The Fire's home "stand" continues with a visit from the Fire's nemesis Columbus Crew. The Fire are almost perfect at home in the last four home matches, almost perfectly awful, to be precise -with three losses and a draw, ZERO goals scored and six goals conceded. The Fire are being kept off of the bottom of the league due to the incredible ineptitude of New England (except against the Fire). The Fire have 10 points from 13 games (.77 ppg), with a -11 goal differential. We have scored the second fewest goals in the east and given up the second most. We have given up three or more goals four times in the last 10 matches. We have scored more than one goal in a match a measly three times this season. We have scored ONE goal in the past six matches. Things are too hopeless at his point to even bother. It is true that there is enough time left in the season to improve and "make the playoffs," as if that is an actual goal worth pursuing. Frankly, it is not. It is so incredibly frustrating supporting this team. There is genuine talent on the team, we have a hometown Chicago guy as head coach, we have multi-billionaire Chicago guy as an owner. We are in Soldier Field, playing right on the lakefront. We have one of the highest payrolls in the league. We SHOULD be competitive, we are not. We can (and do) debate endlessly what are the problems with the team and who is to blame. The bottom line is that is systemic in the organization. Through ownership, front office, team management and the team itself, there is nothing positive in this team. Klopas has received quite a bit of criticism, including from me. On Wednesday, Klopas said after the loss to Charlotte, “Every loss hits close to home more than anything else and I care. So it’s not easy to come here every day when results don’t go your way and we just have to be honest. Right now, we just haven’t found the right formula and a lot of it is on my shoulders. “It’s not going our way and we have to find a way.” It's nice to hear him looking to take responsibility for the suck. The question, of course, is will he "find a way" to get this team on track? Does he have the abilities to get this team on track? It remains to be seen. Apparently, we do not have Glasgow again, unless we open an international slot and add him to the roster. We'll see what happens this summer with Omari. Okay, onto the match and let's see if we can find SOMETHING positive to say. Well, we are at home, having lost 2-1 in Columbus in March. We have decent weather for the match. On the plus side, we are relatively healthy, with only two players out, Chase Gasper and Tobias Salquist. Klopas has basically a full complement of players to select. Columbus is on 18 points from 12 matches, with good possession, but not scoring enough, 16 goals scored, with 12 conceded. Fortunately, they have been pretty poor on the road, with four points from 6 matches. The Fire have two wins, a draw and four losses at Soldier Field. Also, Cucho Hernandez is questionable with a bad back. Sadly, that probably means he comes in a dominates. Diego Rossi scored his first of the season on Wednesday. I think the Fire can win this match. I think the Fire must win this match. I think the Fire WILL win this match. 2-1 Fire Sorry, that's the most optimism I can muster at the moment. I will be at the home opener for the new local NPSL team, the Wisconsin Conquerors, created by some christian organization last fall. I purchased season tickets, but there are only 5 home matches in the season. Could be fun, or not. I guess it depends if there is beer available. Not sure, considering it is at the Marshfield, WI high school stadium.
Guest at the XI Wouldn't be surprised to see Pineda start for Teran and/or Gimenez for Fabi, but not expecting either. MHS should be available, but not start.
Here's the game day stuff that I often miss having a life and is no longer relevant by tomorrow. MATCHDAY!🆚 @ColumbusCrew📍 @SoldierField ⏰ 7:30 PM 🎟️ https://t.co/AEEeMxSzMc📺 https://t.co/OeLFT9nDhc#cf97 | #CHIvsCLB pic.twitter.com/nMETc7LIg0— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) May 18, 2024 Everything you need to know before heading to @SoldierField ⬇️#cf97 | #CHIvsCLB | @BlackstoneHotel— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) May 18, 2024 100 games played = 90 seconds of @bguti1101 goals to get you ready for matchday 🙌 #cf97 pic.twitter.com/rSdZZN56od— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) May 18, 2024 There's no place like home 🏠😌 #cf97 pic.twitter.com/oSgUsZ3q8S— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) May 18, 2024 Happy Birthday, @SalquistTobias! 🫵🎁 #cf97 pic.twitter.com/0xwHe8V5oa— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) May 18, 2024 MIR '97: “We have to find another way”: Frank Klopas continues to search for answers https://meninred97.com/we-have-to-find-another-way-frank-klopas-continues-to-search-for-answers/ MIR '97: Fire vs Columbus: Tactics and Starting XI https://meninred97.com/fire-vs-columbus-tactics-and-starting-xi/ Chicago Sun Times: Fire woes hitting home for coach Frank Klopas https://chicago.suntimes.com/fire/2024/05/18/chicago-fire-woes-hitting-home-for-coach-frank-klopas Soccer News: Chicago Fire FC v Columbus Crew: Klopas says poor run is ´extremely difficult´ to take https://www.soccernews.com/chicago-...or-run-is-extremely-difficult-to-take/371669/
How bad is it? I am in Columbus watching the game when the Fire are hosting. I have bets on the line with Crew peeps (an old tradition that hasn't been good for me in ages) and figure a 3-1 Fire loss and myself buying lots of alcohol bets off. Anything better by the Fire and they might call it even out of pity.
