Firing Away: Chicago Fire at Toronto FC

Doing this from The Globe this week, which means probably not so many wiseassed comments about the broadcasters. Sorry, Chris, I know you live for those.

• [PREGAME] Starting lineup from the Fire's Twitter feed has Dykstra, Ward, Conde, Brown, Krol, Husidic, Lowry, Pause, Nyarko, Pappa and McBride.
• [PREGAME] So that's Pause replacing the injured Justin Mapp, which means either Baggio Husidic or Marco Pappa will slide left.
• [PREGAME] The whole thing with the Fire front office really wanting to hire Preki makes for an interesting subtext, but we probably won't here about that.
• [3'] Conde with his first boneheaded play of the game, but C.J. is there to bail him out. Chris thinks Conde misjudged the ball because of the wind, but shouldn't that hair act as a sort of wind sensor? Still struggling with us not being the team wearing red.
• [8'] Of course, the hair could act like a sail, and carry him away from where he wants to be.
• [9'] I think Lowry forgot that he was supposed to take the free kick. Ward touches it to Pappa, Pappa sets it up, and then Lowry seems to think "oh shit, this one's supposed to be mine."
• [12'] Nyarko does a nice job keeping the ball in play on the far side touch line, but Pappa can't get much on the centering pass. Chicago kinda owning possession after that initial minute or two.
• [14'] Thought C.J. could have closed on Barrett quicker as he carried the ball into the box, but he got him in the end. That's what I get for doubting C.J. Brown.
• [16'] LaBrocca with a nice idea in these conditions, sending one in from distance after getting by Krol on our left, but Dykstra is able to deal despite the wind.
• [18'] Camera work has been brutal. C.J. makes a clever little move to let Dykstra get a ball into the box, but Dykstra almost doesn't figure it out.
• [21'] Either Dykstra got a haircut, or the wet conditions have it slicked back. Doesn't seem to have affected de Guzman for Toronto, though.
• [24'] Conde with another mistake, C.J. Brown with another bailout. So Ives will definitely put Conde on his Best XI for the week.
• [24'] GOAL TORONTO. LaBrocca flies another one in from the other side, and this time it works. Dykstra was late to move -- he was directing traffic as the play unfolded -- and then misjudged it. Wind was almost certainly a factor.
• [28'] Dykstra a bit shaky on a ball across the face of goal from Chad Barrett. His ability to get down laterally still bugs the hell out of me.
• [31'] Pappa gets a free kick around the Toronto wall after Nyarko gets pulled down in a dangerous position, but Stefan Frei is well-positioned. Which is good for him, because he didn't seem to know much about it.
• [33'] Conde with another misplay, and, to his credit, Dykstra gets down to his right to stop the shot from Barrett.
• [34'] Lowry gets run over by three Toronto players on the ensuing corner kick, because nobody else seemed interested in marking them. Fire get lucky not to be two down.
• [38'] I think it was Husidic, and not Collins John, who sent the pass in to an offside Marco Pappa. He clearly had hair on the replay. Maybe. Would have liked to have seen Pappa do better with it, regardless.
• [44'] Collins John just barely clips Attakora as he tries to get past him on a nice ball up the line from Logan Pause.
• [45'+'] Great moments in obvious from Chris: "If the Fire had scored on that corner kick, it would have been very, very interesting." Nice bit of effort to close out the half.
• [HALFTIME] Halftime interview with Mike Makovitch, whose name I'm almost certainly misspelling, indicates that Lowry coming off was tactical, and not from the collision.
• [HALFTIME] Chicago looked decent in the first fifteen minutes or so, but Toronto definitely started to figure things out as the half wore on. Wilman Conde has been making far too many mistakes in the back, and I suspect one of them is going to hurt us before the end of the match.
• [HALFTIME] Fortunately, we get the wind in the second half. Unless it stops like it did at Toyota Park against Houston.
