Firing Away on Tape Delay: Chicago Fire at D.C. United

Another gig last night, so think of this as a minute-by-minute recap rather than a running commentary.

• [PREGAME] If there's anything that may give the Fire an edge as these two teams both look for their first win, it's the patchwork defense D.C. is forced into because of injury and suspension. Brian McBride and Collins John may be able to capitalize. Given the current state of our defense, though, I see a potentially high-scoring match.
• [PREGAME] Not at all surprised to see Robinson replace Ward at right back after Ward's bad game last week, but no McBride? I'm still way behind on my reading, so I don't know if this is a coach's decision or an injury. Carlos de los Cobos seems to like what he sees in Justin Mapp -- starting on the wing in a 4-5-1 instead of McBride up top in a 4-4-2 -- so far, but we've seen a lot more of Mapp than he has, so it will be very interesting to see how long this lasts.
• [PREGAME'] For the record, I thought adding Mapp into the mix and sliding Pappa into the middle from the onset might be a good idea, but thought de los Cobos might sacrifice one of his holding midfielders instead of going with a lone forward.
• [1'] Krol with two bad passes in the first minute. Yikes.
• [3'] C.J. Brown just didn't pass it back to Andrew Dykstra when he had the chance. Twice. Interesting. Chris just mentioned Dasan Robinson getting the start on the right, but not in the context of Ward screwing up last week. This is where I'm not a fan of the relentlessly positive approach to calling games, which isn't just a Fire thing, but a league-wide thing. Heck, you could talk about accountability with the new head coach. Just give it more context.
• [5'] Speaking of Robinson, he's making a strong case for the starting spot right out of the gate. Aggressive to the ball, anticipating well.
• [9'] Collins John does exactly the kind of thing I expect from him. Posts up in the box, and then slips behind and takes an opportunistic stab that almost gets over Troy Perkins. Chicago looking dangerous on the ensuing corner kicks, but can't find the target.
• [12'] Lowry with a nice low shot off a clearance from D.C., but it's just wide.
• [21'] Nyarko with a good individual effort, taking a couple touches and rifling a shot over the crossbar. This is followed by the rare "negative image replay," which sorta turns everything blue. McBride on the bench described by Chris as a coach's decision, but only speculates that it's because he and John have similar styles. Benching the captain apparently not a big story.
• [24'] So, they just quoted de los Cobos from this afternoon, who talked about how the team has played good soccer in spurts, but haven't gotten the results. Dave Sarachan and Denis Hamlett, of course, were run out of town on a rail for this, but in a new coach, "truer words were never spoken." It seems like I'm being hard on Chris here, but a lot of this is messaging that comes down from the front office. Not trying to shoot the messenger, because I know the messenger might be reading this. ;-P
• [26'] D.C. United with a rare foray into the attacking third, and I'm a little worried that Robinson drifted too far into the middle, which left just Patrick Nyarko to deal with Allsopp and his cross to the far post.
• [27'] United keeping up the pressure, with Devon McTavish beating Krol to the end line, but this time I like Robinson in the middle when the ball is on the weak side, as he clears it out with a header.
• [29'] That looked like a handball in the box to me off of the Justin Mapp cross. Dan Kelly should be proud of his inadvertent pun about the coaching staff being "up in arms."
• [31'] Julius James out-jumps Collins John on a Quaranta corner, but he's wide of the net.
• [32'] End-to-end action, as Collins John puts one across the face of goal and just wide, where it's recovered by Patrick Nyarko, but Nyarko's pass is just behind Baggio Husidic, who gets a foot to it but is off target. Not sure that he really had an opportunity to shoot there, as Dan and Chris are hinting at. And if you want the biggest problem with American soccer telecasts, it's that we haven't seen a replay of that alleged handball. In other countries, that would be cued up immediately.
• [34'] Lots of red jerseys buzzing the D.C. goal, and Peter Lowry tries to stab it past Perkins, but it's right at the goalkeeper. Baggio starting to get more involved, which is good.
• [39'] Dan Kelly gets Allsopp and Pontius confused, saying Pontius is from Australia. Pontius picks up some kind of knock and can't continue. Nyarko with a great through ball for Collins John right after the sub, but his first-time shot is a few feet wide.
• [42'] Wiilman Conde hurts himself on an aggressive tackle, rolling his left ankle as he goes over the back of a D.C. player for a header at midfield.
• [44'] Dan Kelly absolutely kills a segue. Not as good as the pun -- still no replay on the handball, by the way -- but credit where credit is due.
• [45'] This season is becoming a never-ending stream of goalkeeper gaffes, as Troy Perkins comes out of his box and whiffs. Nyarko can't capitalize, and some mayhem ensues in the box before D.C. can avert the danger, including Perkins almost putting it back in his own net from almost twenty yards out.
