A tale of two halves. The Crew dominate the first with two goals from Gaven & Renteria. Chicago makes offensive tactical changes while Crew sub defensively. Chicago presses hard and gets a goal but can't find the equalizer. 2-1 Crew. Gaven MOTM.
The Crew now have 3 weeks off from MLS play. Hopefully more players are able to get healthy and get a break from that long stretch. After a winless 0-3-1, 1 point April, the team posts an unbeaten 3-0-2, 11 point May despite having the longest injury list in MLS. I like the trendline. 2 potential USOC matches in the next 10 days--and we might meet the Fire again Tuesday, June 5.
What the hell happened to the Robert Warzycha we hated? He put mostly players out there we liked, including starting George. He made smart defensive substitutions to keep legs fresh not just for tonight but down the road. His players were playing with confidence. When he shouted, it was for the players to communicate, not some weird tactical change he was making. Does this guy have bipolar disorder or something, where for two months of the season we get an awesome stretch, followed up by two months of shit? Who is this dude?
What an interesting game. 2-0 at half time and should have been three, but Johnson was big on Renteria forcing him wide just befor ht. Three questions: 1. Why start Francis if you're subbing Vukovic on at 50'? Are you concerned about Vukovic being fatigued? Then why do you have him up and running at 35 - 40' when Francis makes a second f:*kc up in a row? And then why do you wait until the 50' minute to sub him? If you know you're going to do it, do it at half time. Especially because this affected #2. 2. Why not start Meram? According to Jardy, Meram didn't start due to fatigue? WTF is that about? 3 goals in 3 games and the dude doesn't play, much less start? Start him, and then sub him if necessary. Like Crash Davis said in Bull Durham, never mess with a streak. 3. Surprised that Birchall didn't get the start over Tchani. I'm fairly goofy right now from all the Captain, but that's what I remember. I missed Gaven's goal, but Renteria's was well taken. I thought Kevan George played well, and Duka was awesome. I'll have to watch the DVR to validate those initial perceptions. ******* Plus..late arriving crowd for a nice, decent showing of 16,000+. It appeared that most people thought it was still a 7:30 game.
Great result, exciting match. Right now our brand ambassador is lighting up the stage with Flogging Molly. I type this as I stand on the pitch. Just heard from a couple Fire supporters that they had issues with security. Not sure what, but maybe they were just pissed about losing...
Warzycha made it clear in post-game that Meram was planned to come in as a second half sub. Both early second-half defensive substitutions were unplanned and not tactical. Both Mendes and Francis asked to be subbed for exhaustion. I imagine Francis might have eventually been taken off, but the plan was not to burn all 3 subs that early. In fact, Tchani told Jardy that was the toughest 90 he'd played due to heat and exhaustion. I was seriously worried when Chicago was pressing in the final 10 minutes and Williams was cramping. Luckily he was able to keep playing. I think the poor second-half showing was, in-part, due to being forced to go off script and only sub defensively. Fortunately the guys dug deep, Chicago shanked a few, and the Hammer came up big a couple times to hold on to 3 points.
Let me preface this by saying I like Anor but you can't use him like you use Meram. When Meram attacks an pinches in he goes forward and switches with Gaven Gaven still gives you width when he does that on Meram's side of the field. Anor has the same problem Tchani has when he pinches in it creates clutter in the middle because they don't really switch with anyone they just occupy the space others are supposed to be patrolling. If you want Francis to play left wing then put him on at left wing and put someone else on as left back; one Francis is not a solid defender and makes poor decisions, two having him get caught up field only exacerbates those liabilities. We were doing fine the first half why did we change our shape in the second. Anor and Duka were coming central more than I would like some in the first half but in the second they were squeezing the field. There was one instance that I remember Anor up in the final third central Vuko providing width on the left in the attacking third. When the ball was turned over Chicago had a breakaway down the left side George slowed the Fire player down and to their credit Anor and Vuko recovered to win the ball back but it was a sloppy sequence of events for us. Late in the game it seemed like Robert was mad that we were in our own half so much. Here I thought we learned something during the Seattle game; instead of collapsing repulsing the opponents attack we spread out possessed the ball and didn't let them control the game. In this game for much of the second half we reverted right back; we let Chicago posses the ball way to much enough that they got one goal out of it. We are better than them we showed that in the first half I don't care if you want to kill the game off but at least do it intelligently. No more clearing the ball only to see it come right back at us; you can only ask Andy to do so much. Posses the ball pass it around don't let teams like Chicago touch the ball and they can't score. If we want to be one of the best teams in MLS we have to play like it late we have to frustrate the other team we have to starve them of possession we can;t give up the ball every other time we touch it and hang on for dear life. Alright go beat the Dutch Lions onward to the open cup.
