Just back from the game. Commence straight bourbon shots (medicine). I'm also awaiting ratdog's analysis...
Amen to this- saw at least one handball first half, and at least 2 the second. As far as the game went, individually we have skilled players- but do they work as a team? Except for short spurts, they don't seem to gel, and passing? Many times, not so hot.
First game in person of the year........singing the sad lo lo lo lo's tonight Like some have said, just overall frustrating, another ********ing tie, who do we think we are? Chelsea at home? bad desicon making, when you are in a spot where you aint scoring goals, you gotta shoot when you can. dont hold back waiting for a betters chance, dont take a touch, shoot the freaking ball. All day we took the ball up the field, and couldnt do shit with it. Our defense was solid pretty much the whole game, and it did take a great save from Ries at the end, but still, we should all have serious doubts if this team can contend for a title. Im not saying we suck or anything, but im talking about contending for title, which we wont if we play like this all year long.
Interesting stats for the game- we had 7 shots on goal to the Revs 3, we had 2 saves to their 6, we had 8 corners to their 1. Fire had 6 fouls, Revs 17 We should have won this one. Attendance was 11,288
another fricken tie. I can't believe our poor passing and shooting. We can't cross the ball and find McBride's head or any other fire player to save our collective lives. POINT BLANK SHOTS BY ROLFE,BLANCO AND THORRINGTON MANAGE TO NOT FIND THE NET. CONDE PLAYED WELL EXCEPT FOR CLEARING THE BALL RIGHT TO JOSEPH.
I don't know that ref's name, but I have never seen him have a good game. I should go find it out so I can remember it. Not just games w/ the fire, I saw him totally ruin some game FCD was playing, and I've seen him give some terrible (highlight worthy bad) calls that made Fox Soccer report. Prudeaux got elbowed like 2 ft in front of him, and he calls the foul on Preadaux? There were 3 clear handballs within 30 seconds and he only acknowledged one (calling advantage) but not giving the clearly deserved penalty. Nyarko was dragged down (professional foul) during an attack and no yellow was given. It wasn't all our way, he had some terrible calls going both ways.
By my count, thats the first time we have scored from a corner kick in over a year. And you have to go back to *before* the 2008 season to find a time when we actually headed/volleyed in a corner for a goal as opposed to a knock-the-ball-around-after-a-corner goal. That's really poor. Conde MOTM Mapp... why? Sega: missed Wasted opportunities: Blanco, Rolfe, Thor, Nyarko.
Mapp looked a few levels of quality below Pappa.. why do we pay him so much? Why is Pappa automatically subbed out in the 75-80th minute? is he not fit to go 90 minutes? or is dennis hamlett just a moron? Rolfe looked lost out there. The whole offense has lost a little bit of directness, I think. Blanco's game is always to slow things down, take a few touches, and try to hit a good ball, but it seems like the whole team does that now. it's not working. we can't cross for shit. this NE team was unbelievably ordinary. We should've had a penalty. But we should've created more chances and put some of them away. srsly.
This team as of right now defines the meaning of 'frustrating'. And no I don't have anything to add to the above except the above. /me downs more and more bourbon... /me celebrates at least a 'hawks victory tonight. /me passes out...
Disclaimer: It's 2:00am and I'm drunk and I don't care. The entire Fire organization should feel embarrassed tonight. THey should feel humiliated. What a crappy game. We did the absolute bare minimum in the 1st half but then fell apart in the 2nd. No offensive plan or creativity in the 2nd half. ANOTHER SISTER********ING FAR POST GOAL given away. I'm writing my Fire season ticket rep and asking her to tell Denis two words: "Far. Post." The whole team was a disappointment. Even Austin Washington should feel shame and he didn't even play. And the ref. What a piece of shit he was. He was a complete turd even by USSF standards and that's REALLY the shits. But he's not the reason we lost two points. We lost two points because our coach can't get this team to perform to its potential and the players apparently think that mediocrity is just fine thankyouverymuch. Oh but WE'RE UNDEFEATED! Well ******** that shit because I take a big steaming dump on your "undefeated". I'd trade "undefeated" for a loss in Columbus and wins against Seattle and this injury-riddled Revs team that is in disarray but we can't beat them. I don't know how I'm gonna force myself to watch the game tape for this piece of shit. Goddam it.
