Chicago Fire vs Nashville SC: Crash Landing

It’s an outcome that many could’ve easily predicted, although not quite as aggressive as this. The Chicago Fire’s dream has taken an abrupt ending with a shocking 5-1 loss in Nashville. Though there are some extenuating circumstances that can be found throughout the match and preceding it, a loss of this nature is just inexcusable. Here’s how it went down.

After a fairly pedestrian first few minutes, things didn’t look that off. At least, until Johan Kappelhof turned the ball over directly to former Fire player CJ Sapong in the 10th minute, leading to an open shot for Hany Mukhtar. In the 13th minute, Kappelhof was involved again, this time being caught way too far out of position as Mukhtar stormed through, posterized Mauricio Pineda, and got his second goal. Kappelhof’s very bad night came to a swift end in the 15th minute as he pushed Sapong over on another breakaway, picking up a straight red. Mukhtar would convert on the free-kick, giving him one of the fastest hat tricks in league history. The half did still continue after that and the Fire even got a chance in the 37th minute when a corner kick found a wide-open Robert Beric on the far post. Unfortunately, all he could do was hit the side netting. In the 39th, both Sapong and Mukhtar hit the post, but Mukhtar’s shot landed in front of Sapong who got his own empty netter to put Nashville up 4-0 at the half.

With a first half like that, Nashville seemed to sit back a bit more in the second. This led to a 47th minute goal for the Chicago Fire when Ignacio Aliseda caught another former Fire player, Jalil Anibaba, off-guard. With the defense bunched up, Aliseda slipped in behind to tap in the Fire’s lone goal of the game. The game should’ve gone to 5-1 in the 56th minute when Mukhtar once again blew past Boris Sekulic and Wyatt Omsberg for a goal. However, the assistant referee had his flag up and despite video evidence that Mukhtar looked onside, VAR chose not to send the center ref to the video screen. This would be immediately rectified when a lazy clearance in the 62nd minute jump-started another Nashville attack, leading to a shot from the top of the box by Brian Anunga and another goal. Anunga’s 74th minute replacement Luke Haakenson looked to get a goal of his own after breaking behind the line, but ended up too close to Bobby Shuttleworth to get any sort of shot off. The game ended 5-1 for Nashville SC.

Here are three things we took away from that game.

No Kap

The most obvious thing to talk about was the absolute defensive clinic that Johan Kappelhof put on display in this match. Well, it wasn’t a “clinic” in the way that we normally say that it was good, it was actually a clinic in everything you shouldn’t do as a centerback. He speed-ran an entire terrible game within the span of just under 15 minutes. His actions directly led to three goals. It may seem like I’m pilling all the blame onto him, but it would be completely stupid to not mention how big of an effect he had on the game in just those 15 minutes.

Kappelhof attempted 7 passes, completing only three. His only attempted “short” pass was the one that went directly to CJ Sapong for the first goal. He attempted 6 pressures and only succeeded once. After his error on the second goal, he should’ve been pulled right there in the 13th minute. But, he took care of that himself with the red card. If he is not kept on the bench for an extended period of time after his suspension ends, I’d be very surprised.

The Case Against Beric

Another player that had a specifically bad game was Robert Beric. I’ve spoken a few times before about his lackluster performance for a Designated Player, but there were some really telling moments in this match. Comparing him to CJ Sapong, a player that was benched in favor of Beric in Chicago and later released, Sapong generated so much more efficiency in his actions than Beric. Sapong led his team in goal-creating actions and while not leading the team in other offensive actions, certainly stayed ahead of Beric in things like passes in the final third and entrances into the box.

There’s a lot of metrics that I can keep trying to throw around, but the main point is that Robert Beric is just not good enough. He was signed to do a certain thing and he’s just not doing it. And what he provides in the attack is something that any mid-level MLS player can provide. His one real chance in the game, that 37th minute corner kick, was a chance that he was signed to finish on. And he didn’t finish it.

Jenga

Some people might use a “house of cards” analogy for this game, but I think it’s much more like Jenga. A house of cards falls down in one hit. In order to knock-down a Jenga tower, you’re going to need to do a bit more. And there were a lot of blocks that were getting pulled out well before the game. Earlier in the day, the Chicago Fire reported that, due to a family emergency, Raphael Wicky would not be on the sideline for the next two matches. This meant former coach Frank Klopas would be taking over in the interim. Whether the next few decisions were planned by Wicky or changes made by Klopas, I don’t know. But what I do know is that they seemed to have led to the collapse.

First of all, the lineup finally saw its first change, with Wyatt Omsberg replacing Jonathan Bornstein in defense. Despite Bornstein’s highly applauded performances in the past two games, Klopas said they preferred Omsberg’s aerial presence. With Alvaro Medran, the focal point of the last two games, being shut-down by former Fire captain Dax McCarty, the ball stayed in the back with Omsberg and Mauricio Pineda. It was specifically Omsberg who seemed to be leading the team’s attack, which is very concerning for a team that was down a man. That man also may have been affected by that single lineup decision, as Johan Kappelhof started the game with the captain’s armband, possibly leading to him trying to do too much to make an impression.

One block being removed might not have been enough to topple that team. But having more and more blocks being removed led to this absolute collapse against the team’s first real competition in almost a month.