On any team in any sport if you’re the captain the responsibility is on you to face the media after a devastating loss. Right now Dax McCarty is the captain of a ship that’s taking on massive amounts of water, at a very rapid pace. He’s the skipper for the Chicago Fire, a team that is currently 10th place out of 11 in the MLS Eastern Conference.
Following their seventh straight loss in Major League Soccer competition, the Fire now find themselves seven points out of playoff position, and needing to jump four teams in order to get there with just nine games left.
“This year it seems like everything that can go wrong for us, will go wrong,” McCarty said after a 1-0 loss to his former team, the New York Red Bulls.
“We have to take responsibility as players. I think we’ve underperformed all season. Every guy in the locker room hasn’t performed up to a level required to just win numerous games in MLS. That’s on myself, as a captain of the club I need to be better, I need to play better and I need to keep myself on the field. We’re not going to give up.”
McCarty took full ownership of what went wrong on the game’s only goal.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1028481646377488384
He made a bad gaffe that led to a turnover which set up Bradley Wright-Phillips’ 55′ goal.
“I get caught and I fucked up, to be completely honest, trying to play out of the back,” he said.
“I have to take responsibility for that because I don’t think the guys deserved to lose this game.”
He then voiced his disappointment for how the season in general has gone, but echoed the sentiments of his manager Veljko Paunovic in vowing to not give up.
“It’s a culmination of just a really frustrating season,” McCarty said. “We’re not going to give up. We’re going to continue to fight until someone says that we don’t have a chance to make the playoffs anymore.”
It’s been such a forgettable season on the pitch that the most news-worthy Chicago Fire story line this season has been in the stands surrounding it.
These days, the Chicago Fire are making headlines mostly for conflict between the club and supporter groups. Unprompted, Dax McCarty commented on this situation.
Dax McCarty brought up the fans tonight and mentioned the ongoing drama with supporters’ groups. #cf97 pic.twitter.com/d3uHsPSKnV
— Danny Santaromita (@TheDanSanto) August 12, 2018
You got to hand it to Dax McCarty, he wore his heart on his sleeve and pulled no punches tonight.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud and YouTube. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to any and all of his.