Chicago Fire: Key Takeaways from the Columbus Crew Match

Chicago Fire beat Columbus Crew on Saturday at Toyota Park and Bastian Schweinsteiger’s first win of his of MLS career has been secured.

Chicago Fire beat Columbus Crew on Saturday at Toyota Park.

In doing so, they have secured Bastian Schweinsteiger’s first win of his of MLS career. A team effort from start to finish, Basti and company have every right to look this excited after their 1-0 win.

Let’s hope this win instigates a solid run of form for the Men in Red, if not more locker room selfies.

Prepared by Paunovic

Missing Juninho due to red card suspension, social media was abound with speculation regarding the Fire’s starting lineup and formation. Hours before the match, Pauno’s plans were revealed.

Coach Paunovic electing for the above 3-4-3 formation surprised most fans.

Having not seen the formation practiced at all during pre-season, fans weren’t sure that Pauno packed it in his bag of tricks. Well he did, and despite what little practice the players have had with the formation, that didn’t stop them from executing it to great success.

Perhaps, the formations greatest effect was to mask the squad’s defensive deficiencies.

Red Harrington

Saturday’s result strongly asserts this above notion. Going against a red hot Justin Meram, fans were rightly worried that the Chicago Fire’s right back would be exposed as a traffic cone.

Thankfully, that clear and present danger never came to pass.

While he won’t ever be mistaken for a first-rate right back, Harrington, for all of fans’ complaint’s, is able to do a job out there. If Pauno is able to properly manage Harrington’s defensive liabilities, the Fire will take more points in games like this one. Of course, we’ve all seen what happens when Pauno isn’t able to mitigate those weaknesses…

As it is, Paunovic set him up for success, but Harrington wasn’t the only one to triumph on Saturday.

#NoNikoNoParty

Nemanja Nikolic has found his scoring boots, again.

I have been saying this for a few matches now, but it’s only a matter of time before Niko gels with the rest of the team. Still don’t think we’ve seen it all click together, but that moment is coming very soon.

Accam’s Razor

For all the good that we saw on Saturday, there were still a few negatives to takeaway. Specifically, Chicago Fire talisman David Accam turned in a particularly poor performance.

Referring to his player ratings, it’s hard to detect a dip in performance at first glance. Beyond the Atlanta result in which no one did well, we see that David has put in two solid shifts, and two not-so-solid.

From my personal eye test, however, something has looked off since the season opener. Renowned for his pace, Accam’s been beat to a few too many loose balls for my liking over the course of this short season. Yesterday, in particular, David appeared out of sorts from the get-go. Launching shots into the stands during warm-ups, nothing changed during the game.

There were moments where he seemed himself when on the dribble, but those were few and far between. Too many times, David made questionable decisions leading to turnovers. Paunovic must have recognized something, as well, as he eventually subbed Accam off for Daniel Johnson, who once again impressed.

Next: Chicago Fire: Who is the Weakest Link?

Perhaps David’s struggles were due to adjusting to a slightly different role in this new 3-4-3 formation, but for now, David has caught my attention. Hopefully, this is nothing but a brief dip in form and all will be forgotten in a few matches. Onto the next!