“The players care,” Klopas said Wednesday night, addressing fears that his players had mentally given up in light of the poor run. “If they were checked out, then I’d be the first one to check out myself, and I’d say, maybe you need to bring someone else in here. But that’s not the case. The players are committed.” “It’s not going our way and we have to find a way,” Klopas said. “I have to find a way to get that, whether it’s finding the right group of players, whether it’s not always the best players, but it’s just the right players in the right fit. And right now we haven’t found them. I haven’t found them.” Will be interesting to see what changes we see tonight...it sounds like everything is on the table (XI, formation, tactics)
I believe we have come to the "Throw sh*t at the wall and see what sticks" moment. Now, I don't know what that is and I really feel for Frank because it's a sh*t show right now. How can a team have SO many good pieces and yet not play together? Anyway, I don't know who to trot out as per the usual because the midfield is really failing to link with one another but Acosta has not impressed me to the point that I'm ready for Giminez and Pineda in the double pivot and Czichos and Teran at CB. Teran has been a bit of a hot head but he's a physical presence to be dealt with so I put him out there despite that. Arigoni and Gutman on the wings are the best we've got. Guti, Shaqiri and why not Glasgow to start? Cuypers up top. Maybe Giminez can run box to box while Pineda hangs back a bit. Pineda has good passing stats from memory and since no one else seems to be stepping up to the plate put another solid home grown in there? He's probably hungrier than most on the squad.
That is a piss poor line up. I pity those of you paying to support the team out there. Frank playing for the loss. Still, expect a Fire win, though
And he'll captain his way into a stupid yellow card. At least he is not likely to play CDM, unless Frank plays a 4-3-2-1.
Playing for the loss?! Bull sh!t The two head cases were bickering at each other ON the pitch Wednesday night… Playing to build a team!
Can you tell inquiring minds the approximate minute of the bitch fest? I would go back and find it out of curiosity but I did not see it during the game.
I need to go back and look…curious if it made the broadcast because it was away from the play/after a play.
Lol with ********ing Herbers out there and as captain- this is the stupidest of the stupidest shit. I wish I could suck half as bad as Herbers and have half of his job security under Frank- I’d be set for life. What a mess and a ********ing joke.
Come on, Frank is "building a team"...around Herbers and Gimenez, two of three oldest players on the team. Those kids are the future!!!!
I applaud Frank for the courage necessary to do this. Obviously do not know if this is necessary to maintain team discipline or just performance related. The team has been unable to win with them starting, might as well try it. It is not like they looked like they were solving team problems.
If MHS was able to start or Koutsias was starting, sitting Shaqiri would be less odious, same with Acosta, but benching them so we can start Gimenez and Navarro and Herbers? They did SO WELL last season and the season before and the season before. Such a bold move.
Acosta has been shit, but Shaq has still consistently been our best or among our best players- I’ve coached 0 MLS games but I’d imagine finding ways to get your best players out there and in a position to succeed is a big part of being a good MLS coach. And this seems like an admission from Frank that he’s not capable of doing that. Of course, we had a midweek game and maybe it’s rest related, my bigger issue is Fabi starting or even being on the pitch at all for this club at this point- you can’t say ‘well these two players have to sit because our results suck’ without acknowledging what a huge part of our results sucking Fabi factors into. And yeah, it’s wild on a team as lifeless as we’ve been under Frank to see people like ‘these two were arguing- bench them’ when I actually appreciate some passion out of our players and want them to be upset with shit results.