PREFACE: Last weekend was a microcosm of how the two main soccer teams in Chicago are going, One suffered a soul-crushing, yet somehow typical loss; while the other once again pulled off a miraculous results (even though the officials missed a penalty and Courage fans felt the Red Stars got some “Fergie Time”) which enforces that that team is going in the right direction.
FIRE: MLSSoccer.com’s Matt Doyle gave Midseason grades to all 28 teams, last week. The only team to receive a grade of ‘F’ was the Fire. One of the mistakes cited by Doyle was that the club made a mistake in building around the notion that Xherdan Shaqiri is a #10. Shaqiri has struggled mightily and questions about his commitment have risen as a result of him asking out of the match due to a slight thigh issue in the 80th minute.
It will be interesting to see how Gareth Bale gets on with LAFC if he puts in the effort there. Part of the motivation is to be part of the Wales setup at the World Cup. Shaqiri’s contributions to the Swiss national team has proven to be a curse for the Fire as he got injured shortly after returning from the first international break and then getting injured during the second international break. I wondered out loud if Shaqiri should be benched after the loss to San Jose, last week. He is certainly not the only player who is underachieving, but fans have over eight million reasons to put more scrutiny on him.
Last Saturday’s loss to Columbus is especially frustrating since the Fire arguably put in their best 45 minutes of the season only to be outthought, outfought, and looking lost at the first sign of adversity. A lot of that goes on the technical staff for failing to respond to Columbus’s halftime adjustments. If they are unable to find some answers soon, then changes need to be considered as it appears their tactics are too inflexible at the moment. You want to give Ezra Hendrickson more time as this is his first head coaching job, but one would have expected that as a former assistant at Columbus he would have saved notes on how Caleb Porter operates and adapt accordingly. It will be more inexcusable if similar things happen when Brian Schmetzer and the Sounders come on Saturday.
But first, Toronto FC come in on Wedensday–one of five teams who were graded a ‘D’. A home loss here will for all intents and purposes make this season a lost one and the few remaining who continue to Tyler Teherns, Arlo White, et al preach patience will tune off at that point.
RED STARS: For ninety minutes, it looked like the Red Stars were to crash to a disappointing home loss to bottom-club North Carolina and miss out on a chance to go top of the NWSL table. They did miss out on top of the table, but didn’t miss out on snatching a point in stoppage time with two goals–though the second felt undeserved in the eyes of every North Carolina Courage fan ever. The referee did miss a penalty call after Jordan Baucom appeared to have been tripped in the box in the 93rd minute and three minutes of stoppage time ended up five and it was in that fifth minute that the Red Stars equalized.
Yes, the Red Stars did not play to their best, but the narrative is that the Red Stars are grinding out results left and right and continue to pass most tests this season. There will be a test in Houston on Saturday to see if they can play better and extend their unbeaten streak to ten. For now, though, the Red Stars continue to pass the muster especially after a tumultuous offseason.
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