About the only good thing that can be said about the Fire’s five-game July road stretch is that it’s over.
The Fire completed the trip with another dismal performance Wednesday in its 3-0 loss to the last-place San Jose Clash. The regulation victory was the first for the Clash (8-13) since May 23.
After winning the first game of the trip in Dallas, the Fire (13-9) has lost four straight while being outscored 13-3. A once comfortable lead for second place in the Western Conference has been trimmed to just eight points over Colorado.
On top of that, the Fire learned the injury to captain Peter Nowak is more serious than originally thought. An MRI showed a tear to the left medial collateral ligament in Nowak’s knee, which will sideline him three to six weeks. Nowak suffered the injury in the first half last Saturday against the MetroStars. It was his first game back after straining his hamstring July 9 and sitting out two games.
The Fire did welcome back Jerzy Podbrozny on Wednesday. He too had strained his hamstring July 9 and missed the last two games. Podbrozny was in the midfield Wednesday but couldn’t ignite a Fire attack that seldom threatened Clash goalkeeper David Kramer.
The Clash got on the board in the 32nd minute. Jeff Baicher chested the ball to Brandon Cloutier, who settled and fired a shot past Jorge Campos from just outside the Fire penalty area.
Two minutes before Cloutier’s goal, Campos made back-to-back outstanding saves of a Clash corner, first knocking away a John Doyle header and then smothering a Ronald Cerritos shot.
In the second half, the Fire had a chance to even the game when Chris Armas played a through ball to Josh Wolff, but Kramer came off his line and covered the ball before Wolff could reach it for a shot.
In the 63rd minute, the Fire won the ball at midfield and had a 4-on-2 advantage. Podbrozny played the ball ahead to Ante Razov, who deeked Kramer out of the play and shot toward an open net. Clash midfielder Eddie Lewis raced back and made a sliding clearance to keep the Fire off the board.
