Match Day #5 Review

Match Day #5 Rewind

                The Fire went north of the border in search of 3 points in Toronto and found them. The only problem is that it wasn’t as easy as people thought it was going to be. Toronto went into the game looking for their 1st points of the season and that’s why many people, including myself, thought that it wouldn’t be as tough as it actually was. The game couldn’t have started any better for the Fire shortly after the Kevin Stott started the first half. Kocic collected the ball in his own area and non chalantly rolled the ball out to Frings who was immediately was put under pressure by Nyarko who deflected an attempted pass right to Oduro. Oduro then took the ball into Toronto’s area and coolly slotted it home into the back of the net to record the fastest goal in Fire history at 25 seconds. The Fire kept up the pressure right after the goal and controlled the game and even had golden opportunity to double the lead in the 11^th minute when Oduro had another breakaway off of a Toronto turn over, but this time Kocic made the save.

The Fire continued with the pressure until Toronto tied the game up in the 36^th minute when the Bermudan, Reggie Lambe, scored off a rebound of a corner kick. He collected the ball outside the 18 on the left side after Johnson had punched clear. Pause was a little late in closing down the space and Lambe blasted the ball home with what will surely be the GOTW(Goal of the Week). This brought the crowd and Toronto back to life and they took control and put the Fire on the back foot. Less than 2 minutes later Lambe found the back of net again off of a cross through the box that should have been cleared by a Fire defender but was not.

The Fire did have the proper response after Toronto took the lead. Grazzini took a free kick on the far right side about 40 yards out and floated it into the box where Segares with a deft little touch put it home past Kocic. It was in my mind the perfect set piece that can be taken. The ball was floated into space where it froze Kocic and Segares snuck behind the defense in order to get the touch. This effectively took Toronto and the crowd back out of the game.

The 2^nd half started and the Fire kept control of the game and limited Toronto’s opportunities. In the 58^th minute the Fire struck on a counterattack. After Pause had collected the ball in the defensive end he found Oduro near midfield, who in turn found a streaking Nyarko. Nyarko collected the through ball and rounded Kocic near the top of the box and put it in the goal. After the Fire scored, Klopas decided to sub Pappa and Grazzini in the 65^th and 79^th minutes respectively. This effectively ended all possession in the middle of the park for the Fire and put them on the defensive for the rest of the game. There were a couple chances that Toronto had during the rest of the game but the Men in Red hung on for the 3 points. I’ll go into the latter part of the second half in a little analysis after the player ratings.

Player Ratings

Johnson-(5) Had a good game despite giving up 2 goals and one of those was unstoppable.

Gargan-(5) Very active on the right side especially up in the attack.

Anibaba-(5) Played well, made a few key stops in the final 20 minutes.

Friedrich-(4) Caught out of position on Toronto’s 2^nd goal, looked a little hesitant throughout the 1^st half. I know Klopas says he is only about 75% but he needs to step up in a big way in order to have a shut down defense.

Segares-(5) Didn’t really make an impact in the game defensively but he did put a deft touch on the free kick by Grazzini to score the 2^nd Fire goal. Allowed Lambe to roam freely into the box on multiple occasions.

Pardo-(5) Disrupted multiple attacks and did his job well.

Pause-(5) Played well and worked well in combination with Pardo and Grazzini. Didn’t close down Lambe fast enough on Toronto’s 1^st goal.

Pappa-(5) Made a few good runs on the left side, still lazy when it comes to defense, and on a few other occasions he didn’t not give a lot of effort in making runs to support to the attack. Subbed out in the 65^th minute.

Grazzini-(6) controlled the middle well and created multiple attacks. Assisted on the goal by Segares by floating a beautiful free kick into the Toronto area. Subbed out in the 79^th minute.

Nyarko-(7) A beast of a game. Scored the game winning goal and was the best player on the pitch for the Fire.

Oduro-(6) Scored the opener by being in the right place at the right time. Slotted a great through ball to Nyarko for the game winner. Subbed out in the 84^th.

Puppo, Barouch, Paladini-(4) Came on as the Fire’s subs and really didn’t make any major impact. Work rate from all 3 was really good though.

                Well my final thoughts on the game, the Fire need to tighten up defensively. The second Toronto goal should not have happened, it was just a sloppy play by the defense to allow the ball to go through the box like it did. Maybe Johnson could have come out to snag the ball but we will  never know. One thing that bothered me during the last part of the 2^nd half was that the Fire were just sitting back and defending the lead. I don’t care what team you are, you cannot just sit back and defend like they did. This will eventually lead to points lost in the future. I also noticed that in the midfield that when a ball was played to a streaking player that those attacking players did not rush into the box. I specifically remember one play where Pappa released Segares down the line and there was only one player running into the box while 3 other midfielders were jogging to join the attack. Why does this happen? Hopefully these things can be assessed before next week’s game when the Fire returns home to take on Seattle.