Match Day #13 Rewind and a Look At The 2 Week Break

So we all know what happened Saturday night in Boston. While watching the game I thought to myself during the first half, "Hey we're actually looking okay, creating some chances, and not giving up too many chances. We might actually win this game." The second half started and we looked great up until the substitution that brought Rolfe on for Oduro. What happened next is in no way Rolfe's fault, I just think that the sub disrupted our flow of possession and good attacking soccer. What happened next was just an embarrassment. The Fire made New England's attacking corps look like they should be playing for Barcelona. The way our defense fell asleep and let them walk right in to score the 2 goals was just unbelievable. After the 2 goals were scored it was the good old Fire we have come to know this year, start playing with a sense of urgency when trailing.

I really thought the Fire had a good chance of pulling out a win on Saturday but they didn't. Add this to the disappointment of the US Open Cup exit and 3 MLS games that only produced 3 points, I ask my self "What's next?". Does Frank have a magical signing that will put us over the edge when it comes playoff time? Will we miss out on the playoffs yet again? All of this boils down to whether or not Andrew wants this team to be a winner or if he is just comfortable with it being mediocre. With Andrew being our owner I'm leaning with the latter. Ever since he bought the club I have never liked him and have always stated that he is not a good owner for the this team. The past couple years we have seen this, as well as who he has for his right hand man that works with him in dealing with club decisions. I feel there is just something holding this team back. I hear that Klopas has final say when it comes to players on his roster, but how much of that is true. Javier Leon, Andy's right hand man, used to be CDUSA CEO and now he is in charge of informing Andrew about what would be good for his project and also some talent evaluation. Well we all know how well Chivas USA has done in the past.

With that being said imagine how a conversation would look like if Frank found a player that would fit into the system.
Frank: "Javier I found a player that could put us over the top."
Javier: "Really?"
Frank: "Yeah, he is a clinical finisher and could really help."
Javier: "Okay I'll let the boss know."
Javier then goes to speak with Andrew.
Javier: "Hey boss, Frank might have found a player."
Andrew: "Tell me more."
Javier: "Well he is a forward that will cost this much, but I found a guy down in Uruguay that is cheaper and I think he will work out well in the MLS."
Andrew: "Well I like the sound of the second guy."

Well those might not be the exact words but you can imagine. Maybe Frank is being held back because of Javier and Andrew. We may never know. But what I do know is that this club has to do something in order to make the playoffs. They have to make some changes in order to get this team to be a well oiled machine that we come to expect from our history. The pessimist in me says that with Andy be a vacant owner and only caring about profit(ie see investment into 2nd Star Club that everyone is lining up to be a part of) this team will only be mediocre. Because we all know that mediocrity and not winning sells tickets. But being a fan I will be there cheering on the Fire win or lose, but if they lose I'm not going to idly sit there and not let my voice be heard. So here's to a 2 week break and when we come back let's hope the Fire are back with renewed focus and ready to destroy the pink cows on the 17th.

As always please leave comments and now for a break for at least a week. Hopefully the players get some rest and we have more of a full roster than we have had in the past couple weeks.

Match day #13 Preview

So the Fire take on the Revolution later on this evening in an Eastern Conference showdown and a rivalry that actually is not made up. For years New England had the Fire's number in the playoffs especially up until a couple years ago. Yeah that's right, about the time that this team stopped making the playoffs.

New England has actually surprised me this as I thought with the announcement that long time coach Steve Nichol was being let go for inexperienced and former Rev Jay Heaps. When I heard the announcement I thought that New England fans were going to be in for a world of hurt this season, but the fact of the matter is that even with a first year coach they have been playing better as of late. New England has a full injury list but should be able to field some quality players such as Benny Feilhaber, Sharlie Joseph, and newcomer Saer Sene. Sene has proven to be the goal scorer that the Revs have needed, so far scoring 7 goals in 11 games. The Fire defense have a tough night a head of them and mental mistakes like what happened on Tuesday against the Bucks and Saturday against the Crew cannot happen.

I see Frank sticking with almost the same lineup as he has used all season long. Johnson in goal, a 4 man back line of Gargan, Anibaba, Berry, Segagares as Gibbs is still out until the end of the season, Kinney still has the worst luck of any player, and Friedrich gets ready to make his return on 17th. In the mid field I see the usual Pardo and Pause as DM, Nyarko on the left, Grazzini in the middle, with Pappa away on national team duty I would love to see Paladini or Bone get the start on the right. I never want to see Robayo ever grace the field in Fire red again after his crap displays on Tuesday and Saturday. That means a 2 man front which I would love to see Oduro and Barrouch up top. Good news this week is that Rolfe is ready to go but in a limited capacity. I can see him coming off the bench in the second half and seeing limited action due to the weather conditions and the fact that the game is being held on field turf.

