BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- He leads the Chicago Fire in goals scored with five. He is second on the team in assists with three. He was called up for the U.S. national team to play the second leg of the World cup qualifier with Barbados.
But Chad Barrett, the third-year forward for the Fire, also missed two quality scoring opportunities last Thursday in the Fire's 2-0 loss to Chivas USA, and his every miss compounds an impression that he can't finish.
The statistics suggest otherwise, but Barrett cannot shake the fan feeling that he can't shoot straight.
While the supporters wail over his misses, no one hurts more than Barrett when a near-certain goal goes astray. His reaction to his second miss Thursday, when he put his head in his hands and looked like he was never going to let go, is an indication of how much he cares.
Prior to the Chivas game, Barrett discussed his yin-and-yang season. "Stats-wise, if you end up with 15 goals, it's a good season," Barrett said. "But I don't want to be known for scoring goals. I want to be known for my hard work. I don't want to be known as a one-dimensional player."
To coach Denis Hamlett, it is Barrett's hard work that puts him in position to have the opportunity to make plays, and Hamlett knows the life of a striker is predicated on his last scoring opportunity.
"Every forward goes through these kinds of stretches," Hamlett said. "It is important that he got a call from the national team. It came at a good moment, especially after his game against Chivas. I think it was a reward for the hard work he put in the first 10 games of the season. It's nice to see people recognize the work he is doing."
Hamlett, who has been with the Fire since the team's inception in 1998, compared Barrett's current situation to that of former Fire forward Ante Razov, who led the team in scoring for five seasons but was consistently criticized for missing what appeared to be easy shots.
"Strikers are going to go through that," Hamlett said. "It's not like he missed it on purpose. You just have to continue to work hard. It is not always about scoring goals, even for a striker. Sometimes it is about making the little plays that help your team win."
The scoring opportunities Barrett had against Chivas appeared painfully easy after he failed to score on them. Early in the first half, a quick passing sequence from Cuauhtemoc Blanco to Justin Mapp on the left flank ended when Mapp sent a pass across the Chivas penalty area to Barrett, who was open on the right side and staring at an open side of the net in front of him. As Chivas goalkeeper Brad Guzan lunged to protect the goal, Barrett one-timed the ball but sent it just outside the right post.
In the 35th minute, Barrett beat Guzan to a ball just outside the penalty area and pushed it to his right. With Guzan on the ground and two defenders racing in behind him, Barrett missed his sharp-angled shot at the open net, again missing wide right.
It was at that point that Barrett let the frustration of all of his misses show on his face. To Hamlett's credit, he kept Barrett in the game though the ESPN announcers kept suggesting Barrett would be taken out late when the Fire added forwards to try to make up the two-goal difference.
"I think he is handling this in a good way," Hamlett said. "It was good for him to with the national team and be around that different environment. We have a lot of confidence in him. He is still a young player and he is still learning what it is like to be a top-notch forward."
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