Liveblogging Chicago at Los Angeles

2nd Minute - And we're live after the Sox game ran long. I'll have to switch over to Comcast Sports Net proper to see if the wide shot is as bad over there, or if it's some kind of digital artifact on the HD version.

5th minute - Nope, the wide shot is terrible everywhere, especially on Direct Kick. Haven't quite figured out the starters, but we've confirmed Franks and Barrett up top from Kenn.

7th minute - Looks like we've got the following:

G Busch
D Robinson Brown Gutierrez Segares
M Carr Armas Pause Guerrero
F Franks Barrett

11th minute - Brian Hall. Joy. And Dave Sarachan used to be pilloried for starting lots of defensive midfielders, but Hamlett has four out there himself. This doesn't bode well.

12th minute - I'd say something about the game, but there's nothing to say. Barrett was just caught offside. Dasan Robinson had a good foray forward a minute ago.

14th minute - Franks with a nice idea on a through ball, but weighted it badly. Now the Galaxy with a cross from Jones, finds nobody. They may have missed Jaqua there.

15th minute - GOAL LOS ANGELES. Martino draws a penalty. Armas catches the back of his leg as the Fire blows a triple-team in the box. Donovan buries it. 1-0 Galaxy.

18th minute - Guerrero with a cross that looks like it's to nobody, but Carr almost gets under it. Barrett nutmegs Xavier, and LA knocks it out for a corner.

20th minute - Fire buzzing around the net, but nothing dangerous. Guerrero out wide right, and being somewhat effective. Kenny doesn't like the penalty call. Neither does Kenn, but something knocked Martino's feet together.

23rd minute - Martino -- who just picked up a yellow for interfering with Busch as he distributed the ball -- tries a volley on a big cross, skies it into the stands.

25th minute - Calen Carr doing a nice job fighting off L.A., but then gets dispossessed before he can do anything with it.

28th minute - Kelly Gray puts one into the 25th row. Some things never change. And this game is really boring.

29th minute - Carr gets dispossessed, L.A. finds Buddle in the box, who fortunately doesn't have a left foot. Dishes to Cobi Jones, and Busch comes up big. Corner comes to nothing, except another corner. Which comes to nothing.

33rd minute - A really, really depressing thing to watch for is how Chicago can't get two touches in a row in the final third of the field. I was going to say in the attacking half, but they strung together three or four flat, lateral passes just inside the midfield stripe a few minutes ago.

38th minute - Cobi Jones again, after the triple-team on Donovan squirts free and into his path. Busch with another big save. Still no consecutive touches in the offensive half for the Fire in about ten minutes. This is painful. Kenn shouldn't say things like "and here come the Fire" until we cross midfield.

43rd minute - Finally, a couple of passes in the offensive third, Pause tries to switch to find Franks, too heavy, goal kick Los Angeles. Buddle back the other way and puts one in the stands. The fans need helmets back there.

HALFTIME - I've seen poor efforts from the Fire before, but wow, I don't know that I've ever seen the team this utterly disorganized. I get the feeling Denis Hamlett is trying to provide a counterpoint to Sarachan's organization by "just letting them play," and the result is an absolutely disjointed disaster. Again, I keep coming back to how the Fire cannot string together any passes in the offensive third, or even half, of the field. Guys aren't moving off the ball, guys aren't finding anyone when they're making runs. It's a mess. If Chicago is going to find a goal, it's going to be on an individual effort, likely from Carr or Barrett, but it's certainly not going to come from any sort of combination play.

HALFTIME - As if you needed any more proof, zero shots for the Fire. Not shots on goal, but shots. I think Denis Hamlett can rule himself out as the new head coach of this team, but maybe he knew that already and doesn't give a shit. That's the only explanation I can think of other than Dave Sarachan being a misunderstood genius.

46th minute - New guy! Menezes for Robinson. Hamlett thinks we played well in the first half. Wait, what? And Busch almost gets caught on a weird cross from Buddle. May have been a shot, which would have been pretty canny if intentional.

48th minute - Menezes with a fantastic tackle on Jazic. I'll check on whether I'm spelling his name right in a minute. And I got the Z and the S backwards. All better now.

53rd minute - Another crap giveaway from Gonzalo Segares, leading to a counter for L.A. that goes nowhere. Cobi Jones with a crap cross scooped up by Busch. Three passes and dispossessed, as per normal.

56th minute - Franks tries to turn Xavier, can't do it. Now Carlos Pavon is on for Cobi Jones for the Galaxy.

59th minute - Two more crap giveaways by Segares, and L.A. quickly counters off a dead ball, much to the chagrin of the TV truck, who were on a replay at the time. Busch stops Pavon's long shot without much trouble.

61st minute - Busch with another good save, this time on Edson Buddle. The play started in part because Menezes got caught up too high, forcing Carr to track back and pulling apart our defensive shape.

65th minute - I'll say I'm curious about how many times the Fire played the ball directly out of bounds -- kind of like an unforced error in tennis -- but I really don't want to know. Chicago now with a corner, but Menezes is down and Kenn and Kenny are talking about gremlins. Nothing off the corner except a counter from L.A.

70th minute - Passing! Chris Klein gets to the through ball first for a Fire corner, and Thiago is on for Carr. I think the header got blocked out in front, so that probably won't count as a shot, either.

72nd minute - Thiago is doing what the Fire hadn't been, moving quickly off the ball, and showing into free space, but Segares wastes the effort with a horrible ball to nowhere for a goal kick. L.A. back the other way, a little dangerous, but overcooked the ball into the box. Glinton now on for Buddle.

76th minute - Kenny has been advocating Jeff Curtin as a forward since halftime, which tells you how desperate things are. Incidentally, we were credited with a shot in the last ten minutes, and Gutierrez just picked up yellow.

79th minute - Martino is arguing that? Nothing comes of a free kick, and Oliveira comes on for...Chad Barrett?

82nd minute - Los Angeles offside on a dangerous chance as Pavon posts up well, but Glinton and Martino are a little too anxious. Pavon in again, saved by Busch. The Galaxy are pushing the attack right now.

85th minute - L.A. puts on a passing clinic with a lot of good movement, knocked out for a corner. Overcooked the corner, Thiago falls down, and Martino dives like Greg fucking Lougainis. I gave him the benefit of the doubt on the first one, but this is ridiculous. That should have been the second yellow for Martino, and instead it's a penalty kick? Brian fucking Hall.

87th minute - GOAL LOS ANGELES. Landon converts. Not that we deserve anything from this match, but that call was adding insult to injury.

91st minute - What's to stop someone on the Fire from winding up and drilling a ball into Brian Hall's head? If you do it right, it might not even look intentional.

FULL TIME - Los Angeles wins, 2-0. Say what you will about Dave Sarachan, but his team, or his version of this team, was more organized and got more chances. Any chances. The only possible bright spot is that the offense looked much more dynamic once Thiago came on. He should rejoin the starting lineup on Saturday. And the U.S. can't crash out of Copa America fast enough.

Calen Carr also thought the combination play was there. Not only is this team not very good, they're suffering some kind of mass delusion.

While some of the Fire efforts under Sarachan were certainly lackluster, they were never this embarrassing. How does changing the coach make the players act like they've never met each other before?