This is a tricky game to call as both teams are just in a state of mediocrity to sub par performing right now. I'll go with a 1-1 tie tonight as both sides get some chances but the majority of the game will be a rough battle in the middle.

The Last Week and a Half That Was

First off I have to apologize to my readers(if I actually have more than 2) about my lack of posts lately. Lets just say work and other things at home have occupied most of my time lately.
Well onto the week and a half that was. It started out with a trip to visit the Portland Timbers on May 20th which ended in a listless loss to a team that at the time was sitting near the bottom of the West and had trouble finding the back of the net. Well the Fire gave up 2 goals from corners and were very ineffective offensively and defensively. Follow that up with a very ugly and lucky win at home versus FC Dallas where the Fire had 2 goals, one a brilliant strike by Grazzini and the other a lucky rebound off a PK by Pappa that by following the rules of the game should not have counted. The only good thing that came out of the game against Dallas was the fact that Chicago got back the Brimstone Cup which has eluded the Fire for quite some time. They finished off the first week by travelling to Columbus and resting a couple starters they put on a display of utter crap in front of 600+ fans that travelled to see them play. Well I thought that crap couldn't get any worse, well it started to steam and collect tons of flies. The Fire finished off 4 games in 10 days by a display that was one of the worst I have ever seen since the beginning. Lets just say that the Fire went into their 3rd round US Open Cup match up against PDL side Michigan Bucks fielding a reserve side with 2 starters in the team. Well instead of going into the details we lost in a tournament that the club is supposed to hold dear to its heart. It was a performance that I and many other fans are calling pathetic and a disgrace. Most of the players that took the field against a 4th division side played with no heart, they played like it was a friendly. Granted the game took place indoors on turf, but that is no excuse where only 2 maybe 3 players played with heart and with a purpose of I don't know earning their pay check. Well they lost and there is nothing they can do about it. But I ain't done yet.......


So after witnessing absolute garbage in 4 games(I'm not including the garbage games before that), I have come to the conclusion that there is only one person to blame for this. Now remember this is only my opinion so yes I can be wrong but I can also be right. The person I blame for this, as much as I think Andrew is a bad owner for this team, but I actually blame Frank. Frank was the one responsible for the line ups he put on the field for both Saturday and Tuesday night. He is the one responsible for for getting the team prepared for both games. (Why do I talk about the Saturday and Tuesday games specifically is because they were just absolutely horrible.) It's his responsibility to make tactical changes throughout the game also. As a coach he has to adapt to the way each game is going and Frank could not do that. Apparently he underestimated a 4th division PDL team when he fielded a reserve team with 2 regular starters. Why did he not field his strongest side possible? Did he think that Tuesday was going to be a cake walk? Did he think that Saturday was going to be easy so he could give some regular starters some rest? Is he actually a good judge of talent? This roster is his now. What I mean is that all the players on this roster he had the final say, except for Logan Pause, that if the team signs them or not. The players on the field Tuesday were all brought in under his watch and they couldn't even beat a 4th division side. I don't want to go into any specific players because I don't want to over analyze any specific player. Frank on the other hand has the responsibility of putting together, coaching, and preparing a team that is good enough to win every single trophy that can be won. He also has a responsibility to put a team together that will make Chicago proud and take pride in wearing the Fire crest close to their heart. I feel as though this team does not have the ability to win the MLS Cup because as of right now that's the only other cup this team can win. Who knows though, I could be wrong; this Alex kid coming over later this summer might be sensational, maybe Frank has an impact player or 2 in mind for a summer transfer later this summer. Who knows for sure except for the man who I think is to blame for the current rough spell, Frank Klopas.

Well that's my $.02, the Fire face a tough test this coming Saturday as they travel to take on the Revolution. Will we see a different Fire from Saturday and Tuesday? I sure to hope so because if we don't we it will be a long hot summer of mediocre soccer here in the city of Chicago.

