Firing Away: Chicago Fire at Colorado Rapids

Good lord, I've watched a lot of soccer over the last day and a half. Yes, I know I said that last time.

• [PREGAME] King over Mapp in the starting lineup, so Justin's got a shiny new contract but continues to sit in Denis Hamlett's doghouse. And I hope Rolfe really is playing up top with McBride.
• [PREGAME] Looking at Colorado's lineup, actually, I think the King-for-Mapp swap isn't all that controversial. King will do a better job of keeping Terry Cooke in check, defensively, and that's important against the Rapids.
• [6'] Not much to say so far. That last little foray up the middle for the Fire didn't really do too much, and we'd probably be better off getting out to the wings. Now Baky has some trouble down at the end line, but nothing comes of it.
• [9'] You would think the Fire would be able to win a ball cleanly when they quintuple-team a guy, but no, Conde fouls. Colorado gets nothing and now the Fire get some decent possession, switching the point of attack twice before a long ball into the box that is deflected out for a Fire corner kick.
• [13'] Rolfe is struggling against Petke and Gibbs. Again, he may need to split out wide and let McBride do the dirty work in the middle.
• [14'] McBride wins a header at the top of the box, but Thorrington can't quite get on the end of it. No shot, but still one of the Fire's better chances so far, along with the corner kick from a moment ago.
• [20'] I like the way the Fire have been stepping into passing lanes. Colorado has struggled to complete passes, but now going back the other way, Prideaux gets dispossessed, sprays it wide to Cummings, who then puts it all the way to the other side, where McManus beats Thorrington and gets a narrow angle shot just wide. Neither team have really put their mark on this one yet, but Colorado has had better chances.
• [25'] Really nice sequence for the Fire coming off a long distribution from Busch, but Thorrington's cross comes to naught. Now back the other way, the Fire get a little sloppy picking up runners on a counterattack, but McManus puts the header wide.
• [28'] Nice flick in the box, but the two Fire players were too close together for it to go anywhere.
• [30'] Prideaux is struggling a bit, and gives the ball away on what had been a promising buildup.
• [31'] GOAL COLORADO. A bit of a bust-up off a corner-kick, as the clearance gets out and sent back in, and while at least two Rapids players were offside, it looks Gibbs was not. Jordan Harvey (who?) just barely keeps the ball in with a narrow angle shot, bobbled by Busch and over the line before Soumare can clear it away.
• [36'] Blanco to Thorrington and through for McBride, but it's just a bit too heavy and runs out over the end line.
• [38'] Bad Fire giveaway leads to a counterattack, but a brilliant tackle at the edge of the box from Diego Gutierrez keeps Omar Cummings from doing anything with it.
• [39'] GOAL COLORADO. Cummings has the last laugh, as he takes advantage of Gutierrez giving him just a bit of space on the ensuing play and uncorks a daisy-cutter from distance that catches Busch flat-footed at the near post.
• [41'] Rolfe has had problems finding his spaces, and McBride hasn't gotten many touches, although Rolfe latches onto a ball just as I say that and finds King, whose shot is blocked.
• [42'] Thorrington with a bad tackle that reeks of frustration, and comes up seeing yellow.
• [45'+] Soumare picks up a yellow, and argues that McManus was obstructing him and it wasn't his fault he plowed him over off the ball. Terry Vaughn has none of it.
• [HALFTIME] The first goal was one of the reasons I hate the passive offside rule, because I think the defense relaxed because several attacking players were in an offside position when the ball came forward. The second goal makes me wonder if an overworked Gonzalo Segares would have been a better option than Diego Gutierrez, or if the play just developed in a way that would have created space for Cummings either way. Of course, if Thorrington hadn't given the ball away so cheaply all the way up on the other side moments earlier, it may have never come to that.
• [HALFTIME] Obviously, the team needs an offensive spark, and that offensive spark has got to be Justin Mapp. I think the way to do that is to bring Mapp in for Diego, and drop King back, where he can continue to keep an eye on Terry Cooke. Although that means Conde or Baky will have to step up on Cummings in turn.
• [HALFTIME] And I've lost count of how many times I've seen this damn Verizon/Rhapsody commercial in the last two days. I'm going to have nightmares about the glam-rock dad.
• [46'] That sound you just heard was almost every bar showing the Fire game here in Chicago switching their TVs over to the Bears.
• [50'] Brilliant ball from Blanco that King just beats the defender to, but Colorado knocks it out for a throw. Then another nice step-up from Conde, and it ends up on Blanco's foot. Temo maybe tries to get a bit too fancy cutting it back, and gets dispossessed.
