Chicago Fire Vs San Jose Earthquakes: 3 things we learned – San Jose soar
By Adnan Bašić
The San Jose Earthquakes secured top spot in Group B with a 2-0 victory over the Chicago Fire on Sunday night. Here are on three things we learned.
The San Jose Earthquakes sealed 1st place in Group B of the MLS Is Back tournament after beating the Chicago Fire 2-0 on Sunday night.
After a tense first half, things burst into life after the break. San Jose opened the scoring in the 56th minute through Christian Espinoza, who snuck past the Chicago backline before rifling a shot from the edge of the area into the back of the net. The Earthquakes then put the contest to bed with about 10 minutes to go as substitute Chris Wondolowski headed home from close range to seal all three points.
The result meant that they will finish top of Group B, while the Fire now look forward to Thursday’s game against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Here are three things we learned from the contest.
3. Inconsistent Chicago Fire disappoint
After an encouraging victory over the Seattle Sounders, the Chicago Fire never got going. They started slowly, sitting too deep, with just 30% possession in the first half, and could never break out of their funk and making things too easy for the opposition.
It seems the Fire got too excited after beating the Sounders earlier in the week. They assumed playing the same way would get the same result. Instead, they looked sloppy, unable to make consecutive passes in midfield.
Kenneth Kronholm got his positioning wrong on the first goal, while captain Francisco Calvo failed to track his marker properly. Up top, CJ Sapong and Robert Beric couldn’t link up in the final third, while Przemysław Frankowski and Miguel Navarro failed to get involved in the match on their respective flanks.
The Fire have not been eliminated just yet, but they’ll likely need a result against the Whitecaps on Thursday if they want to make the knockout rounds. Which Fire team will show up on the day, however, remains to be seen.