I'm taking a look at the broadcast of the Fire's 4-0 thrashing of the New England Revolution now that I've had some time to thaw out.
- Remember what I said after Salt Lake about moving laterally? The first goal had Gutierrez send it up the right to Frankowski, who heads it down to Blanco in the middle, who hits Segares on a great run up the left side, ahead to Mapp, and in to Barrett for the score. When you force defenders to slide, they lose their marks, which is why four Revolution defenders couldn't match up with three Fire attackers in the box, leaving Barrett wide open.
- As a side note, three Fire attackers in the box. That's good.
- I freeze-framed the tackle from Larentowicz. He's about six inches above the ball with his studs up, going right into Prideaux's shin, and it's not even like he was anticipating the ball being there and Prideaux just got there first. The ball was moving the other direction. That's red. Period. If I'm feeling industrious, I'll dump the game from my TiVo to my computer and do a screen grab.
- I noticed this at the game itself, but Blanco seemed to make an extra effort to stay on his feet when he gets challenged. That's another good sign.
- Is Michael Parkhurst buying too much into his own hype? He should have been the one marking Barrett on the first goal, I think, and got beaten on the end line -- by Barrett again -- on the second.
- The Fire fans were booing Castro on corner kicks, presumably just because he's on the Revs. On Thursday, I thought it was Jay Heaps taking the kick at first. I don't think Castro did anything specific to piss us off.
- Okay, now that whole fake offside call makes sense. Reis had control of the ball when the call was made, then when Toledo realized that it was a New England backpass, he just gave the Revs the ball back in their penalty box.
- Nyassi did make contact with Justin Mapp's right foot, but that wasn't really what brought him down directly, as he knocked his right foot into his left, and that's when he fell. That said, the contact did ultimately trip him up in the box. Steve Nicol is going to whine about the red card more than this play, but here, he might actually have a legitimate beef.
- More side-to-side movement on the fourth goal, but not quite as strong an indicator with the extra man. And nobody in the Revs backline bitched about Barrett being offside until after the goal, unless Albright thought Frankowski was off on the final pass.
- One cause for concern, obviously, is the number of corner kicks given up despite the man advantage, but the defense did their job after conceding those corners. New England had a couple of good chances that they just missed, too, but the defense held. And Soumare's nudge of Shalrie Joseph on that one corner was brilliant.
- If I made fun of Huebner last time for wanting Chad Barrett to do better than double-digit goals on the year, it's only fair that I make fun of Julie Foudy for saying that Taylor Twellman is the only striker in "the MLS" who has scored 15 goals four times a year. Hueb meant twenty goals, Foudy meant 15 goals a year four times, but I still reserve the right to take them literally when it suits me.
- I would have liked to see Chris Rolfe move up top with the halftime substitution, but it was Blanco who moved forward, with rookie Stephen King pairing with Logan Pause to control the center of the midfield.
- The silver lining of New England continuing to press throughout the match, particularly at the outset of the second half, is that it gives Jon Busch and the defense more of a workout than you might expect with an extra man, and they've been up to it. The dark cloud, of course, is that you wonder if we'd be pinned back in our own end at even strength.
- I had heard that the technical staff was liking what they saw from King -- he's been the first man off the bench twice now -- and you can see why. Really smart in his positioning, good passing, and what a quick-release rocket off of his left foot after the 60th minute! Should have been more selfish in the 68th.
- Outside of Stephen King, the second half is about as boring as I remember it from two nights ago. Which gives me time to wonder, what happens when the backline is healthy? C.J. Brown obviously replaces Prideaux, and while I've liked what I've seen from Brandon, that's an upgrade. Has Diego played well enough to keep Dasan Robinson out of the starting lineup? Has Soumare? The conventional wisdom has, from right to left, Brown, Robinson, Conde and Segares, and perhaps the biggest question mark is if Conde makes it out of the doghouse and back onto the field. Still, it looks like we've got plenty of depth back there, as Soumare has looked much better than I would have expected, and Segares has continued his strong play from the second half of last year. The downside is that we probably won't see rookie Austin Washington much until the Open Cup gets rolling.
- Best moment of the second half was Gutierrez sneaking in and picking Shalrie Joseph's pocket at the top of the eighteen-yard box.
There are only a few things to take from this match, other than the satisfaction of beating the crap out of the Revolution. The movement leading to the first goal was precisely what we need to see from this squad. The killer instinct in the first half once they went up a man is something that has been sorely missed for years in Chicago. And both Bakary Soumare and Stephen King have continued to impress. On the flip side, the man advantage meant Logan Pause wasn't ever exposed to the kind of pressure that is a concern with this offensive-minded 4-4-2 formation.
I would say that getting Steve Nicol to bitch and whine and blame everyone except himself and his team for the loss is a positive, but he always does that, so it's not such a big deal.