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Playing for Pride
by: Viking

It gets harder and harder to put up with this every single week. The Burn continue to drop game after game to teams that could be beaten. Columbus was beatable, DC was beatable, KC at home was beatable, Colorado was as beatable as Tennessee was. Each time the Burn could not muscle its way to victory. The young players have just not been up to the challenge. Again this week we'll watch them play Los Angeles, and see if the young players can finally rip someone apart.

Dignity, by earning the last play-off spot, is all that's left to play for. This team knitted around in front of the goal in Colorado long enough to knit a sweater. It is spinning yarns with too much youthful energy and not enough speed and precision. Unless Rhine and Korol and Broome somehow achieve a savvy that we haven't seen yet, Burn is playing for a dignified finish. As a team, if the Burn can't prove its one of the top eight teams in a twelve team league, it will not have a lot of pride to endure the off-season.

And pride, well that's a lot to play for. MLS Cup is for glory, but when you are faced with utter failure, that can be hard to accept. Remembering your failure every hour of every day waiting for next season to come is an unpalatable prospect. The Burn players must "will themselves" over the others and into the playoffs to show that they honor the team, the colors, and the jersey. If they fail to achieve that, then some of them will have to be kicked off the team. And at that point, the team would be doing them a favor. I'm not the GM, I don't see what really happens between Dir and the players. Does Dir see what really happens? Andy Swift knows that if the core of the team can no longer play for Dir, then Dir must go. If the core of the team still believes that the coach is a lesser issue compared to what happens inside the lines, then one Dir is as good as another.

I say this because the Burn has played well, and played very poorly, under Dir. What impact his coaching really has on this, is plainly open to debate. The ONLY way to know, is to fire him. Yet as I said in previous columns, I don't see Dave getting the boot. Dave can't will them into the playoffs. But a team that is greater than it's parts can. I want the team to win for their own good, the good of Dallas Burn S.C., the fans, the sport, and the league. This team can do it, with or without Dave Dir on the bench. He knows it, they know it, we all suspect it. 

Go Burn ! SCORCHED EARTH ! GO BURN !