Firing Away: Chicago Fire at Houston Dynamo

I've watched three matches already today, with a grand total of two goals between them. Hopefully this one actually has a winner.

• [PREGAME] If I still had good contacts in the front office, I would totally be doing the voiceover for these commercials. That guy was awful.
• [PREGAME] Really curious to see how Blanco and McBride link up in their first real match together, and how Nate Jaqua does against his old squad.
• [PREGAME] Whoops, they spelled Thorrington wrong in the Fire lineup. Both teams are healthy and are fielding their first-choice lineups. This could be good.
• [2'] Jaqua just beat Conde on a header. Ching and Jaqua against Soumare and Conde is going to be a big test. John Thorrington went down in a heap on the ensuing corner kick. Looks like he took a whack to his head, from either DeRosario or maybe Segares' cast.
• [5'] That's twice already that Jaqua got the better of Conde, although nothing has come of it.
• [5'] GOAL CHICAGO! McBride probably should have gotten called for pulling down the Houston defender in the buildup, but if Alex Prus didn't think so, then he didn't think so. Ends up being a busted play with Houston looking around for the ref instead of the Fire players flooding the box, and McBride nets his first Fire goal.
• [7'] GOAL HOUSTON. Oops. Chicago gets caught unprepared on a free kick, as Segares and Pause were still looking around and pointing while Brad Davis put the ball into DeRosario at the near post. Karma's a bitch.
• [10'] Segares with a nice overlapping run, rewarded with the pass from Blanco, but nobody's in the box except the guys in orange. Header comes back to Blanco, but he can't control before Houston clears.
• [11'] Conde misplays a ball and ends up fouling Ching about 25 yards out right in the center of the field. Could be dangerous.
• [12'] Busch nudges the shot just outside his left post. Great stop from the Chicago goalkeeper, and Thorrington heads the ensuing corner kick away.
• [13'] Thorrington stands up Ricardo Clark, leaving Justin Mapp to take the ball for a counter, but he can't thread the pass through to the wing. Some decent team defending back the other way, as Prideaux and Pause combine to force a weak cross to Busch. Now Brad Davis is hurt, and the Fire play it out so he can receive attention.
• [20'] Prideaux bites on a challenge and misses, and Houston is off to the races, but it's put out of danger by Gonzalo Segares. Then Pause misplays it, giving Houston room to shoot, but Busch makes the stop and Sega covers the rebound, out for a corner kick.
• [21'] They just showed the replay of the Houston corner kick that they totally missed the first time around, and the Chicago defense is looking really ragged so far tonight.
• [22'] More slop out of the back leads to more Houston possession in our end, but Soumare, with some strong defending on Brian Ching, heads it out of danger.
• [24'] Conde is starting to get physical with Jaqua, and as long as he doesn't get called for the foul -- Jaqua tried getting two calls with no luck -- it'll probably work. Mapp gets a solid shot off from distance, but it's right in Pat Onstad's bread basket. Nice layoff from Blanco, but I'd really like to see him shoot more.
• [25'] Fire almost get beat on a counterattack when Segares sits and sulks after he felt he was fouled, but Soumare is there to head the long ball back to Busch. I don't think McBride has touched the ball since his goal in the early going.
• [27'] McBride with a predictably heavy touch when he does get the ball, but Blanco is there and hits Segares on the run. Gonzalo tries the shot from a tough angle, nothing doing. While he had Rolfe trailing, he also had three defenders to thread the ball through to get it to him. No point in second-guessing that one.
• [29'] The Fire dodge a bullet when Segares gets caught in no-man's land, allowing Brian Mullan to get behind him. Either Busch did a great job of cutting down the angle, or Mullan just fluffed it wide of the far post. Possibly both. As is tradition, I'm going to actually blame this one on Conde, who had lost Jaqua, so Segares was pinching in to stay with the former Chicago forward, and couldn't get back wide when he needed to.
• [30'] McBride finally seeing a bit more of the ball, and the result is a nice little spell of possession. Mapp has it teed up on his right foot for a long shot, which fools absolutely nobody, so he sends it across to Logan Pause, who drills it into a defender and out of the box.
