Fire with 58% possession 9 corners to 3 and still I think they are lucky to walk away with a tie at home.
Other than the Kamara header, never felt like either team was gonna score still thought there were some good individual performances— just too many guys that aren’t gonna do much with the ball
My windows are still shaking from the woodwork rattler! What a blast. Fire lucky to survive that and the no peno call on Czichos. Taxi Fountas off the post from distance. #VamosUnitedThat close to finding the opener in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/HV9DaT8D09— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 2, 2023
Well perusing the official MLS highlights it was not included in the reel. From memory it was after Mueller tried to roof it near post and before Kamara's almost goal. Czichos first made a sloppy tackle near the sideline and could/should have received a possible yellow but did not and within a couple minutes had the second no call. I'd have to peruse the replay to find the exact minute but the announcers agreed it was a likely peno but the referee never reviewed. I agreed with the announcers. Give me some time and I will look for the exact minute. EDIT: the 69th minute or 68:19 to be exact. DC dribbling along the end line drops ball to Fountas and Czichos intervenes and tries to position his body to block/sheild the ball and Fountas gets tripped before either has the ball and goes down and ball magically megs Czichos and hits his back leg. Whistle blows and call is on Fountas and not the other way around. DC technical staff is livid and Czichos looks incredibly guilty but Fire smartly restart quickly before it goes to review. Incidentally it is the play directily BEFORE the same guy Fountas blasts the post.
Kacpar desrved to be taken out- so frustrating watching him tonight, regressing back to his norm. How does a dude so tall fail to be any kind of a presence in the air, and instead end up losing almost every header he contends for, often to players 4-5 inches shorter than him? But what was most telling was what happened after he left - we actually had a target striker!(!) Unfortunately Kamara is roughly 127 years old, but his positioning without the ball on the attack is infinitely better than what we get with Kacpar and it really exposes how shorthanded we are with him in the 9 spot. While Shaq wasn't playing, Mueller did a good job in the second half of filling his 'yell at your teammates and pout around the field' role. At one point around the 70th minute he basically screamed out 'can somebody get me the ball' clear as day. In his defense, he was open quite a bit on the wing, but also, maybe find a better way to comminicate it. Haile-Selassie looks good out there, until he doesn't. Gets open, moves the ball upfield, but doesn't seem to be able to play the ball to teammates particularly well in the attacking half or finish. Hopefully it's just him adapting to the team and the league, but when Shaq is healthy, you have to wonder where he fits in. I think the idea was for him to be the starter with Guti subbing in for him (or any of the midfield slots) as needed, but I can't say I'd support Ezra if Guti is the odd man out upon Shaq's return, no matter where he slots everybody. Dean isn't the answer at LB, and I have to wonder why Navarro isn't out there. I know Ezra had mentioned that we're 4-5-1 offensively but a 3-4-3 (or maybe more realistically some sort of 3-6-1) on offense (or something like that?) with the wingbacks moving forward, but Dean doesn't seem too confident on the ball, or an improvement over Navaro. I did notice Gaston dropping back on free kicks from our half and lining up with Czichos and Teran, and Souquet was definitely pressing on the right side, so idk. It will be good to have Fede and Shaq back, and I'm interested to see what we do with Torres when he returns too. I've heard we could use him as a CDM, but I can't see him starting over Gaston or a healthy Fede, and there's no room for him to start in the more attacking midfield roles, so it may end up we have a young DP slot used up on a depth piece. Anyway, glad we got the clean sheet- poor Brady- ends up being the second youngest goalkeeper in the entire history of the league to record a shutout, and he doesn't even get the team record. He did look solid tonight, but it seems like him Czichos don't quite have the rapport that Czichos did with Gaga at this point in the season last year. What a weird team - we get an exciting energetic win on the road against Miami, and then can't score against an anemic DC team at home despite a ton of possession and plenty of shots (but few on frame).
Things from the press conferences and other press stuff: Rooney was happy with the point after the stretch they've had, but felt they should've gotten the win. Frustrated with VAR. Ezra basically saying that the only guys he had on the bench were defensive players, explaining why he only made two subs. Sure, there's some injuries, but it's also a lack of players in general in that area. Mentions Missael, but says that he preferred the one striker formation. Something echoed by Ezra, Mueller, and Guti is how direct DC played. Was not how they wanted to play. Say their style is more possession-based and keeping the ball on the ground. Something interesting I heard connecting something Rooney talked about with what Guti talked about was second balls. Rooney said that was a big focus in the second half and Guti called it out as well as something that this game really turned to. Likely due to that direct playing style from DC. And it sounds like Kamara has accepted a role as that super sub to get that late goal.
The way things are going I suspect when healthy Torres will come in as a 65th minute sub only to get re-injured and be back on the injured list so I wouldn't stress out over it too much. He's played what, about 3 games?
This is me just yelling into the void but our attendance is unacceptable. Several other northern markets have bad weather too and our able to sell out or at least break 5 figures. And some of them have bad teams as well. That’s two in a row below 10k (and not even close). To me that’s a major red flag on where the team stands in the eyes of the public