Chicago Fire vs FC Cincinnati: Where is the Bottom?
Every single year, Chicago Fire fans tell themselves that “it can’t get any worse.” But then it does get worse. After hitting what they think is rock bottom over and over again, they have once again dropped back into free-fall. After losing 1-0 at home to an FC Cincinnati team that, for all intents and purposes, statistically had both the worst offense and defense both in predicted and actual measurements going into this match. It’s an absolute disgrace to the club and I’d say it was a disgrace to the badge, but luckily they’re not actually wearing the Chicago Fire badge. Here’s what happened:
The first half was almost entirely FC Cincinnati’s game. Everyone had been so worried about the offense’s lack of scoring that we all forgot about the Chicago Fire’s lack of defense. By just the 23rd minute, Bobby Shuttleworth was forced to make 7 saves. While some of them were routine saves on bad shots, others stemmed from bad giveaways and poor marking, forcing Shuttleworth to actually work as hard as he could for that entire first half, ending with 9 saves. Due to the sheer amount of shots, it’s almost not worth it to explain each chance in detail, just that the defense clearly could not find the right player to mark.
Bobby Shuttleworth’s heroics were very quickly made all for naught in the 50th minute when FC Cincinnati got a free-kick just off the corner of the box. As Alvaro Barreal took an absolute rip at the ball, three of the four members of the wall jumped. One did not. And the ball flew over that player’s head and drilled its way into the goal. The Chicago Fire didn’t completely lie down and let this happen. In the 60th minute, there was a scramble in the six-yard box and somehow the ball did not end up in the back of the net. In the 63rd, a certain player I’ll talk about later missed an open shot at the goal from less than a centimeter out. And finally, in the 92nd minute, it seemed like that certain player had equalized the game, only to have been caught offside.
Here are three things we’ve hopefully learned from this brutal failure.
Never Been Tested
One small thing, possibly good, thing to mention in this Chicago Fire loss is that this was the first time that Bobby Shuttleworth has been really tested by the opponent. In other matches, most of the shots he faced resulted from defensive errors that gave him very little chance to stop the ball. With FC Cincinnati’s apparent strategy of just bombarding the net in the first half, Shuttleworth actually got a chance to prove his worth starting in goal over the still injured Kenneth Kronholm.
Over the course of the previous 8 games, Shuttleworth has faced 32 shots and let in 13, giving him just 20 saves. As I said earlier, a lot of those goals he really had no chance at getting to. So being given 12 shots on target in this game to deal with, he matched over half of his previous season total with 11 saves at the end of the day. So while he did injure himself while letting in the Barreal goal and also let Jurgen Locadia blow straight past him in the 78th minute (who somehow found a way not to score on the empty net), Shuttleworth had a pretty good day all things considered. At least a much better day than some of his teammates.
Beric. Just Beric.
The previously unnamed player is Robert Beric. It is wrong to put the blame of an entire match onto one man, but every important moment of this match traces back to him. It would be expected on the attacking end, since he is the team’s target striker, but to have him so heavily involved on the goal against is another thing. The ball that Barreal smacked was moving at an amazing speed. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t jump. But I’m not a professional soccer player whose job it is to get in front of the ball.
Then comes the attacking side of the ball, the part of the game that the Chicago Fire is paying #27 $2.7 million in guaranteed compensation to succeed in. And when a chance is offered to him on a silver platter, an empty net with literally no one to beat, he falters. And when he is called upon late in the game for a magical injury time equalizer, he absentmindedly drifts offside. And there are even moments in-between where he is just unable to finish on plays where an average striker of his pay-grade should be finishing.
So maybe the blame isn’t on Robert Beric for this match. The blame lies with those who paid him this much money and expected so much more out of him when there was such little evidence to suggest he’d be any better.
Sacked in the Morning
I need to preface this with the usual: I do not wish bad things on anyone in this game. I truly believe that Raphael Wicky is a good person and honestly, I think he’d be a good coach if he was anywhere but in Chicago. But he is in Chicago. And the Chicago Fire are failing under his watch. When every single predictive measurement under the sun says that this team should be better than it is, then it is time to make changes. Because they should either be a bad team who plays bad or a good team who plays good. There is no such team as a “good team that plays bad.”
Standing with the supporters and walking out of the stadium, there was only one thing on people’s minds: Firing both Raphael Wicky and Georg Heitz. The players that have been signed are not good enough. The tactics that these players have been given are not good enough. Something needs to happen and it needs to happen fast or else the club risks losing every ounce of goodwill the business side has been driving and pushing for.
So right here, I will say it: Wicky needs to go. Heitz needs to go. And whoever comes in needs to have experience in MLS.