What do we think? Will ATL's Fast and Furious attack overwhelm a questionable Fire backline? Will Chicago's revamped midfield of Juninho and Dax win the battle in the middle? How will our defense hold up against the pace of David Accam? I'm predicting a 2-1 ATL victory.
I've yet to see Chicago play this year so I can't say for sure how much they've improved, but they've obviously made progress over the 2016 model so good for them. Good news is that it sounds like AU is healthy and brimming with confidence after last week. Hopefully the continual building of chemistry will pay off as well as the improved game fitness, because every game they've played has shown comparable form and generally improved play. Still working out defensive kinks but (based on last year) Chicago isn't the most potent offensive threat. I'm curious if the defense has been issued a challenge and if they might be able to step up? This is a good game for truly rounding the team into form, and to see if Kann can actually manage the defense into something capable of shutting down seemingly weaker opponents. Thus far that's been a big issue and I'm not sure if it's language, focus, skill or some other obstacle, but it would be nice to see them forge 90 minutes of solid D and allow the offense to operate without fear of chasing too much in the home third. IF that happens it should permit Almiron and Co. to keep Dax and Juninho on the back foot. Hopefully the pressure and the atmosphere will feed the beast, as it were, and allow AU to not only be on top early but to keep the pressure on for the full game. Possible I'm still overly optimistic on the limited opportunities to watch the team play but I like the chances. 3-1 to the home side, with hopefully a noticeable drop in the number of sour chants and objects thrown from the stands. Over/under on minutes for Jones - 15
The longer we're together, the longer we gel We need to put in a 90 minute performance and avoid sudden loss of nerve like we showed for ten minutes of so at the end of the first half in Minnesota over/under on Jones singing the national anthem -8