• [54'] Another nice quick buildup from the Fire, with a pretty sweet cross from Stephen King that just gets over McBride's head. But this is the problem with this Fire team. Their chances don't ever actually rise to the level of shots, which means they're still one or two touches away from even coming close, and that's just not good enough.
• [56'] Thorrington gets whacked in the face by Pablo Mastroeni, who picks up a yellow. Brandon Prideaux works his butt off on the restart, but isn't able to make anything of it.
• [59'] Lazy throw-in from Gutierrez almost seals the deal for Colorado, but the shot at the end of the sequence goes wide.
• [60'] Conde with some strong defending on McManus as he gets in behind the backline.
• [61'] Herron for King. Mapp for Prideaux. So Rolfe and Thorrington may both end up further away from the goal. We'll see if it works. Blanco may have had a shot after Mapp forces it through a thicket of players, but tries to pass instead and can't find anyone. Then Mapp finds Gutierrez on an overlap, in for McBride and then falls for Andy Herron, who does what the Fire have struggled with so far, and that's actually get a shot off. So the subs are definitely making their presence known right out of the gate.
• [66'] Herron with a great diagonal run, and Thorrington finds him, but McBride can't keep the ball down when he receives the cross. Best chance for the Fire so far, and now Petke leaves the match. Huebner has already massacred Ihemelu's name once.
• [68'] I feel like a goal is coming for Chicago. Blanco frees Gutierrez up the wing, who gets a nice cross in, but it's behind McBride, and the Fire forward is forced to try a sort of reverse bicycle kick that goes way over the bar. Colorado back the other way with a corner kick, but Pause clears it out.
• [71'] Gutierrez with a long ball out of the back that McBride can't quite reach, and is inexplicably called for touching the ball last. But Thorrington ends up with the ball after the goal kick, pins the ears back, and works a nice give-and-go with Herron that is deflected out by the Colorado defense for a corner. Thorrington runs more give-and-gos, and runs them more effectively, than anyone else on this team. More chances for the Fire in the penalty area as the ball keeps getting popped up, but they can't quite get on top of it, and Soumare takes a wild whack at the ball that goes out for a goal kick.
• [75'] McBride gets fouled after a strong effort to get position on a ball, but the Fire can't capitalize on the free kick. Now Blanco gets fouled, and Gutierrez lines up the free kick just outside the box. Conde can't get his head to it.
• [77'] Is the Colorado crowd haranguing the ref for a bad call against Chris Rolfe? I know the pro-Blanco contingent here has been big in the past, but still, that's surprising. It might have been Section 8, certainly, but I wouldn't expect them mocking Terry Vaughan in Spanish.
• [80'] God forbid we ever actually have to play a game in Denver that means something. Blanco takes too many touches again, loses it again. We're going to lose this one at this point. We're not doing enough to signify that we've got two goals in us.
• [81'] Almost on cue, Blanco with a beauty of a through-ball for Mapp, whose cross is just inches in front of a sliding McBride in front of an open net. We're just not connecting.
• [88'] Busch comes up with a great save that's only just a tiny bit of lipstick on this pig, to coin a phrase I've never, ever heard used before. Certainly not this past week.
• [90'] If there was a fatal flaw for the Fire in this match, it was the inability to get wide early. Some of that goes back to the decision to start King over Mapp, as King's tendencies are to play more conservatively and more centrally. This isn't a scathing indictment of Hamlett on that call, though, as every Fire team in recent memory seems to err on the side of adjusting to their opponent instead of forcing them to adjust to you.
• [92'+] Give Andy Herron points for trying, though. He's doing what the Fire have been unable to do prior to his entry into the match, which is get the ball on frame. It's what guys like Ante Razov and Nate Jaqua used to do, and I always defended those guys on the principle that you can't score if you don't shoot, and the point is to create chances on the premise that some of them are going to go in. The problem now is that the Fire are almost creating the chances, as opposed to creating the chances and almost scoring on them. It's just not enough.
• [FULL TIME] The other part of getting wide is having Blanco, Thorrington and Mapp switching up between the right, left and central channels, in an effort to vary where Blanco can get his touches, because opponents are having too easy of a time limiting those touches. There's a lot to work on as this team prepares for the playoffs. And Patrick Nyarko can't get healthy soon enough.
• [FULL TIME] That sound at halftime wasn't TVs switching. For some reason I thought the Bears had the late game.