Chicago Fire: 3 Key Takeaways from the Montreal match

The Chicago Fire came back at the death to tie Montreal Impact 2-2 at Toyota Park. Bastian Schweinsteiger sparkled on his debut. Here are the key takeaways.

The Chicago Fire came back at the death to tie Montreal Impact 2-2 at Toyota Park.

Bastian Schweinsteiger sparkled in his debut helping the Fire to dominate possession and heading home a goal.

Montreal Impact were missing some of their top players in Nacho Piatti and Laurent Ciman, but still managed to hold on for a tie.

Relieved to tie a game the Chicago Fire should have by all means won, here’s a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly. (with the ugly in the middle.)

The Good

WOW! That Lineup! What a debut for Basti.

The most impactful player on the pitch, he was a needle in Montreal’s side all day. His movement is disguised, throwing so many phantoms your way its hard to know what is real. Every touch is diligently placed to buy him time for the next pass and to pull the opposition out of position.

Schweinsteiger’s technical ability and soccer IQ is still world class. His propensity to move around the pitch caused fits for Montreal’s defense.

The movement in Veljko Paunovic’s 4-3-3 formation kept the whole Fire squad activated, looking for switches and causing confusion on overloads constantly. Basti and company were creating plenty of chances, but just missing on that last pass in the final third. This bodes extremely well for the Chicago Fire’s HxG (Home expected goals) in the future.