• [HALFTIME] Chris, I love you, man, but you guys HAVE TO LAY OFF THE SUPERLATIVES. I know part of the job is selling the game, but if you lay it on too thick, you lose credibility, particularly with those passionate soccer fans who just don't follow the Fire.
• [46'] Collins John with a nice job releasing Nyarko up the right side to start the second half, but nothing comes of it.
• [47'] GOAL TORONTO. Preki looks like a genius coming out of the locker rooms, as O'Brian White immediately pays dividends, playing what was essentially a long give-and-go with Dwayne DeRosario. Brown lost White -- make your own joke there -- on the return, and I didn't get a good look at where Dykstra was positioned on the cross. I think he was a little too deferential to DeRo taking a shot.
• [51'] GOAL CHICAGO! Holy crap, Logan Pause with a 35-yard bomb! Krol set the plate nicely, but Pause did a fantastic job running around the ball to take a first-time shot into the upper corner.
• [52'] Carlos de los Cobos pulls the plug on Marco Pappa before the 60th minute, replacing him with rookie Corben Bone. I think you can put up with the interminable waiting for that one moment of brilliance from Pappa with just one forward, but with two, it seems de los Cobos needed a bit more from that position.
• [60'] Dykstra almost gets fooled by a deflection on a cross, but he recovers and grabs it. A bit more worrisome was that O'Brian White was wide open at the penalty spot.
• [63'] Nyarko with a bad first touch that allows Toronto to recover. McBride gets run over on the play, and I'm going to disagree with Chris on the notion that the ref should have given a corner kick to reflect the challenge, despite the ball clearly going off of Nyarko. As a referee, you totally do that -- more so in basketball than soccer, actually -- but it's like Fight Club. I don't think you're allowed to talk about it.
• [66'] GOAL TORONTO. What was that I was saying about Conde's mistakes hurting us? Total half-assed challenge at the midfield as Toronto counters, and I think it was O'Brian White who blew by him like he wasn't even there, dishing off to Chad Barrett for the easy finish. And when I say "easy finish" I mean "so easy even Chad Barrett can finish."
• [69'] GOAL TORONTO. The rout is on. Chad Barrett gets behind to Fire defenders -- including Conde AGAIN -- on a long through-ball from DeRosario, I think -- after a Fire chance, and beats Dykstra.
• [72'] Conde is a fucking nightmare out there today. So Ives AND Steve Davis will both put him on their Best XI.
• [75'] I may challenge Chris to go through an entire broadcast without using the word "interesting." And maybe "dangerous."
• [80'] Dykstra scrambles to grab a low drive from O'Brian White. Good that he made the initial play, a little troubling that he mishandled it at first.
• [82'] Dimitrov on for McBride, and immediately has a ball go over his head in front of goal that McBride would have buried.
• [87'] Krol with a long, low shot that may not have been much trouble for Stefan Frei, but we have to take what we can get at this point.
• [89'] I still like how quickly Collins John can get his shot off. That'll start to produce sooner or later.
• [90'] All of our efforts seem to be coming from the same spot, about 25 yards from goal just left of center. None of them are working.
• [90'+] Dykstra and Conde with a nearly epic miscommunication.
• [90'+] Dan Kelly misinterprets the problem. I don't think it was Nyarko not shooting, it was more that Nyarko's first touch was letting him down way too often.
• [FULL TIME] Toronto took care of business, and the Fire made too many mistakes. I'm not naming names, but the main offender rhymes with "Wilman Conde." So I'm guessing Ives, Steve Davis, Glenn Davis and Steven Goff ALL name him to their Best XI for the week. It's like his swishy hair hypnotizes people and they only see the athletic plays he's forced to make after he misses a tackle or something. I tend to give players the benefit of the doubt when they have the occasional howler of a match. Just don't make a habit of it.
• [FULL TIME] Also, Dan Kelly totally sounds like Ed Helms. I'm out.