Firing Away: Chicago Fire at Kansas City Wizards

Okay, it was either liveblog the game or go see The Dark Knight by myself. If we look like crap, I may change my mind at halftime.

• [PREGAME] I actually thought they'd get to the Brian McBride deal sooner, but two minutes in is probably about right. I think Chris has been doing a lot of gardening with all this talk of planting things in the back of the net.
• [PREGAME] Frankowski gets the start, Herron is available. I suspect we won't miss Barrett too much. I still think Frankowski is going to remind people of how strong he looked in the first couple of matches this season before he got hurt.
• [PREGAME] Not sure how I feel about Thorrington at right back. I think I'd rather see Pause back there, with Gutierrez or Conde in the d-mid slot.
• [1''] Wow, terrible shadows, and we apparently lost the coin toss, because we're playing right into the sun. A little rough in the back to start here, with Kansas City getting a chance right off the bat. Not a great chance, but a chance.
• [2'] Hartman wearing a hat despite looking away from the sun is not ironic. Ask Alanis. Segares picks up for Conde's poor defending.
• [5''] The Fire with its first offensive rumblings, as Conde picks up Mapp up the right wing, who then loses it to Harrington. Then Gutierrez fights through a challenge, finding Segares out wide left, who sends a nice ball into Frankowski, but the Polish forward just can't bring it down.
• [6'] And we have our first reckless challenge in a dangerous spot from Wilman Conde. That's going to be worth keeping tabs on, because it's one of Conde's biggest problems.
• [8'] Okay, I suspect I'm in the mood to pick on Conde today, because he doesn't communicate well with Segares on an easy ball, and a turnover results from the bit of confusion in the back.
• [10'] More confusion at the back because -- guess who? -- Wilman Conde was pushed way too far upfield, leaving Segares and Soumare with a lot of Kansas City attackers to deal with. I'm not against pushing forward with defensive pressure, but you've got to know where your guys are.
• [12'] And we have a confirmed sighting of Justin Mapp playing defense! Nice tackle in the midfield, but just a little out of sync with Frankowski on the pass over the top, and Tomasz is called offside.
• [14'] Rolfe gets some space and takes a crack and goal, forcing a diving save from Hartman. Poor defending from Kansas City, who seemed pretty uncertain of what Rolfe might do. I think they may have just assumed he'd dump it off to Blanco, and he surprised them with the shot. Then its Jon Busch with a great reaction save off a corner kick the other way, as the ball moves up and down this small field really quickly.
• [18'] Nice sequence of possession after a strong tackle from Gutierrez, but it's spoiled by a lousy cross from Thorrington.
• [19'] Not sure what that call was on Frankowski. I disagree with Doran's assessment on the earlier challenge that came over the ball not meriting a call, but I don't think this one even rises to the level of a "challenge."
• [21'] This one seems to be descending to the level of the venue. Lots of slop out there right now, including that miserable free kick from Kansas City at the far side touch line.
• [23'] Good patience on the right side for the Fire attack, ultimately a low ball from Mapp that doesn't quite qualify as a "low, driven" ball, and is easy for Hartman to grab.
• [25'] Note to Hueb: There isn't going to be a whistle every time someone hits the ground. Stop acting so surprised.
• [28'] Call me crazy, but Huebner saying "we talked about Thorrington playing right back because of Prideaux being out and some other things" makes me think something's up with Prideaux that the broadcast team knows about, but isn't saying.
• [31'] Mapp is totally MIA on the right side of midfield, giving KC too easy a time with possession, but it doesn't come to anything. Prior to that, a couple of long balls out of the back that didn't find anyone. I know it's tempting with all the congestion on the small field, but the Fire still need to try to find guys in open spaces with shorter passes. The other mitigating factor is the heat, which isn't going to be terribly conducive to making darting runs into space for a short game.
• [34'] It's been a while since I criticized Conde, who gets caught ball-watching on a counter-attack, but Josh Wolff's touch it too heavy and Busch is there.
• [38'] Another weak shot from Mapp, but that may have been out of deference to the injured Kansas City player down on the field next to him.
• [39'] Okay, since Chris is probably going to read this, I'll explain why the flag wasn't up on Victorine's run: You may have noticed in the last year or so that assistant referees are now instructed not to raise their flag until the attacking player actually gains the advantage from being in an offside position. Which, personally, I find really annoying, but with Victorine not ever catching up to the ball, he never actually gained an advantage from his offside position.
• [43'] Blanco is really struggling with the small field. He doesn't have much room to operate with the ball at his feet before defenders collapse on him, and he's having trouble threading his passes through all the traffic. So instead, he'll practice his dance moves with Michael Harrington on a Fire corner kick. Back the other way, I was worried for a second that Arnaud somehow got a penalty called against Pause, based on the timing of the whistle, but it's a goal kick.
• [45'+] The Fire with a good opportunity to close out the half, as Segares' big switch gets over Harrington's head and onto Blanco's feet, but Frankowski can't quite get high enough on the ball into the box. Barrett wouldn't have, either. And that's it.
• [HALFTIME] For a game on the road on a crap field in very hot temperatures, Chicago is getting the job done. They're not giving up much in the back, but I'm worried about how often Segares and Conde seem to be getting in the way of each other when Conde drifts to the left or when Sega pulls inside to the center. And offense is tough in these conditions -- the forwards haven't gotten much to work with, because the team can't navigate the crowded midfield long enough to find an open run. I think we'll see more of that pass to Blanco in the top right corner against Harrington in the second half, though, as that was starting to work late, and with Mapp and Thorrington making overlapping runs, it could pay dividends in the second half.
