The Chicago Fire look to solidify their place near the top of the Eastern Conference with week by earning victories against two-thirds of the MLS’s Canadian teams. Part one of Chicago’s Canadian gauntlet is over. Wednesday night saw the Fire easily dismiss should-be relegated Toronto FC 2-1. The win isn’t a surprise. Unfortunately, playing Toronto this season is lose/lose—if you lose to Toronto, then you’ve just lost to the worst team in the league; if you win against Toronto, then so what? They’re the worst team in the league. Given Chicago’s year long dismissal by MLS pundits via their ‘power rankings,’ it wouldn’t be surprising that by winning, moving up to second place in the Eastern Conference, and being the fourth best team in all of MLS that the Fire find themselves a solid eighth or ninth in the upcoming rankings. Saturday’s match against Montreal at Toyota Park will be significant because it will provide an opportunity to wake up the analysts.
Due to less than adept scheduling, Montreal has managed to play two more games than most other MLS teams. Unfortunately for the Impact, this hasn’t meant that they’ve been able to pile up points. At first glance, 39 points would put Montreal in a position to make a playoff run. However, to temper this you merely have to look at the point total and games played by those teams ahead of Montreal. A good rule given that MLS schedulers do a poor job of matches-played-parity is as a hypothetical add as wins the games necessary to establish parity. This method satisfies both the pessimist and optimist. For example, if we add the points to the teams ahead of Montreal to get them up to the Impact’s games played we see that Montreal is far from the playoffs—Kansas City at 56, Chicago at 53, New York at 52, Houston and Columbus tied at 48, D.C. at 47, and Montreal at 39—but well away from the cellar dwellers in the East (New England, Philadelphia, and Canadian Champions Toronto). It is very unlikely that they will be able to decisively leap over two teams to lay claim to the final playoff spot, which is disappointing given how good of an August the Impact had, highlighted by thumping victories over San Jose and DC.
Yet because Montreal’s form of late has been strong, only one loss over their last six matches, they cannot be brushed off. The Impact isn’t hoping to be a spoiler the way Philadelphia, New England, and Toronto are. Yes, Montreal is the long shot for the playoffs but they are just as good of a team as any of those in the scrum for the final playoff slot. Montreal’s only flaw in play is that they seem chronically unable to draw; theirs is an all or nothing style reflected in their record. Three draws implies that the Impact aren’t a team that is able to come back to salvage a point, that if they are in the lead and lose that lead then they lose the match. Perhaps this is a symptom of their aged-Italian core, who knows?
The last time the Chicago Fire saw the Montreal Impact, the Fire played Montreal’s home opener in front of nearly 60,000 supporters. The squads walked away with a point a piece, so come Saturday both teams will want not only to climb the conference table, but also to get the better of the other for the season series. Both teams have had significant personal changes. The Fire has been slowly changing the faces in their locker room and on the pitch, but has somehow managed stability. The drama that surrounded Sebastian Grazzini has been all but forgotten as Chris Rolfe has stepped back into MLS play like he was never gone. The bad-blood caused by Rafael Robayo has been forgotten as supporters have been reminded that they have Daniel Paladini. Even though the departure of Marco Pappa to Holland caused a serious worry, Alvaro Fernandez has proven that he can pick up the slack. Dominic Oduro has been supplanted by Sherjill MacDonald, rightback Dan Gargan has given way to Jalil Anibaba, Rookie of the Year contender Austin Berry has developed a good partnership with Arne Friedrich, and midfielders Alex and new signing Wells Thompson have solidified the bench.
This Chicago Fire team is changing. It is slowly becoming more than the narrow, through the middle playing squad that looked to strike with the long ball. That certainly still exists, but with the addition of Rolfe and MacDonald the Fire can now play with two actual forwards, strikers who can finally get service not only from a brawling central attacking midfield, but also out wide on the wings. Fernandez is better able than Pappa to actually play as a winger for the team when he’s on the wing and Patrick Nyarko has always been a better winger than faux-forward. The lynchpin to all of this has been Chris Rolfe who has been able to take on the creative attacking midfielder role while at the same time being the quick minded striker that the team needed. These roles had been played by several players previously (well by Grazzini and Pappa, poorly by Puppo and Robayo), but to be able to condense it into one quality player has given the team the freedom it needs to develop a plan of attack that is adaptable.
It was too easy for MLS teams to figure out how Chicago was going to play earlier this season—Chicago was narrow, only Dan Gargan would come forward on the wing, and the central midfield refused to play into the box. With MacDonald and Rolfe, the Fire now has players who can actually move into and within the box. With Alex and Fernandez, the Fire now has players who can provide creative service on the wings and just as easily slide across the middle of the pitch. The Wells Thompson acquisition means that Patrick Nyarko is going to have someone to spell him, as Frank Klopas has made it clear that he plans to use Thompson less as a holding midfielder and more out wide. All season Nyarko has been getting beaten up by the less than savvy and technically gifted MLS midfielder-forced-to-play-fullbacks, a healthy Nyarko is going to be a necessity if Chicago hopes to go deep into the playoffs.
The roles on this team have solidified, the team itself is more mutable and this means that they are better able to address opponents. The Fire didn’t destroy Toronto on Wednesday, they dominated the first half and then began to play to their opponent; they kept themselves from getting complacent but didn’t allow themselves to run wild for no benefit. This ability to take the temperature of an opponent and dictate the tone of play will be vital against Montreal, who will be a much different team than what Chicago last saw.
(image courtesy of Getty Images)
