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Fire searching for spark against Crew

Fri 4th, July 2008

Columbus, OH (Sports Network) - Chicago Fire coach Denis Hamlett admitted after last week's 0-0 tie against the San Jose Earthquakes that his strikers "need to finish."

The Fire, who scored 20 goals in their first 10 games, failed to score in their third straight match. At least this time Chicago earned a draw, but its skid is starting to bother Hamlett entering Saturday's match at the Columbus Crew.

"Our strikers that we have are getting themselves in good spots and getting good looks, and if you're going to be critical," Hamlett said, "they need to finish those plays."

Chicago hasn't scored in a Major League Soccer match since 27th minute of 2-1 loss to D.C. United almost a month ago, a stretch of 243 consecutive minutes.

The Fire's four game winless skid - which includes three losses - has the club closer to the bottom of the Eastern Conference than the top.

"We aren't finishing on our chances - it makes it a lot harder to win games and I feel that we need to press more," Hamlett said. "Right now we are not getting goals and it makes winning games harder."

It's tough for Hamlett, in his first year as head coach of Chicago, because his club has so much offensive firepower. Chad Barrett - who scored the team's last goal - leads the Fire with five goals and has chipped in three assists.

Mexican icon Cuauhtemoc Blanco has four goals and six assists, John Thorrington has three goals and Chris Rolfe and Tomasz Frankowski each have two goals.

Blanco, who last scored on May 25, knows Chicago just has to "keep on working hard." Considering the Fire have allowed a league-low 11 goals, they may only need one goal to win most games.

"Things aren't going well," Blanco said. "We've got to look ahead into the next game and go from there."

That "next" match is at Columbus, which has rebounded from its own scoring skid - which lasted 370 minutes - to score eight goals during its current three-game unbeaten streak.

During the recent run, six players have scored, led by two apiece by Alejandro Moreno and Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

"You go through your scoring droughts, but we have so many offensive weapons." Crew defender Danny O'Rourke said. "We're a dangerous offensive team."

Columbus won at Kansas City, 3-0, and then earned a 3-3 draw at the Los Angeles Galaxy. The Crew extended their run last week at home with a 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids.

The Crew's win over the Rapids was their fifth at home this year - which equals last season's total.

Columbus coach Sigi Schmid is pleased with the team's performances at home, and with eight more home games left believes success at Crew Stadium will determine if the team makes the playoffs.

"If my math's right, we have eight more games [at home], so we definitely want to beat what we had last year," Schmid said. "One of the things we talked about at the beginning of the season is if we had three more points at home, we would have been in the playoffs [last season].

"So now, it's a matter of going and getting those three points."

Where the players come to play and STAY.