The super high power offense of the Chicago Fire will be back on display tonight against the surprisingly good Nashville something or other ("Nashville SC" so we say "Nashville SuCks"?). Wicky is attending to a family illness, so Klopas is in charge. The Fire have had three winning seasons since 2010, 2 were with Klopas at the helm. Nashville has been very good this season, with 4 wins, 7 draws and only a single defeat. Nashville are unbeaten at home with a 4-5-0. I am quite confident that the Fire will add to Nashville's loss column. Despite being a good defensive squad, how can they possibly cope with the attacking Juggernaut the Fire have?!? Of course, the Fire have managed 0 points on the road, so they have to contend with that. The Gold Cup has taken a couple of Nashville's best players (including MLS Defender of the Year Walker (don't call me Walter) Zimmerman and a Panamanian player), and also Calvo from the Fire, so net positive for the Fire. The Fire have momentum and this may be one of the better times to pick up some points on the road: Prediction: 2-1 (remember the caveat, I am always wrong). By the way, this is a bad picture. That looks like Offor's dad. For a kid who just turned 21, he looks old!
I’ve been gardening and cutting wood. If I’m still awake for the game I’ll be sure to have a drink for Wicky’s family.
First time predicting a game this season on Big Soccer actually before the game. I said on the pod I'm looking at a 2-2 draw, but looking at the funny numbers this is probably as good a chance as any for the Fire to get an away win. Good traveling support, an underperforming team, and a very amorphous strategy that's hard for a defense to fully get a read on since it can change at any moment. So I can easily see 2-1 or 3-2, but I'll stick with 2-2 for now.
We're all behind you, Rapha ❤️ pic.twitter.com/el858SMqBa— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) July 17, 2021 Wicky not at tonight's or Wednesday's games due to a serious health problem in the family.
Stolen from a post by @bunge in the most recent news thread: “I’m interested to see if Frank still plays [Frankowski] in the most recent box to box central midfield role he’s excelled at.”
Straight red to Kappelhoff. Was the worst 14 minute performance by a Fire defender ever? Give away for the first goal. Nowhere to be found for the second. Straight red for denying a goal scoring opportunity, free kick converted. Well, now it is 3-0, with a Mukhtar hat trick
That’s …umm….I don’t even know what to say. I went out to watch at my local that I’m trying to convert to a soccer bar and people were asking me if the Fire were any good. I replied by saying “No, but they’ve had a really good three game run. So let’s see what happens here.”
The Nashville announcers are talking about the fastest hat tricks in MLS history and they cannot pronounce Harut Karapetyan and then went on to say that "nobody remembers him."