Firing Away: Chicago Fire at Montreal Impact

So, yeah, let's do this thing. I figure all my regular places to watch Fire matches are overrun by amateur drunks, so it's on the couch.

• [PREGAME] Only caught a bit of the pregame show, but loved Evan Whitfield correcting Dan Kelly on Marco Pappa underperforming more than being underrated. Mostly because I had just screamed the same thing at the TV when Kelly said it. I had put the over/under somewhere in the first half for the first completely ignorant thing said on the broadcast, and definitely should have taken the under.
• [1'] Dan Kelly has already gotten Oduro and Nyarko confused. Yikes.
• [4'] Not crazy about the (lack of) communication in the backline the first time Montreal pushed forward. Or the mix-up between Tornaghi and Anibaba shortly thereafter.
• [6'] I'm not trying to focus on the negative, but now Segares and Pause take each other out on the left side, and Justin Braun gets through, takes a run at Gibbs, and skies the cross well out of bounds. Two plays that could have gone much, much worse.
• [9'] Is Brovsky's hair purple? And why mention the corner kick sponsorship on a free kick from midfield?
• [13'] Some better possession from the Fire. Gargan's shot clearly could have been better, and Dan Kelly still has no instinct to check for the offside flag on that kind of play, where Nyarko slipped in to try to redirect. Makes me crazy.
• [16'] Great free kick attempt from the Fire after Gargan is fouled in the attacking third. Anibaba just off target with the header off the Grazzini service.
• [17'] Poor defending from Pappa -- he should have dropped back as Gargan challenged -- allows Montreal to get in deep and cross a dangerous ball for Justin Braun that Tornaghi tips over the bar.
• [19'] Evan Whitfield with the Tom Brady reference. Nice.
• [21'] Gonzalo Segares is not having a good match so far.
• [26'] I think Dan Gargan just batted a ball down with his arm and didn't get caught.
• [29'] Dan and Evan just pointed out that Pardo hasn't seen many touches at all, which I was about to say as well. Grazzini isn't seeing much of the ball in the run of play, either. And we don't really have much in the way of wing play or long balls, either, so most of our offense is coming from Marco Pappa and even Dan Gargan pushing forward from the back.
• [33'] New sideline reporter Kevin Egan just said the Fire coaching staff was "pleasantly pleased" so far. You know, I could fake an accent if that's what they wanted.
• [35'] Dan Kelly was about fifteen seconds into hysterics about the Impact's first home tally before it was pointed out that the play was offside. Obviously offside. No question. Why the hell does the Fire stick with this guy? He doesn't know the game, and isn't learning a fucking thing about it with experience. It makes me INSANSE. Does nobody tell him he's calling the game so badly? Do they not know?
• [45'+] Going to my dark place already. Have the Fire had a shot on goal in the first half? I can't recall Donovan Ricketts having to actually do anything yet. Offense has no strategy.
• [HALFTIME] The Chicago midfield must have gotten stopped at the Canadian border. Totally non-existent, and Oduro and Nyarko have little to work with as a result. Defensively, we're making too many mistakes for my liking, but nothing particularly damaging. Pappa is still underwhelming, and Sega has had some bad plays. On some level, with all the hoopla (or however you say that in French) over the Impact's first home match, you'll take a boring 0-0 draw, but this has been a really boring 0-0 draw through 45 minutes. Where's the spark for the (pun intended) Fire?
• [HALFTIME] Okay, so I may have forgotten about the Grazzini free kick in my first half assessment, but it didn't count as a shot or a shot on goal. Still a decent chance, but the only time the Fire really threatened. Zero shots. Zero shots on goal. We can get away with that against Montreal, but will get beaten to a bloody pulp against most other clubs if we play like this.
• [48'] Random 48th minute graphic on the screen as the clock has mysteriously disappeared. Also, catching a ball at your chest is not "extending." Extending would be reaching up to make the save. Idiot.
• [52'] How can there be a ball loose in your penalty area for that long a period of time? If Segares was pinching in because of the scrum, where the hell is Pappa? Again, we're lucky that Montreal didn't have anybody in the area code, either.
• [54'] Guessing on the time since the clock broke. Chicago shot on goal from Dominic Oduro! Soft burden of low expectations!
• [57'-ish] GOAL MONTREAL. And it's Segares with weak defensive pressure once the pass goes wide to Nyassi, and then Anibaba doesn't read Gibbs pushing near-post, allowing Davy Arnaud an open channel through the middle to head the cross home.
• [63'-ish] U and O enters the game for A and A. Unbalanced flanks as a result, unless Grazzini or Pause split wide as Puppo gets forward. Looks like Pause is actually getting back out to the right, and no, that one run with the USMNT in the Gold Cup doesn't make Logan "Captain America."
• [69'-ish] Not sure why anyone would care which player who is no longer with the team had what number last year. Just sayin'.
• [70'-ish] GOAL CHICAGO! Get Grazzini more touches, and good things happen. Second half sub Hunter Jumper gets it forward to Nyarko up the left flank, who does well to find Grazzini with just a bit of space, and he hits Oduro slipping behind the defense for the score. Replay shows perfect timing to keep the play onside.
• [81-ish'] Corradi was "also involved" with the challenge on Dan Gargan that knocked him down to the turf. Couldn't just say that it was Corradi and not Davy Arnaud. Dan Kelly is making my head hurt.
• [84'] Kevin Stott right on top of the play, calling Lamar Neagle for the dive in the box. Still not crazy that the threat wasn't neutralized before Gibbs came across for the challenge, though.
• [87'] Hunter Jumper owes Paolo Tornaghi dinner for that one, as Tornaghi bailed Jumper out with a point-blank save on Nyassi after the defender fell down, letting him through to take the uncontested shot.
• [90'+] Nice run up the gut from Puppo, drawing a foul. Pardo is high and wide with the free kick, going purely for placement. I miss Blanco and his 15-yard run-up to free kicks in that spot.
• [90'+] First, where the hell did five minutes of stoppage time come from? Second, wow, Montreal almost sent their record-setting home crowd home happy with a rocket off the woodwork in the dying seconds. Arnaud? Not counting on Kelly to be able to recognize what's going for a play that unfolded that quickly. Corradi called offside on the rebound, clearly.
• [FULL TIME] I worry that the narrative for this game will be coming back from a goal down for a point on the road, which will obscure the fact that we kinda sucked. Don't get me wrong, I'll take the point, but we did not play very well. Getting physical with Grazzini seemed to neuter our entire offense, and guys like Pappa and Pardo need to pick up the slack if we're going to work a passing game through the center of the field, which is the way this team is built right now, at least unless we split Nyarko out as a flank midfielder. Pause as a right-sided midfielder narrows the field considerably.
• [FULL TIME] My other big concern is that we didn't seem to have any sort of plan. Frank Klopas seems to have just thrown guys on the field and let them "do their thing," rather than having some strategy about how we want to move the ball up the field and how we want to create scoring opportunities. Maybe it's one of those things that has to evolve over the course of the first few games of the season, but other teams have looked much more coherent already.