• [HALFTIME] The Fire definitely had the better of the play in the first half, but -- and stop me if you've heard this before -- couldn't find the back of the net. There's always a danger of giving up a goal against the run of play in these sorts of games where you're on the front foot for so long, but D.C. so far hasn't shown much on the attack. At least in the run of play, so defending set pieces may be crucial in the second half to prevent chances like Julius James had off that corner kick.
• [HALFTIME] Safeway Insurance still showing ads with Blanco. Do they know more than we do about Temo's post-World Cup plans? Probably not, but it would be funny if they did.
• [50'] Dan sorta oversells a save from Dykstra off a D.C. corner kick. Nahar's header didn't have much juice on it. Still, Mapp could have done better on the marking.
• [51'] C.J. Brown whistled for a handball at the top of the box. I'd say it didn't look too much different from the one on D.C. in the first half in terms of where Brown's arm was relative to his body, EXCEPT THAT WE STILL HAVEN'T SEEN A REPLAY. I'm guessing Comcast aren't the ones originating the broadcast, and the D.C. guys had no interest in showing it again. I know that happens a lot with shared feeds.
• [58'] For the record, both teams having never led in a match yet this season it not, in fact, ironic. Interesting, yes. Ironic, no. Don'tcha think?
• [60'] Dykstra steps up to play a long, uncontested ball into the box, and then has to backtrack a good ten yards when he realizes it's going a bit deeper. You might not want to play Dykstra in the outfield on your softball team. Just sayin'.
• [63'] Speaking of softball, Chris just asks who the Fire traded for Justin Mapp as a trivia question. Dema Kovalenko, although I realize doing this after the fact means I just as well could have waited for the answer and then written it. But I didn't.
• [64'] Andrew Dykstra with a bona fide save off a free kick from Quaranta. Conde is lucky he doesn't make contact as he flaps his arm at the rebound, then does well to knock it out of danger as D.C. tries to punch it through.
• [67'] Good attacking sequence from the Fire, although this time, I think Nyarko did have a shot that he passed up. After pulling the ball back, Chicago switches to the left side, with Mapp's crossed headed away, and then Krol's cross not quite getting the movement he wanted on it, and it lands right in Troy Perkins' arms.
• [69'] Almost a picture-perfect cross from the left side by Marco Pappa. I say "almost" because it was just over the head of Collins John and just out of the reach of Baggio Husidic on the far post. Not sure either of those guys could have done much more to get to the ball.
• [71'] Justin Mapp with a long shot that's no trouble for Perkins. Didn't look like Mapp had enough time or space to really wind up on it.
• [72'] Chris points out that Mapp and Pappa have switched spots. Getting Pappa out wide seems to be working so far, as he tries to put a ball across the face of goal for Collins John. Can't quite keep it out of the reach of Perkins.
• [74'] Krol gets forward, and gets wiped out by Julius James. Not sure what James is complaining about as he picks up a yellow card, as he got him pretty hard. Lowry tries to loop the free kick into the box, but nobody can get on it.
• [76'] McBride on for John. Given the formation, that was pretty much the obvious choice. You want a goal, but with the score level, you don't want to sacrifice too much defense to get it. McBride almost pays immediate dividends with a quick shot off a Nyarko cross from the end line.
• [78'] Nyarko gets his clock cleaned by Rodney Wallace, but it looked like a 50-50 challenge.
• [79'] Conde with a nice play to stop a D.C. combination up the gut of the penalty area, and Nyarko is back on the field.
• [79'] GOAL CHICAGO! Nyarko gets down to the end line, and cuts it back to the penalty spot. McBride gets a great little touch through his legs -- he might have intended to dummy it through -- and Marco Pappa has all the time in the world to tee up a shot and blast it by Perkins. That run to the end line from Nyarko has been probably the most dangerous part of the Fire attack for the last year, and it pays off here.
• [82'] Julius James gets his head to another corner kick and almost equalizes. This time he gets by Wilman Conde, but again can't find the target. Dodging bullets here.
• [85'] McBride with a nice feed for an onrushing Husidic, but the shot is deflected wide by a defender. Pappa does better with the clearance of his initial corner kick than the corner itself, but D.C. clears.
• [89'] GOAL CHICAGO! McBride with a tricky flick off his head from twelve yards out off of a booming restart from Andrew Dykstra that beats Perkins to the post. Did de los Cobos pick the wrong forward to start, or is McBride taking advantage of his fresh legs and a tired defense? We'll find out next week.
• [FULL TIME] I thought D.C. would be equally pressed for their first win, and have the advantage of the home field, but they're just not a good team. Chicago turned in a pretty complete performance, dominating all over the field. Tim Ward probably just lost his starting spot. I'm not sold on Baggio yet, but he had some stretches of solid play. And 90 solid minutes from Justin Mapp? I may come around on de los Cobos after all.
• [FULL TIME] I really liked the solid defensive effort in this match, but I'm a little hesitant to give them all the credit against such a toothless attack. Then again, an easy assignment may be what the back line needed to get their act together after a few shaky weeks.