Alvarez really destroys our shape and game plan. He looks great on terrible teams, nor sure what he adds at this point.
Credit to Nelson for coming to the away section and thanking everyone after the game. It's easy when you win. It's not as easy when you're eliminated on the road to a lower division side on a weekday in a stadium that had a higher attendance than your capacity allows.
The first thing my son said to me when PKs ended was "I think the Fire should buy him(the GK)" he's 5
This. He cuts inside as an inverted winger should, but he almost always leaves Polster hanging out to dry with acres of ground to cover.
Alvarez should be a late game sub at this point in his career. He is not a 90 minute player and definitely not a 120 minute player. Vincent is not good. Polster had bad moments on the other side. Johnson plays too slow mentally. Too many touches when he has pass/shoot options. Lampson looked good, but not as good as the guy the Fire should buy. As a neutral, I was pulling for the Fire players, but I have to admit, I got wrapped up in cup magic, particularly with that keeper. Cincy fully deserved the win.
I'm not sure what Pauno's thinking was by not using all 3 subs. Why do you let old man Alvarez play 120 minutes is beyond me. He should have been the first one pulled off. I'm not sure what Juninho brings to the Fire. He was pretty invisible again. The Fire had their chances and failed to deliver. Lampson had a pretty good game, but I had that suspicion that it would not end well in PKs. If you are listening NRod, you should have never given up on the Milkman. Just saying.
Really, if we were gonna play like that we should have held off 24 hours to play the match so it would at least be on the anniversary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Lamar_Hunt_U.S._Open_Cup (For anyone having trouble figuring it out, 6/29/2010 - we lose to the Charleston Battery, going 0-3 against them in PKs after 120 scoreless minutes)
We really missed Dax and Accam. If those two played this would have been a completely different result.
Congrats to Cincy and especially their fans. They are MLS-worthy. As to the Fire, obviously this was Hauptman's fault.
Last night was a much more enjoyable game to watch compared to the Crew match in the previous round. Thought Cincy was done for when I saw their starting XI was missing their best striker (Djiby) and best mid (Walker) but they got the necessary defensive breaks and really showed some attacking prowess later in the match nearly taking it home in 90 then in extra time. Best of luck the rest of the season. I look forward to watching your remaining matches against NYC.
The Fire remain pretty easy to defend when Accam is out. Pawno adds nothing to this team that I can see. Juninho <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< McCarty 120 minutes on turf is not something I want to see done to Basti ever again. Team overall looked disdainful and surprised by Cinci's quality and effort at times, and paid for it frequently. I won't go so far as to say Cinci deserved the result, but the Fire can have no complaints.
Not talking about style of play, overall quality, etc. I said they fully deserved to win because they scored a perfectly good goal that was disallowed by a close, but horrible call by the AR, and because they should have had another goal on a PK from a pretty clear hand ball. VAR and that game never gets to penalty kicks.
Congrats to Cincinnati. Their Keeper was just at another level. I kinda want to see him in a Fire uniform.
Hats off to the fire for taking the game seriously and bringing a quality side even without accam and Dax. What a game. Hour late for work....worth it
I'd say this team doesn't have a clue on how to break down a team bunkering with the opposition throwing everyone behind the ball. We saw it against Orlando when they were down to 9 men and we saw it again last night with Cincinnati digging in at full strength.
We gave you guys everything we had and then some (Mitch!) on a special night for the sport in Cincinnati. I was terrified early on how good you were dominating possession, but as the match went on I thought maybe we had a chance. Chicago is clearly a great team, and I think they could win MLS Cup this year. I wish you all the best Fire fans, and I will never forget last night.