• [33'] Now McBride seems to really be getting involved, which a great header into space to Thorrington, who tries to return the favor, only to be intercepted by Pat Onstad. This makes Chris Doran exclaim "Oh my heavens to Betsy," thus improving the ratings of the telecast in 1956.
• [35'] On the one hand, I like that Thorrington is consistently trying to find McBride with the early ball, but on the other, it's not really working, so he may be better off taking a bit more time. Back the other way, the Fire get beaten down their left side again, with DeRosario getting past Conde and whipping a cross into the box. Prideaux can't keep up with Brad Davis, whose header goes wide. We're starting to live on borrowed time here.
• [38'] Not sure what happened to Conde there, as he finished the play at the end line with DeRosario, but went down at the top of the eighteen-yard box. It might have just been a ploy to get guys a break and some water.
• [39'] A quick restart after a foul by Soumare predictably fools the camera crew. Segares tracks Ching to the outside, but doesn't stay with him after he sends in the entry pass, but Busch is there to stop the shot when Ching gets the ball back. Have I mentioned how ragged our defense looks?
• [39'] GOAL HOUSTON. Segares gets pulled centrally again, and leaves Brian Mullan wide open again, and this time he doesn't miss. This time it all seemed to stem from Soumare getting pulled too far to the right and then getting beat on a little flick pass. It didn't help that Justin Mapp, who should providing some defensive help on the left side, was standing around in the middle of the field. Look for Pappa to replace him at halftime.
• [40'] Not a bad chance to even it up quickly down the other end, as Prideaux lofts a ball out of the back to Blanco, but McBride can't quite get good wood on it and puts the cross way high and way wide.
• [41'] Long ball from the flank from Rolfe, and McBride heads it back into the middle. Thorrington tries to snap it on goal with a header of his own, but can't quite get enough on it. Then a quick restart forward to Rolfe, who takes a whack at it from distance. And I'm not sure, but I think Chris Doran just said that he's showing less and less of what made him a great player in college. Or he said that he's unable to show that dynamic play as a midfielder. Probably the latter, but it almost sounded like he was throwing him under the bus.
• [44'] More evidence that the Fire aren't communicating well in the back, as Rolfe steps in front of McBride in a post-corner kick scramble and hits it weakly to Houston, when McBride could have gotten a much better foot on it. Granted, two attackers getting crossed up on defense isn't quite as worrisome as two defenders, but it's emblematic of what's problematic here tonight. Busch is there to stop the shot, though.
• [45'] Prideaux with a nice step-up to intercept a pass, which causes Nate Jaqua to head back and defend, except that he runs over referee Alex Prus in the process. Awesome.
• [45'+] Blanco does a nice job shielding the ball and then getting up the wing, but he doesn't have a lot of help. Segares trails, but puts too much bend and too much power on his cross.
• [HALFTIME] The biggest problem for the Fire right now is dealing with all of Houston's weapons. They're working hard on Jaqua and Ching, particularly, and they're trying to contain DeRosario, but that's leaving Davis and Mullan largely unchecked. On the one hand, Chicago needs more commitment to defending all over the field, but on the other, they also need to get goals, so they have to push the tempo. No subs at halftime, though. I think.
• [46'] Dumb foul from Prideaux just outside the box as we're back with second-half play, but it's played out of the box, where Ricardo Clark collects it and does what defensive midfielders do best, and blasts it twenty yards high and wide.
• [48'] Rolfe with a long shot from a tough angle, but I have no idea how he got the ball because they were showing the Fire bench and a forlorn C.J. Brown, who may be surprised to learn that the onscreen graphic has both he and Stephen King listed as forwards.
• [50'] Blanco hasn't gotten nearly enough touches on the ball, but that's the obvious defensive tack against the Fire. And another mystery run up the wing, as now they're showing the Houston bench instead of the actual game, as if we wouldn't understand that the names they're showing are the bench guys without them showing the benchwarmers onscreen. Blanco gets dumped as he cuts it back to Rolfe, who plays it through to McBride, but he can't get a good shot off, and Onstad corrals it.
