Okay, this might not be real-time, as I have one errand to run probably during the first half.
- [PREGAME] Dammit, I fell for the 9pm ESPN start again. Forgot about the pre-game show, and I'm a little worried that Rob Stone's man-crush is in the studio. No, not Tommy Smyth.
- [PREGAME] I don't think that's really going to be a 4-5-1. Push Rolfe forward and get Thorrington wide. Good to see Prideaux back.
- [2'] ESPN gets the backline wrong as well. Gutierrez is out on the left, Prideaux on the right, with Brown and Soumare in the middle.
- [3'] Blanco wins a foul early, quick restart to Barrett, finds Rolfe, but he can't turn on it well. Then Chivas back the other way quickly, with Gutierrez letting Kljestan get in uncontested and get a shot. Busch gives up the rebound, but Soumare is too casual with it and gets dispossessed. All of this in about 40 seconds. Yikes.
- [4'] Beautiful buildup from Chicago. Prideaux pinches in, forcing a bad pass that Pause corrals and feeds to Blanco, who sends a great ball out in front of Justin Mapp, but Chad Barrett can't convert the picture-perfect cross. His shot came as close as possible to hitting the post without actually hitting the post. That wasn't lacking for skill from Barrett, it was just unlucky. Yeah, he should be an icy cold hitman on that kind of stuff, but he's not.
- [6'] Rolfe wins a corner with some hustle, but it doesn't amount to anything until a bad Chivas pass goes out for a quick throw-in, back to Blanco, and he floats it over Barrett but almost onto an onrushing Rolfe. Still early, but mostly Chicago so far.
- [9'] John Thorrington lands hard on his head. Ouch. He's back up, though.
- [10'] Gutierrez with a nice overlapping run, gets a cross in, but Blanco gets a bit too cute, trying to lay it off for Thorrington instead of shooting, and too many touches kill the attack.
- [13'] We've been devastating with these through balls and overlapping runs. Rolfe gets his pass blocked, but stabs it forward to Thorrington, who is onside but lets the ball bounce up and hit him in the hand.
- [15'] Mendoza splits Prideaux and Rolfe and gets in on goal, but C.J. Brown is there to turn away the cross, only making it as far as Wicky, who blasts one just wide. Now C.J. does battle with Razov, and Razov wins a corner. Dangerous bounces through the box for a good ten or fifteen seconds, but ultimately out.
- [18'] C.J. with a bit of a flaky pass across the front of goal, compounded by Soumare leaving it for Prideaux, who is under pressure. Out of danger temporarily, but Chivas applying a lot of pressure right now.
- [21'] Diego kind of caught too far upfield, but recovers and dumps the Chivas attacker. No foul. No such luck for Chivas against Blanco, though, and maybe he'll get that card he was begging for after the Dallas match.
- [23'] Carey Talley gets above Logan Pause on a set piece, but heads it right at Jon Busch. Razov was lurking behind Talley, and we may have gotten lucky.
- [26'] GOAL CHIVAS. Kljestan beats Gutierrez on a through ball, buries it, and does his best Blanco impersonation to celebrate.
- [32'] GOAL CHIVAS. Normally, I like how Prideaux pinches in on defense, but he gets caught up too high, allowing Razov to get behind him. Soumare can't close him down in time, and C.J. can't get goal-side of Justin Braun, who buries the cross. Now those early misses are looming larger.
- [36'] Suarez keeps Chad Barrett onside, Barrett gets it past the keeper, takes it outside...and misses. Side netting. Give Toronto whatever they want. Now.
- [43'] Blanco with a beauty of a through ball, but Mendoza gets in Rolfe's way so the forward can't run on to it.
- [44'] Another good chance for Chicago, but Rolfe can't get there.
- [45+] Paolo Nagamura doing what he does best...foul recklessly and get thrown out of the game with a second yellow. Blanco hits Prideaux on the free kick, but the defender can't get it down on frame. Halftime.
- [HALFTIME] The Fire have been shredding the Chivas backline, but just can't find the back of the net. Meanwhile, the defense doesn't look coherent. Guys used to have supreme confidence in where their teammates would be behind them, but on the first goal, C.J. might have laid off Razov because Gutierrez was pressing the double-team, and then on the second, Soumare was slow to rotate when Prideaux pinched in. There have been other examples where the communication seemed a bit lacking, but they didn't lead to any goals.
- [50'] And there it is again. Soumare and Brown get bunched up in the middle, and if Chivas finds Razov on the flank, we're toast. Fortunately, they don't and we're not.
- [53'] Put Barrett out of his misery on this one. Get Frankowski in there.
- [55'] Justin Mapp has been pretty invisible through the first ten minutes of the second half. I can only hope that's because he's on a plane to Toronto.
- [60'] I think we're getting sucked into that idea that, with a man advantage, you can take more touches on the ball, and it's absolutely killing our offense right now. This time it's Rolfe, earlier it was Thorrington.
- [65'] Clever attempt on a restart, but Thorrington goes wide by a furlong.
- [68'] This is two games in a row where Soumare has looked pretty rough. He's just not playing at the right speed. Frankowski for...Rolfe? Herron hits the side netting off a big cross.
- [71'] Soumare almost makes a complete mess of this one. This second half is the worst soccer I've seen from the Fire all season. No question.
- [73'] Herron can't get the header down, but it's still as close as we've come this half. This terrible, awful half.
- [77'] Nyarko on for Brown. Come back or die trying. Herron can't find a ricochet in the box, and "die trying" has the inside track.
- [85'] Soumare with another lackadaisical play, but Busch bails him out by stuffing Kljestan's breakaway. Baky is an absolute disaster right now.
- [90'+] Herron just misses on a header, but that epitomizes too little, too late.
- [FULL TIME] Absolutely brutal performance from the Fire, and the only thing anywhere close to a silver lining is that I'd much rather slump now than at the end of the season.