Chicago Fire Review: Fingers Crossed

A couple of weeks ago I wrote that the number most closely associated with the Chicago Fire this season is 0, and I meant it mostly as a good thing. Fast forward two weeks and 0 is even more true than before. The Fire again tied 0-0 against the LA Galaxy last weekend, while recording 0 shots on target, and allowing 0 shots on target. 

The easy narrative would be to say the Fire are so focused on defensive solidity that they forgo any attempts to create goal scoring chances themselves, and their games are boring grind it out affairs, but anyone who watched the game against the Galaxy actually saw a pretty open exciting game. 

Crosses

The problem is that once the Fire reach the final third they don’t have the players who can create scoring opportunities by dribbling past the defenders. So they have to rely on passing and movement to create shooting opportunities, and against the Galaxy they didn’t show enough patience to actually create good scoring chances.

The Fire sent in 14 crosses and completed 0. Broadly speaking their crosses in the match fall into two categories.  

Category 1: Good positions and bad crosses

Ivanov and Sekulic do a good job of creating a solid crossing opportunity. 

Federico Navarro wins the ball back in midfield and plays the pass to Pineda, who then plays a really nice pass into Sekulic’s feet.

Sekulic controls the ball well, and turns infield drawing the attention of the Galaxy defenders, and Ivanov makes a really nice run off the shoulder of his marker down the touchline. 

Ivanov has time and space to hit a good cross to the back post or try to drill it low across the six yard box for Przybylko to attack, instead he sails it high and out of play. 

These are the types of situations that the Fire were attempting to create all game but unfortunately they either didn’t get the final pass right or…

Category 2: Decent positions and rushed crosses

Too many times the Fire attackers found themselves in the final third, and just rushed it. Instead of playing to feet and working themselves into good positions as shown in the two examples above, they resorted to whacking crosses right into the Galaxy center backs who easily dealt with it. 

Early in the match Sekulic and Ivanov again played some nice combinations to create good crossing opportunities for Ivanov but his crossing and decision making really let the team down. 

Here Ivanov is receiving the pass from Federico Navarro, and Sekulic is making a nice overlapping run to give the Fire a good 2v1 opportunity. 

Once Ivanov draws both defenders he should slip a pass back out to Sekulic, but instead he takes a poor touch, and has to rush a cross in towards Kacper Przybylko who has two Galaxy defenders marking him. The cross is blocked and the chance is gone. 

And one final example to drive the point home.

Fede does a great job spinning away from his man, and plays a great crossfield ball to Jhon Espinoza who entered the game as a sub on the right wing. 

Espinoza has Sekulic working really hard to make an overlapping run outside of him. He also has Navarro in the center for support. His best option is to dribble at his defender, make him commit and then play in Sekulic on the outside. Instead he hits a really poor early cross that goes straight to the feet of his defender.

Also notice Gimenez in both category 2 examples is getting into the box to try to get on the end of crosses, whereas Shaqiri likely would have been showing for the ball and looking to provide a different option for Ivanov, and Espinoza. 

This is where Shaqiri is missed the most in my opinion. He demands the ball to his feet, and forces his teammates into passing the ball and creating higher quality scoring opportunities, or he is the one who hits the final ball (which he’s pretty good at). 

In the games with Shaqiri (not including the FC Dallas game where he left after 18 minutes) the Fire actually have a respectable XG of 1.4, in the games without him it’s 0.4. (The Guti red card didn’t help either)

Whether Shaqiri plays or not against Minnesota hopefully the Fire can show some more composure in the final third and work themselves into better crossing positions, because if not we’re likely looking at some more 0s on the scoreboard this season.