• [55'] Conde totally loses track of Jaqua, who gets the ball down to the end line and pretty much fakes himself out, allowing Soumare to get in and shield Jaqua off the ball and draw a foul.
• [57'] Conde is self-destructing out there, with a wrestling takedown of Brian Ching just outside the box which fortunately amounts to nothing. He's reverting to his primal form, where he plays too aggressively in dumb places.
• [60'] Thorrington gets lucky not to see yellow on a tackle from behind, but Prus may not have wanted to card two Fire players within about a minute and a half of each other. No such problem giving Blanco a yellow for climbing the back of the Houston defender, and Doran wants Temo out of the game. Not sure I agree with that.
• [64'] Trying to come up with a counter-argument to Chris' contention that Blanco should get the hook, and I think it's that he's not, nor has he ever been, a "ninety minutes of work rate" player, and to expect that of him isn't exactly fair. Now, the question as to whether or not the Fire can afford having somebody lurk in the corners until he has a chance to stick a dagger in the Dynamo is a fair one.
• [66'] Fred thinks Conde has had a good game, and that Segares has struggled. The trivia question isn't the only place where Fred doesn't have the right answers.
• [67'] Andy Herron enters the game for Justin Mapp. Over/under for his first offside call is six minutes. I'm taking the over.
• [69'] The Fire buzzing around the Dynamo goal after a corner kick, with the best chance probably the long-distance shot from Rolfe that got blocked by a teammate 15 yards from goal. Chris Doran is heard to exclaim "Gee Whiz!" at the end-to-end action, making me wonder if I should trot out the joke about the ratings in 1956 again, ultimately deciding that a reference to that joke will suffice.
• [70'] I don't know if the Andy Herron sub was the catalyst, but the Fire are applying some sustained pressure down in Houston's end of the field. On the other side, Soumare has Jaqua in a head lock, and will have to be careful since he's playing with yellow.
• [75'] Brian Ching does what Brian Ching does well, only not quite well enough, as he puts a header just wide off of a Houston corner kick. The Fire would be really lucky to get a goal back and steal a point on the road right now.
• [76'] Conde with a wrestling takedown on Brian Mullan. No card, but he's getting closer. Chris thinks it looks more like square dancing, but that's not really surprising at this stage of the telecast.
• [82'] Blanco makes my earlier point for me, as he gets stuck in to win a ball, makes a run alongside Herron, and almost chips one over Pat Onstad. Chris walks back on his earlier comments about him, saying he showed a lot of energy on the play.
• [84'] Another clever ball by Blanco, freeing second-half sub Mike Banner up the left wing, but his cross can't find Andy Herron before Eddie Robinson gets to it. Robinson got a foot caught in the turf on the play, and seems to be in considerable pain. Looks like Baky Soumare with a total dick move, "accidentally" kicking his other leg while he's down.
• [86'] Blanco with a dangerous corner kick, but Onstad is there.
• [89'] The Fire complete three or four passes without letting the ball hit the ground, and end up with Pappa out in the corner, but his cross gets broken up. Then Soumare with a strong win of the ball at midfield, and the ball gets to Blanco, who finds Banner with a cheeky pass (not quite a backheel, but close), but Banner's worm-burner from distance gets deflected and goes just wide. Thorrington and Pappa get crossed up on the short corner and give it away.
• [90'+] Stealing a point still not likely, but more likely than it seemed half an hour ago. Lots of good pressure, and the Dynamo have been playing back on their heels for a long stretch now.
• [90'+] McBride with an uncharacteristically weak effort on a challenge in the air, but he's spent. Houston clears.
• [90'+] I don't like that the Fire defense just gave up on the last play of the game, almost hanging Jon Busch out to dry and giving up a late goal.
• [FULLTIME] Again, the Fire defense struggled to contain all of Houston's threats, and the central defense got pulled out of shape a bit too easily as a result. Compound that with Justin Mapp not tracking back on defense, and you get people who don't know what they're talking about trying to pin this one on Gonzalo Segares. We got lucky on the first goal and got caught napping on their first, so this really played more like a 1-0 match that looked like it could have been a lot worse for a while, but then tilted back the other way once Andy Herron entered the match in the 60th minute.