He should be pissed - AT HIMSELF! He's a shadow of the GOTY we saw last year. WTF???!!!! Dear Mr. Hamlet, BACK POST, MOTHERFUKER!!!! DO YOU SPEAK IT? Amen. and when a defender is your MOTM, that makes Jesus cry. About what we expect. Kiss Europe goodbye if you keep playing like this, kid. Can someone please tell me why Thorrington spent at least 70% of his time BEHIND Pause. WTF? He gets a 4 for needlessly slowing down our attack which is really disappointing after he kicked ass v. Seattle. Also a 4. Possibly his worst game this year. Chris, some friendly advice: You're riding teh pine, bro. When you get a chance, YOU HAVE TO GRAB IT WITH BOTH HANDS AND DOMINATE IT. In other words, next time don't do what you did tonight. this guy used to play in England? Really? For who? York City FC? "6"? what did he do to get a "6"? The kid had cement feet tonight. Should get used to sitting on the bench at kickoff. Rating s/b "2". A monumental waste of a sub. Brought nothing. Had no effect on the game. He is third on the depth chart behind Pappa and Banner. At least Banner will try to win balls and errant passes. Trade him for an Etch-A-Sketch for Denis and a warm can of Boag's Light.
OFFENCE McBride – He was pretty much silent. Blame the midfield or whatever, but he needs to move better off the ball. Rolfe – Despite what a lot of posters have said in the past, I think he should have been a SUB this game. [SUB]Nyarko – He never had the opportunity to utilize his speed, I blame the midfield. MIDFIELD Blanco – Compared to how he played vs. Seattle Blanco sucked. His touch was way off. Thorrington – He was all over the field. Pause – A subpar performance and likely a good reason we lacked possession. Pappa – Not horrid, but he was subbed out for the lack of ability to win balls in the midfield. [SUB]Mapp – He never was able to get into the flow of the game. He sprinted a couple times for a loose ball, but really didn’t do much. DEFENSE Busch – Don’t blame the goal on him. Yet, he had a fumble, we could have been 2 down, perhaps he’s not communicating with his back line well enough. Ward – He screwed up w/ Joseph. He should have marked him better, but save that screw up decent. Props to him going forward regardless ~ he needs to work on his crosses however. Conde – Sure he scored, but I expect better of him on defense. Prideaux – The typical. He was on Par. He didn’t cost us any goals, his lack of speed was negated by our team performance. Bakary – I would say an okay performance. Not his best, but comparatively could have been a lot worse.
That's pretty harsh. Bakary manned up on him, then as soon as Ward went to cover the player streaking into the box, Bakary let Joseph go to mark the next guy over. I don't blame Ward, as when he left Joseph to cover the streaking player, Bakary was marking him, then left him. Though truthfully, it was a deflection, and not anyone's fault, unless you wanna blame Conde for deflecting it. Edit: Watching the replay again, it was clearly Bakary's mark. Clearly.
