The Gruesome Aftermath: Chicago Fire 2, DC United 0

By: jon | May 9th, 2008

Wow. Woooow. I can’t throw this game away like I did for Colorado, as there are no excuses this time. I took down some notes during the game, because I knew this post would be a doozy.

So here we go.

- Emilio’s 1st touch. As in, he doesn’t have one. I haven’t seen him control one pass sent to him, with the ball squirting away from him every time. If you can’t control the ball, you aren’t going to score, simple as that.
- Emilio’s lack of hustle. I know its nit picky, but Emilio hardly pressures the keeper or defenders on backpasses. Kpene was guilty of this last year, and I would call him out on it too. Only difference now is salary and expectations.
- Gonzalo Martinez’s continued efforts to play the long ball over the top to Niell. Cmon. Seriously.
- Santino Quaranta is not a wing player. Stop trying to make him one. His talent is not crossing the ball. His strength is attacking the defender straight on, or playing behind the forwards.
- All night long, (and I think this is the most important thing) there was no movement off the ball. Moreno would hold the ball up in the attacking third, and people would just stand in place, watching. On free kicks, there was a generally laziness. This won’t cut it, and it demonstrates the lack of leadership in this group for the change not being made.
- Marc Burch. Again, I think he’s out of position, and his left foot is his entire game. He was at his best last year as forward moving defender who could cross the ball in the box when half the team was in the box. Now, he’s being forced to take players on and his lack of a right foot is making it difficult.
- Rod Dyachenko, despite his continual position changes, is not going to cut it. I’m not sure how much he costs, but this should be his last year in a DC uniform.
- Zach Wells was slow off his line at times last night, and it almost results in 2 goals. He wasn’t at fault for either goal, but i’d like to see more confidence back there.
- Lastly, the game was over after the first goal. You saw it in Santino’s face, and you saw it the body language of the rest of the team. Was it Santino’s fault? Possibly. I agreed with his quote saying basically, that I’m an offensive player and I’m just trying to help out back here, and I assumed someone would pick up the trailing guy. Good assumption, Tino. But, not right now on this team.

I don’t have a solution for this malaise. Fire the coach? Maybe. Bring in some new blood? Probably. But this team looks like they’re playing pickup. No one has any idea what the other person is going to do. This is understandable in a team with such a high rate of turnover, but that’s where coaching comes in. This team, if drastic changes aren’t made, will NOT make the playoffs. You can count on that.