Quick Match Day #10 Review

The Fire took on the Timbers in Portland on Sunday night. Those of us that witnessed this match can attest to the minutes of great play that the Fire demonstrated and the rest of the game that the Fire demonstrated how not to play. The eventual out come of the game was a 2-1 victory for the Timbers who scored on 2 corners, their first corner conversions of the season. The Fire had only one reply when late in the first half Pappa appeared to shot from long distance and the worm burner that he produced found its way to the feet of Anibaba who calmly put it in the back of the net. Other than that the Fire's midfield were ineffective, Oduro had nothing, and the defense could not clear anything and gave up 11 corners to the Timbers. One thing that I noticed is that the Fire midfield cannot play a physical game. Every time that Grazzini and even Oduro for that matter felt any contact they went down in a heap looking for a call. When are they going to realize this doesn't work all the time and it actually hurts the team more than anything. My final thoughts are that if the Fire cannot get max points from Dallad on Wednesday and C-bus on Saturday than this team is in trouble. There are alot of things that are not working right now for the Fire. Some people might say " Hey its working they tied RSL and beat SKC". My answer to that would be that RSL rested key starters realizing the big game that they had on the following Saturday against Seattle. And in response to the SKC win is that they played a large portion of that game against a team down to 10 players and the Fire didn't look dominating in the majority of that game until SKC were reduced to 10 men. Well here's to the FIre actually showing that either they can be a playoff contender or another pretender.

The Week That Was Rewind

Going into this past week the Fire were facing 2 of the top teams in the league at home. This was going to a week that was going to show if the Fire were contenders, average, or pretenders. Personally I thought that draws against RSL on Wednesday and and SKC on Saturday would have been seen as a good result. Well they tied RSL 0-0 in what was a boring game after the first 15 minutes and they were able to beat SKC 2-1 on what was a chippy game.

On Wednesday the Fire went in to the game playing an understrengthed RSL team. Missing a few starters RSL came in looking just to get a result. The first 15 minutes of the match were back and forth end to end with opportunities for both teams. Especially when Oduro came closest to scoring when he was left unmarked and got his head to a cross that he put off the cross bar. But after that the game changed for the worse. RSL had to sub out their most creative player, Javier Morales, in the 26th minute leaving them short of the creativity that would be necessary to break down the Fire's defense. So Kries ended up going into a defensive shell and  playing out the rest of the match pushing for the point. The only other highlight for the rest of the match was at halftime when CJ Brown became the 7th person to enter the Ring of Fire which was well deserved and long over due since he announced his retirement at the end of 2010.

Moving on to the more exciting match of the week. Saturday night the Fire took on SKC in a battle of the made up rivals. Seriously, KC had to invent a rivalry, pretty sad on their part. This match was much more entertaining and more chippy at times as both sides saw plenty of yellow and even one red card. The match started as both sides looked to strike early but KC found the net first after a defensive lapse or a perfectly timed through ball(which ever way you look at it) found Espinoza breaking in behind the defense who then found Convey in the middle of the box who put it in past Johnson. One thing that could have caused this goal was that Friedrich had to be subbed off right before the goal with what looked like a hamstring injury which caused Klopas to bring in Gargan and move Anibaba to the center. To me having both Anibaba and Berry in the center there was not a lot of communication in the back and with having a not as strong vocal presence in Johnson doesn't help either. After the goal in the 31st, KC dominated the possession until the 2nd half when in the 61st minute Oduro got in behind the KC defense and was brought down by Collin inside the box. The resulting PK was calmly buried into the upper corner by Grazzini. From there the game started to go the Fire's way. Less than a minute after the restart SKC's Espinoza earned himself a straight red with what looked like a hit that looked right out of a hockey game. He was going after the ball and left his feet and caught Grazzini in the head with an elbow. After that the Fire enjoyed the possession for the rest of the match and even found a winner in the 81st when Oduro seemed to get that last touch on the ball after Nyarko had put it into the center and there was a pile up as the ball was put in over the line. It was an ugly goal but it got the 3 points and that is all that mattered.

These results that the Fire were able to produce was much more than I expected. This puts them in a comfortable position in the East still with games in hand compared to the 3 teams that sit above them in the standings. But still the Fire have to prove that tey can beat the elite teams in the league to call themselves a contender. Its fine and dandy that they tied an understrengthed RSL team and that they were able to get all 3 points from a 10 man SKC team, but this is not always going to be the case when they come up against the other top teams in the league. The Fire still have plenty to work on in all aspects of their game. In my opinion they are still not a cup contender, but if they can take maximum points from these next 3 games then I will start to change my mind a little about their chances.

The Fire have another long week starting on the 20th when they travel to Portland to take on a mediocre Timbers team followed by a home date against the Brimstone Cup Rivals,FC Dallas, on the 23rd , finishing with a trip to the Firehouse East to cap which would be 3 games in 6 days. Look fr my preview of the long week later this week.