• [51'] You might have thought I was being a bit harsh on Wilman Conde in the first half, but with a careless giveaway and then a bad challenge in the box that probably could have gone either way but didn't get called, you'd be wrong. Yikes.
• [52'] Full credit to Busch for keeping that searching ball from Espinosa out of the goal, but he came this close to actually knocking it into his own net when it was actually going to end up going wide, at least as far as I could tell from the replay.
• [55'] More rough going for Fire possession in the final third. The problem is that succeeding at soccer is basically knowing when you can get to the ball before the other guy, and knowing when your teammates can get to the ball before the other guy. Playing in these tight confines throws that totally out of whack, which is why possession goes to hell like this so often.
• [56'] Yeah, that was a totally weak card on Gutierrez. He did the same thing Conde did in the penalty area to start the half -- raise his arm on what would have otherwise been a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge -- and Conde didn't even get called for a foul when he did it.
• [57'] What the heck did these referees talk about in Dallas last week? I think Geiger may have given the yellow to Blanco for kicking the ball away, but he kicked it at least in the general direction of the infraction, so that would be awfully weak as well.
• [59'] Well, at least he's consistent, although Doran's outburst after Espinosa's yellow-inducing foul on Mapp was, I thought, a bit over-the-top. Not wrong, mind you, but over-the-top. Geiger has backed himself into a corner now, because Espinosa certainly fouled him, but it wasn't exceptionally reckless, didn't really seem to be a professional foul as much as a clattering challenge, and I don't think it was part of a pattern of persistent infringement. Nevertheless, he had to give a card for it.
• [62'] Weak, weak corner kick from Thorrington, who had previously made a nice effort up the right side, even if the ball did just get away from him enough to make it amount to nothing.
• [63'] Okay, time to make fun of the broadcast. Chris just got totally lost mid-thought saying something about forwards all reading from the same instructions. Probably didn't have the best notion of what he was going to say, and then had his producer chattering in his ear. Then the camera stayed on the ball that went out of play and the efforts to get it back to the ball kid, when play had already actually started upfield. Finally, did Sarah Kustok just call Patrick Nyarko a "proven goal-scorer"? I'm pretty sure he hasn't scored outside of reserve matches, so as a rookie, that pretty much proves nothing.
• [65'] Claudo Lopez gets behind -- who else? -- Wilman Conde and takes a crack at goal at a tough angle, but Busch is there. I have a bad feeling Conde has more mistakes in him tonight, and it might cost us. Doran beams over his authoritative header out of the box on the ensuing corner, but I'd love to hear some acknowledgment of how it was Conde who got us into that particular mess.
• [66'] Logan Pause shows why he's the heir apparent to Chris Armas -- by putting a long shot about ten yards above the goal.
• [68'] Nyarko with a good job keeping possession down the right side of the penalty area, but Rolfe gets sorta handcuffed with the cross, eventually falling down, but still managing to get a shot off. Wow. Rolfe may have tweaked something on the play.
• [73'] My apologies if anyone is actually reading this in semi-real time. Had to take a phone call from my parents. Our defensive shape is looking a bit wacky, and it looks like Rolfe may have dropped back into the midfield, giving us more of a 4-5-1, although that may free Justin Mapp up to roam on either side.
• [75'] Thorrington handles the ball, but it's just outside the box. I don't know if Geiger was really hedging his bet, or if he saw the infraction really well, or what. Thorrington was outside of the box when he left his feet and when he landed, so he's got a decent enough case for not giving up the penalty, I guess.
• [76'] Nice job from Nyarko settling Chris Rolfe's cross and getting a good shot on goal. That still doesn't make him a proven goal-scorer. Now the 4-5-1 is in full effect, with King coming on for Rolfe.
• [79'] Nyarko is making some strong runs into the box, almost getting on the end of two Thorrington crosses after the one from Rolfe. And Thorrington is hustling his butt off out there. If your criticism of Brandon Prideaux is that he doesn't join the attack enough, then Thor at right back totally fixes that, but I still wonder if it gives up just a bit too much on the defensive side. No complaints tonight, though, even if he got beat by Harrington on the play that led to the handball.
• [81'] Clever pass from Blanco and Thorrington is making another run, this time taking the shot himself, but it's high.
• [82'] Segares is down and in some distress, and it doesn't look like a cramp.
• [83'] Sega is back, but there's somebody who looks close to coming on over on the far side touch line. Probably Daniel Woolard.
• [87'] Nyarko with another strong play, taking a long cross and outrunning the Kansas City defense to the end line. I don't think Stephen King hit the shot the way he wanted to, but that almost ended up fooling Kevin Hartman. Sort of a full-swing bunt.
• [88'] Segares with a foul in a dangerous spot, but there wasn't really much he could do there. Logan Pause was a bit too non-committal in his coverage, which gave Pore the lane to attack the defense.
• [89'] Patrick Nyarko is working real hard to close this one out, and here comes Wooly for Segares.
• [FULL TIME] Eh, I can live with a draw on the road. Again, not the greatest environment for scoring goals, and the back line held. Patrick Nyarko looked good, which could force Frankowski to step up his game while we wait for McBride. I'm a little worried about Conde, though, who had one of those inordinately sloppy games that soured me on him last year.