Fire hope progress carries them into MLS playoffs

Coach Frank Klopas sees a lot of growth around the Fire.

Before owner Joe Mansueto took over, they were lagging behind their peers. Since then, the Fire (10-13-10, 40 points) have invested heavily in the front office, and money hasn’t been much of an issue for the soccer side of the organization.

There just hasn’t been a playoff berth yet, though that could arrive this weekend.

“We are very close,’’ Klopas said. ‘‘The mission and the goal for the team is to be winning trophies and championships. Getting in the playoffs is the first step, and as a club and a team we haven’t been there in a long time. So that’s the last part, getting the on-field stuff right and bringing in players with quality, but also having that culture and doing whatever it takes for the success of the club.”

But because of their struggles earlier this season, even a victory Saturday at New York City FC might not be enough to make the playoffs.

Entering the last weekend of the regular season, the Fire sit 11th in the Eastern Conference. Only nine teams in the East will advance to the postseason. A victory plus a loss or tie by CF Montreal or the Red Bulls would get the Fire into the playoffs for the first time since 2017. A tie against NYCFC (8-11-14, 38 points) would also be enough if the Crew beat the Red Bulls and Charlotte doesn’t beat Inter Miami.

It’s all very complicated, and it’s something the Fire could’ve avoided with better results early on. There was the slow start under coach Ezra Hendrickson that got him sacked in May, and puzzling results such as the 2-0 loss to Charlotte just days after the emphatic victory against Miami in front of more than 62,000 fans.

Because of those stumbles, the Fire enter the biggest game of the season against NYCFC, which also has a chance to advance, knowing they don’t control their own fate.

“We just have to take care of business, and then we’ll see what happens with the rest,” Klopas said. “But we have to kind of control our situation first, then hopefully some things go our way.”

That’s probably not what most expected to hear four years into the Mansueto project. Mansueto’s purchase in 2019 gave the Fire and their fans legitimate hope that things would turn around.

Though there are still reasons for optimism, the Fire are in playoff contention on the season’s final day for only the second time in four years. In 2020, they narrowly missed out on a playoff field that was expanded because of the pandemic. This year, they’re only alive at the end thanks to the league’s new format that added two teams from each conference but enter Saturday nine points back of the old seventh-place cutoff.

Regardless, making the playoffs would represent a step forward. Getting left out would leave a bruise.

“We are close,” Klopas said. “But if we don’t do it, then we have to take a hard look and see the steps that we have to take, and they are not going to be easy steps in order to get there and be a club that’s consistently there every year.”