For the fourth time in five seasons the Chicago Fire made it within one game of the MLS Cup, only to disappointingly fail to make the final.
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Monday, December 14, 2009
Chicago Fire: What Happened in 2009?
For the fourth time in five seasons the Chicago Fire made it within one game of the MLS Cup, only to disappointingly fail to make the final.
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What went wrong with the Fire in a nutshell: McBride and Blanco. Both great players past their primes who still had a lot to offer a team looking for an experienced offensive player through whom they could run their distribution. On their own either of them could have done a great job, together they were less than the sum of their parts. Before McBride arrived and while he was hurt we had Rolfe in the forward line where his quick decision making and quicker feet produced goals. When Blanco was out Rolfe played off of McBride and benefited him his knock down play. With both on the field every play ran through Blanco and then to McBride. The end result is that defenders had a ton of time to get back and defend and there was often nobody to get on the end of balls McBride was knocking down, due to Rolfe's distance from goal. This also left our midfield exposed as Rolfe and Blanco offered little defensively. When everything came together (read: when Blanco felt like running), as it did in our second game against New England, our midfield and forward line gelled and produced a ton of chances. When he didn't feel like putting out his best effort our forward play was disjointed and we were vulnerable to counters. Ultimately this wasn't our undoing- losing in penalties can be explained by bad luck rather than a shortage in the squad, though one could argue that it never should have gotten to that point.
I think getting Nyarko on the field as a full-time starter next year will do a ton for McBride. Depending on a fair number of other factors (what happens with midfield and defensive signings, if we can keep Wilman Conde and Segares, the coaching situation) things won't be as grim as this article makes out- NE is in a bit of a down swing, DC will have a new coach, Columbus will lose a significant portion of the 2008 championship squad, Philly will lose a ton of games, fuck TFC, etc- the team will contend. Most likely we'll see Blanco re-signed for a half of a season to sell tickets, regardless of what he has to offer on the field, which could either be a great thing or (more likely) a terrible waste. I'm not counting on it being a great year but I doubt it'll be as dark as most pundits would have you believe.
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