There was also a car fire in the parking lot after the game.... Not sure why but it was fairly large.
How did Sean Johnson get approved for an orange jersey for a red team? I didn't care much for the lineup or the subs but Chicago looked more tired than us. We should be able to overpower the DDL on Tuesday.
I was happy with everyone's effort in this match, but especially with Miranda and Gaven, working as tirelessy as they did in that heat after playing so much. Normally I'm miserable during long layoffs, but this team needs it. Can't imagine the defensive options this team will have if and when James and Marshall are back? Man, would I have hated to see a loss or a tie when that many fuego fans are in our stadium. If they had an issue with security, maybe that damned horn got confiscated. On the broadcast you don't hear it much in the second half. That's about the only thing that made the second half tolerable. Well reffed, by the way. Maybe it was only his second MLS game, but he let the guys play and seemed pretty fair.
One issue with security was that they kept covering the advertising with their banners. Security made them remove them several times.
They also continually lit off smoke bombs, causing numerous visits from CPD. I thought I saw something on the canopy covering Party on the Pitch, but it could have been a streamer.
Tchani absolutely collapsed as soon as the whistle blew. I think Williams did too. They were totally gassed. George hardly put a foot wrong in terms of passing accuracy, I thought he looked pretty good again. We lacked width on the left, Anor spent too much time cutting inside. Not a bad performance all in all but I do agree that we sat back far too much at the end of the game. You cannot always rely on two-goal cushions plus a few excellent saves from the Hammer. Renteria had a better game than he did in Seattle, though his holdup play and passing accuracy still leaves much to be desired. The banner we unfurled about the Ultra pads was ace.
Great game, great show afterward... got on the field. Had to drive home... but now I'm getting shitty drunk in celebration! Birthday weekend wooo!
Hair just like Beckham, a smile just like Ching when Pappa's with his sister, she can't feel a thing!
Great win, Great week, Good God how did we get these points? 7 points out of a possible 9. How? Im serious, how did we get 7pts out of 9 this week? We maybe deserved 3 out of the 9. Praise Yahweh for the Hebrew Hammer.
Seriously, what have I been watching for the last week? Why are we seeing basically the Reserve team kicking ass and taking names? Brian Bliss, anyone? This week is how the Crew should always be playing and I have never believed the players aren't that good. It is the fakking coaching, period. Soooo what happened?
Odds and ends: -George had an 89% passing percentage last night. He didn't complete any good attacking passes, but he also only made one safety valve back pass. He plays within himself and knows how to keep possession. -Anor was 87% passing, with many more aggressive decisions than George. If he could just figure out where he's supposed to be on the field... -Francis made a few good defensive plays, but he also almost lost the game for us on his own with incredibly sloppy passing near our goal. Maddeningly inconsistent. He's like the Kei Kamara of the back line. -I think Renteria had more chances with the ball in the box than he's had all season. He should've finished the one-on-one that he pushed wide of the far post, but the game-winner was nicely done. -Gaven was great. In a match where everyone else was exhausted, the guy was all over the field making plays. He has superhuman endurance.
Pictures anyone? I was right behind the banner and couldn't really make out what it said other than Chicago ultras. Most people around me were confused why they were a seemingly pro-Chicago banner in our section.