A couple of thoughts, having just finished watching the Fire beat the Red Bulls in a critical Eastern Conference match:
- The elephant in the room was, obviously, Mike Banner starting over Justin Mapp. Once Mapp entered the match, he seemed very active covering the left corner defensively, which lends credence to my criticism of him in the Houston match, where his abject lack of interest in tracking back was what allowed for all those chances in that match when Segares pinched in.
- Banner looked pretty good, particularly on that early heads-up shot from distance that got cleared off the line, and the pretty cutback in the box that he just wasn't quite able to get by Jon Conway in the second half.
- Loved Max saying "don't make him angry...you won't like him when he's angry" when Banner subbed off, by the way.
- While we're on the broadcasters, I think someone should go back and check to see if Christopher Sullivan's keys to the game are exactly the same for every team in every match. Someone should also put together a list of his inane buzzwords, like "interchange" and "intervention." I caught him twice mangling Sinisa Ubiparapovic's name to make his first name Ubi and his last name Parapovic.
- Brian McBride continues to do all those things that Brian McBride is famous for, and that's a great thing for Chicago heading into the stretch. Winning balls, shielding defenders, just opening things up for everyone else around him.
- I may have to go back and compile some stats on this, but I think the Fire do much better with Chris Rolfe at forward than as a right-sided midfielder. I didn't realize that Denis Hamlett had put Blanco up in the forward slot last week, which would explain a lot of why our offense wasn't clicking, and why it got better with the Herron substitution in that match.
- I also still need to look at our record with John Thorrington versus without. The FSC guys made a case for Jon Busch as league MVP, but Thor is still one of my leading candidates for the team. He works his ass off every game, and has great touch and good vision.
- Hamlett's subs were excellent in that he just went with fresh legs instead of subbing defense for offense with a 1-0 lead. No bunkering, although I might have made a defensive sub with about five minutes left just to kill clock. Then again, we did that with Marmol that one time and got burned.
- This may have been one of the better jobs I've seen from a center referee in a Fire match in quite some time, even if they blew one corner kick call. I thought the teams were allowed to play, but calls were made when things started to heat up a bit. Both yellow cards were well-deserved.
- Obviously, that includes Gutierrez, who seemed to struggle a bit, but ultimately got the job done. There were some shaky moments, particularly in the first half, when the communication between Diego, Banner and Wilman Conde was a bit lacking, but it never bit us in the ass.
- All in all, a pretty entertaining and evenly contested match -- quite a few chances for both sides that just went wanting -- with the added bonus that we won.