A rain soaked BMO Field in Toronto greeted the Chicago Fire and Toronto FC, both looking to change recent misfortunes and gain some momentum in the standings. The end result for the Fire would be a fourth consecutive draw that encapsulated their season to date, showing both continued frustration and lack of direction as well as lots of heart, fight, and ability to score at crucial moments. Unfortunately for the Fire, the good that came from the game may not be enough to outweigh continued issues plaguing a young team.
The first half began with Toronto quickly setting the precedent for the flow of the first half, attacking early and often against a seemingly tentative Chicago backline. Early shots from Toronto’s Eckersley and Santos proved to be worthy of Fire keeper Jon Conway’s abilities, but a 9th minute goal from Toronto’s Joao Plata proved too much, as the excellent strike was built up nicely by Toronto, before Plata received the pass, brought the ball across on his right foot, and struck a perfectly placed low drive to the far side post. There was little Conway could do on the play. It was frustrating to watch a Chicago defense that seemed to be stationary pieces watching Plata work rather than proactive defenders trying to halt a scoring chance.
After the Plata goal, it seemed Chicago’s defense woke up a bit, knowing they had just put their team behind the 8-ball. On numerous occasions, rookie defender Jalil Anibaba put a strong body to Plata, perhaps letting him know that the mistake of allowing him to dance through the middle happened once, but may not happen again so easily. In spite of that defensive hustle, though, Anibaba’s footwork seemed to fail him throughout the first half, as a number of times he seemed clumsy with the ball, even stepping on it once, nearly losing it, only to regain possession quickly enough to get it to a teammate. Those types of moments throughout the half created tension for anyone calling themselves a Fire fan.
The Fire only created one real scoring chance in the first half, and it was a sloppy, unplanned mess of a run through the box that resulted in nothing. Diego Chaves, Corben Bone, and Marco Pappa all were seemingly absent and ineffective in the first half. As a whole, the team’s passing lacked purpose, with numerous passes that either found themselves between two teammates, or fell directly to the feet of Toronto. In either case, the Fire showed a first half level of play that was a continuation of their overall performance in last week’s game against Vancouver, and was indicative of a team that is nowhere near worthy of a playoff spot come October.
My second half notes on the game start out by saying, “No complaints about Conway so far.” Not ten seconds after I committed that sentence to paper, Maicon Santos launched a strike again, this time from 35 yards out that took a timely bounce just before reaching Conway. The result was a volley that slipped its way under Conway’s gloves, and into the back of the net. That mistake by Conway would prove egregious.
Play between the two teams after Toronto took a 2-0 lead seemed to move much like the majority of the first half, with neither team taking total command. It wasn’t until a 62nd minute free kick from the top of the box that things started to swing in Chicago’s favor, and they began to show a form that should have been present since the opening minutes of the match.
After Pappa’s goal is also when central midfielder Corben Bone finally game to life. In the previous two games he’s started, Bone has looked out of sorts, and largely unnoticed, as his efforts, for as good as they may have been, seemed to have little effect on the overall run of play for the Fire. That changed this evening in the 75th minute, however. Bone, showing more confidence and becoming a more central part of the offensive push after Pappa’s goal, found himself to the right of Toronto keeper Stefan Frei. Bone took on his defender 1v1, showing confidence and even a little swagger, shaking the defender while he surged towards the endline and crossed a ball through the six, off Frei’s hands, and directly to the falling feet of 58th minute substitution Orr Barouch (on for Diego Chaves), resulting in Barouch’s first MLS goal.
This equalizer proved to be the spark the Fire needed to show what they’re truly capable of as a team. Crisp passing, continued possession, and additional chances on goal showed a Chicago Fire that could and should have put Toronto FC away. Indeed, just minutes after Bone fed Barouch for the game-tying goal, he later found his central midfield teammate Daniel Paladini, who stood all alone in front of Frei. Paladini calmly collected the ball at his feet, stepped into space, and chipped the ball up over a diving Frei. Somehow, Frei swatted up and was able to deflect a sure go-ahead goal. To Paladini’s credit, he did the very thing every Fire player who’s missed a 1v1 opportunity this year should have done. It was by sheer luck that the Toronto keeper was able to get a hand up in time to stop the Fire from going up a goal in the late going and stealing three points. That missed chance, however, made Conway’s miscue at the beginning of the second half all the more bitter, as it proved to be the difference between a win and a tie for the Fire.
It seems that even if in the smallest of ways, the Fire are beginning to come together a little more every game as a team. There’s likely to be much debate as to whether or not that’s the case, and more games ahead will surely confirm or disprove that, but what is sure is that if the Fire can get solid play out of their players for a full 90 minutes as they did tonight in the final 25, we could be looking at a very different Chicago Fire squad. The only question is whether or not that will actually materialize.
(image courtesy of chicago-fire.com)
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