much sense.
But in last Saturday's game against Kansas City at Toyota Park, the Chicago Fire proved that old adage to be true, letting a dominant 75-minute performance that resulted in a 2-0 lead fall by the wayside in the final 15 minutes as the Wizards earned a 2-2 draw.
The result left the Fire still unbeaten heading into Saturday's game against the Columbus Crew at Crew Stadium, but after Kansas City's 1-0 victory against New York on Thursday, the Fire now find themselves in second place in the Eastern Conference, a point behind the Wizards, all because of a likely two points lost last weekend.
Fire coach Denis Hamlett draws a comparison between soccer and the game of basketball.
"When a game of American football is 21-0 or 28-0, you know the game is done, but soccer and basketball are the same," Hamlett said. "You can have a 12-point lead and think it is a lot, but the losing team goes on a quick spurt and gets six points real quick, the lead is cut in half, and now the pressure is on you.
"In soccer, you have a two-goal lead, and they score one goal and now you have to start thinking about it," Hamlett said. "That is why they say that."
Hamlett said the Fire played two games last season where they had late leads and saw them disappear in the final minutes.
"We had games against Houston and D.C. United where we went from three points (a win) to one point (a draw) to zero points (a loss)," Hamlett said. "You want to learn from this. We can learn from this game, if we are put in the same situation again."
What the Fire seemed to do wrong was going hard after a third goal after Wizards forward Josh Wolff scored his first goal in the 78th minute. They got the shots off, but no goals, then Wolff surprised them again with a goal in the 89th minute that stole what was a seemingly assured victory.
In that game, Hamlett used all three of his allowed substitutions, sending in Chris Rolfe for Patrick Nyarko (77th minute), Austin Washington for Cuauhtemoc Blanco (83) and Mike Banner for Marco Pappa (89). He said the substitutions had no impact on the way the final minutes when down.
The Fire have had few significant injuries but played the last game without midfielder Justin Mapp, who had a slight leg injury. Hamlett said Mapp has worked out all week and is available for selection.
Adding Mapp to the starting lineup means moving someone out, and Hamlett has a hard choice to make, if he indeed decides to bring Mapp back in. The midfield choices are Blanco, Pappa, Logan Pause and John Thorrington, and each player is of significant value.
The Fire had been atop the Eastern Conference since the start of the season, until Thursday night. But the Fire get a chance to improve their record Saturday at Columbus against a team that has been beset with problems after winning the 2008 MLS Cup.
The Crew are 0-2-3 after five games.
"From watching a couple of their games, I think they have just been unlucky," Hamlett said. "They have had a rash of injuries, but they have been very competitive in all their games. That is the true character of a champion. They know everyone is going to be gunning for them, but they have competed in every game but come up short."
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