With all due respect, you give our guys too much credit. We will not end this season undefeated. Our "luck," if you want to call it that, will run out. Think of the teams that we have not played yet. We keep playing like this, and we will have more losses than wins, and a bunch of ties. Miss home-field advantage? We may end up missing the playoffs altogether. 8/30 matches are in the books. At the pace we are on, we will end with 45 points. And this from not having lost yeat. Just for the sake of it, if we lose at BMO next week, we will be on a 40pt pace. disclaimer: I didn't attend the match or watch it in its entirety, I am just going by what I have read on the write-ups, summaries, and fan comments. The ref: did not cause 3(?) wide open shots to miss the net. He did not clear the ball to Shalrie's feet. So, leave him out of it. We are not C-bust, blaming our failures on the ref's part. If we had gotten 3 points, few would care about missed calls except as a counter to the other team's bitching about refs. Other than Blanco, the owners/off the field leadership of this team's key word is: CHEAP. They went CHEAP with Denis, and it shows. They went CHEAP with the marketing and it shows. Having said that, if we demote Denis back to assistant, or end his career with us, who do we replace him with? Sigi isn't unemployed, and neither is Bradley, Preki, Nowak, Kubik, Yallop, Arena. Who do we get then? Ruud and his "sexy soccer?" No, thanks. Frank would have to take the reins himself, I suppose. Again, first or second thing out of the team's mouth is "Fire are still undefeated." How about this: "Fire still can't win." Good weather? 11,288 (which, coincidentally, is exactly 1k more than last week) on a Saturday? Next home match should be warmer and when the kids are out of school. They need to win not just for the points and to keep from falling in the standings, they need to win on the road against a team above them in the standings to get larger numbers. We're tired of ties, absolutely, but we better get our shit together and win before someone like TFC says: "Well, we have a solution for ya if you are tired of ties ." I sent a thank-you e-mail to Walgreen's for sponsoring the Green Night last night. The reusable bags (that push the Fire brand everywhere they are carried in public are a fantastic and CHEAP idea, although it's just too bad that the Fire could not have come up with it themselves. And the revs apparently hate us more than we hate them, because they always fight us, and don't give up. It seems that they save some of their best matches for when we are their opponent.
qft I'll add that even those who are not playing for the team anymore (Jesse, Piotr, Frank, Chris) are probably ashamed. edit ps: Is anyone else having severe lag with MLS Text Alerts? I got the alert for the goal sometime around when the match ended, and did not even get a "Final Score" alert. This has happened before. So last night, I am cruising along on my forktruck, kinda mad that we only got 1 goal, thinking the match has either ended or will soon end, and SURPRISE! we give up a goal.. If the team won't do it, the guy in charge of the alerts will give me a heart attack.
As an aside, we are on a pace of 45pts at the end of this season. As an aside, the fake-Goats are 1/3 of the way through their campaign, and are on a 72.6pts pace. I miss Jesse.
If I were the manager, I think I'd bench everyone. Leave them all at home and take all the reserves to Toronto. And I wouldn't care if Toronto beat us 15 - 0. Maybe it'd wake some people up. Screw 'em. If they can't manage to mark, if they can't manage to move the ball quickly, if they want to dick around and slow the game down, they can do it on somewhere else. These people are supposed to be pros. Start acting like it.
I watched it again and again and it appears to me (and a recently retired Fire defender I spoke with this morning) that Baky was covering the middle and he had his back to Joseph because Ward was in front of him. Ward drifted toward the center without saying a word, didn't pick up either of the the 2 Revolts he left Baky to cover, and let Joseph take a stroll in the park in the process. In short, Ward FU. I never heard Section 8 give the YFU chant to any Fire player before, but if Fire defenders keep giving away goals to our opponents, we might start a new tradition.
Dude, you crossed the line. Not by much, but ya did. To be fair, you got off pretty easily, really. I usually neg rep the trolls, and the fact that I haven't negged you so far is an indication of the penalty befitting the crime. Enjoy the fact that we busted your 2-match slump.
Thanks for making my point. Sure I hate the Fire but I don't wish injury on your team or anyone. That's what I figured would be the only common ground we'd have as fans of our respective teams but apparently not. All the best to the classy Chicago Fire fans that read this thread (if such a thing exists). See ya next time.
I don't know all *that much* about soccer, but it seemed that Ward moved to track a guy moving to the ball across the top of the 18 yard area, which seemed like a good move, because that guy could have received a pass and put a shot on goal. Joseph had 2 defenders between him and the ball, so I don't know if that was a bad move on his part. I can't put any blame, like some are, on Conde for his "clearance". It wasn't a clearance, it was a reaction move to try and block a shot, and it just so happened to redirect the ball just past Baky, and right to Joseph. Personally, I don't think anyone is to blame for that goal, the ball got lucky and happened to fall to an open guy, and he made us pay, unlike Rolfe (who I like, but who happened to have an equally good opportunity) who didn't make his chance count.