Chicago Fire: 3 Key Takeaways from New England

Chicago Fire stymied New England Revolution on Saturday during their 3-0 win. Key takeaways from the final game of their home stand.Here are the key takeaways.

Here are the three key take aways:

Vincent Convincement

One of the first things that I noticed on Saturday was how much higher Brandon Vincent played on the Chicago Fire’s left flank.

Here’s Brandon Vincent’s heat map from a few games ago. 

With star left winger David Accam on the bench due to a knock, there was more space for Vincent to operate in than usual.

Here’s Brandon Vincent’s heat map from last game.

With all the extra space afforded to him, Vincent seemed more effective in his distribution. He also finally looked like an actual threat to the opposing defense. Up until this game, most of his runs forward with the ball were lacking the scent of danger. Totally not the case against the Revolution.

Seems like I’m not the only one wondering if missing Accam had anything to do with that.

Lucho Libre

Free Lucho.

Once again factoring into Chicago Fire’s goal count, Luis Solignac is making a case to start. He was a constant threat on the ball, showing deft touch and fantastic vision.

Depth was initially a concern when John Goossens went down with an injury early in the season, but we’re starting to see that those concerns may have been misplaced. The amount of quality players vying in competition for starting spots is the best number its been in years.

Between Lucho, Arturo Alvarez, Daniel Johnson, and Drew Conner, alone, there’s enough starting talent there for any respectable MLS team to live off of. And I still haven’t mentioned Matt Polster!

Pauno to E4

Another fantastic managerial display by Coach Veljko Paunovic, he’s picking the right players before and during the match. To make matters scarier for the opposing coach, those players are completely buying into Pauno’s system. Checkmate.

When you have a coach that is willing to run through a wall for you and you buy into his tactics, you see the type of displays from his players we’ve been treated to during this home stand.

It may be too soon to say, but I would point to that 1-0 win against Columbus, specifically, as the most important match of the season, so far. But while that match was a validation of effort, this last game was a validation of tactics.

Not only are we seeing what this squad can do, we’re starting to see the benefits of Pauno getting the time to actually manage, rather than just coach.

Next: Chicago Fire: Who is the Weakest Link?

While the stars are continuing to align in Chicago, this week sees the Men in Red travel to Toronto for a 6:30 kickoff on Friday.