Match Day #7 Review and Match Day #8 and #9 Preview

Match Day #7 Rewind and Match Day #8 and #9 Preview

                The Fire went into Friday night needing to take all 3 points from Chivas USA and they did just that, though they left it late. It was a game that did not come easy for the Fire either. Yet again the opposing team had the majority of the possession but the Fire took finished their chances when they came to them despite a fantastic effort from CDUSA keeper Dan Kennedy. CDUSA got on the board first when rookie Austin Berry was judged to bring down Moreno in the box. This led to a PK that was calmly buried by Angel. I was surprised that the Fire responded as quickly as they did. Off of a cleared corner, Grazzini gathered the ball and chipped it back into the box where Berry atoned for his early PK and touched the ball past Kennedy. After the equalizer it was all Chivas when it came to possession and chances. At this point, in my opinion, the Fire looked like they were content just sitting back and waiting for a chance to break on the counter. But that chance didn’t happen because Chivas like Seattle were employing almost the same tactics and the Fire were kept away from the ball and had no solid attack. They also employed the hack-a-Grazzini technique which anybody could see watching the game visibly took him out of the game. This may offend people but Grazzini needs to toughen up and keep playing until the whistle. I understand that he does get fouled and the ref is not calling those fouls but every time he gets touched he goes down in a heap. He actually hurts the team when he goes down and pouts to ref that he is not getting any calls. Talking about the ref, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was any mention this week of Valencia’s gut punch to Oduro or Oduro’s retaliatory kick to Valencia’s leg. Well enough about that, the Fire ended up subbing Oduro and Grazzini to bring on Robayo and Puppo. These subs changed the outlook of the game and added a spark that was missing. That’s when deep into stoppage the killer P’s combined to score the winning goal. Pardo passed to Pappa who combined with Puppo along with a dummy from Robayo and the ball ended up with Pappa who slotted it into the far bottom corner for the winner. I’m glad they got the 3 points but why did it take them until the the last 10 minutes of the game to have any sense of urgency about winning? The Fire seem to be pretty content about sitting back and trying to counter attack when they get the ball and this is not going to work all season. They are going to have to do something in order to keep a hold of the ball and maintain a constant attack all game long.

                That brings us to the previews for this coming week. Since the work thing is going to get in the way of writing individual previews. So here it is in a nutshell, the Fire are playing 2 of the top teams in the league, RSL on Wednesday and SKC on Saturday(both at home). The way that the Fire have been playing all season it will be tough for them to actually get the maximum 6 points from the next 2 games. I would be surprised to see them get 2 points because RSL and SKC are teams that have not had much turnover the last 2 years and both have built strong squads. But if the Fire can play 2 great games they stand the chance at taking all 6 points and moving further up the standings. But the pessimist side of me thinks that they will tie RSL on Wednesday 1-1 and lose to SKC 3-1 on Saturday. I hope I’m wrong about that and the team proves me wrong. Look for my game reviews after the SKC game next Saturday.

Match Day #6 Rewind and Match Day #7 Rant

Match Day #6 Rewind and Match Day #7 Rant

                Well on a cold and chilly night in Chicago the Fire fell to the Seattle Sounders 2-1. I’m not going to go into details about the game because we all know what took place. The Fire started the game off really well, creating multiple attacks that flowed through the midfield as best as I’ve seen this season and then Seattle scored the first goal. The half ended and the game went 180 degrees in the wrong direction in the second half. Apparently “Fat Sigi” changed his tactics and took the Fire’s game plan and threw it in the garbage. Seattle pressed high and took the Fire’s midfielders out of the game which resulted in the defense being under pressure and having to launch long balls towards Oduro. Frank apparently had no tactical change to counter this. This was pretty much what the Fire were doing this until Seattle scored their second goal after sloppy play in the box. After going down 2-0 they finally realized a sense of urgency. Well, Pappa scored a lucky goal off a direct corner kick. At the end of the game there was a scuffle that I did not see but it resulted in Frank and Anibaba suspended for this Friday’s match.

                The Fire travel Friday to the Home Depot Center to take on the Fake Goats. Instead of going through the normal clichés of what the Fire have to do to win so I’m going to keep it nice and short. The Fire, in my opinion, have to win this game. If you want a game that is key to getting their season back on track and create some good momentum going into a tough stretch of games this is it. They have RSL on the 9^th, SKC on the 12^th, Timbers on the 20^th, FCD on the 23^rd and the Crew on the 26^th. That is a tough stretch for any team and the Fire need to try to get as many points as possible from this stretch. The coaching staff needs to figure out how to change up their game plan when the opposing team’s figure out that hack a Grazzini, a deep defense and high pressure will take the Fire out of their game plan. I know they can get 3 points on Friday if they play the way that we all expect them to but this past Saturday was an example of how this team can regress back into a team that will miss the playoffs for a 3^rd straight year. Expect more from me Saturday when I have a little more time to write more in-depth about the matches.