May 16th, 2007 . 5:21 pm . By: Jason Benfield

Fun Facts

 - Since the start of the 2004 season, Dallas is 6-1 against the Fire, while scoring 2.5 GPG.

 - Dallas have allowed by far and away the most shots against in the league with 109, with a strong majority coming in the second half.  Chicago have only allowed 60.

 - Neither team has lost this year when scoring first, and neither team has won this year after conceding the first goal.

 - With 4 goals and 3 assists, Rolfe has been involved in every Fire goal this season.

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is on Fire.  We don’t need no water…

At first glance, Chicago looked like an upper tier team at the start of the 2007 season as they went undefeated in the first four matches of the year.  However, the Colorado game, where Chicago struggled to create opportunities even though they were up a man for 87 minutes, was a sign of thing to come.  The Fire have struggled to create opportunities on goal this season, relying heavily on the the individual brilliance of Chris Rolfe to create chances against the run of play.  They have been blown out of the last two matches, losing both by identical 3-1 score lines, as defensive deficiencies have started to become apparent.  The Fire are a team that is struggling with form, injuries, and suspension, and could be on the brink of losing their coach before the big summer signing arrives.

Sarachan is in trouble with the fans, and soon could be with the front office as well, because of his defensive nature.  Chicago has always played a 3-5-2 formation with two holding mids.  However, Sarachan has made an important change as this season has progressed.  Rather than keeping Mapp on the wing and opening up width in the attack, he has opted to bench Thiago, and pull Mapp into the attacking midfield slot.  This has effectively eliminated the effectiveness of the wing attack for Chicago.  Pause, Guerrerro, and Segares have been the primary options on the outside, but all three are defensive in nature.  This decision has drawn the ire of many within the passionate fan base, and the perceived underachievement of the past three years could lead to a change at the top.

Defensively, Chicago looks to have adequate players.  Segares started the season as the left back, but the continued emergence of Dasani Robinson pushed him into the midfield.  Jim Curtin is a little slow, but is an adequate center back in MLS.  CJ Brown is a veteran who positions himself well and plays a very physical game.  But they have not played well as a unit.  A three man back line relies on organization and the support of a defensive midfield to protect against the opposing team attacks with numbers.  Against Toronto and New England, neither was evident.  When Khano Smith, Steve Ralston, Andy Welsh, or Ronnie O’Brien broke down a defender or midfielder on the outside, which happened several times over the course of the two matches, the defense scrambled to recover, and marks were consistently lost in the back.  Part of the problem has been the discipline of Jim Curtin, who has shown some impatience and exposed the middle by rushing to the aid of a beaten player too soon.  But another major issue is an aging defensive midfield.  Gutierrez and Armas have not been able to track back defensively fast enough to help cover the outside or the middle during a break.  This is not a situation that will resolve itself any time soon, and was first evident in last season’s mediocre defensive performance.  Chicago is vulnerable on defense, especially on the counter.

Chicago has also struggled on the offensive side of the pitch.  Rolfe has been brilliant, and is currently the only creative force on the team.  Successful offensive sides in MLS can attack from multiple areas – over the top, up the middle, or from the wings.  The movement of Mapp to the middle of the field has eliminated the wing attack.  Mapp is inconsistent in his passing from the center of the field, so they are not able to continually threaten by attacking up the gut.  The only time they have been really effective attacking is by using Rolfe’s speed and agility on the counter, or using his finishing ability to clean up balls that bounce around after set pieces.  Other than that, scoring during the run of play has been a struggle, and it will continue to be until they move Mapp back to the outside.  On the outside, Segares, Guerrero and Pause are all defensive in nature, and Segares and Guerrero in particular have never matched the performances they gave when they first entered the league two years ago.  Guerrero was actually benched against Toronto after being directly responsible for two of the goals conceded to New England.  Barrett opened the season scoring, but has really struggled with his finishing and combination play.  The fact is that Chicago have only scored more than one goal in a game once this season, and there is no reason to expect the offensive performance to improve until Blanco comes in and changes are made to the formation.

Possible Lineups

FC Dallas

FC Dallas will stay with the same lineup from last weeks stunning upset of Kansas City, with the exception of Ruiz replacing Abe up top.  Ricchetti was fantastic in his debut, winning almost every tackle and showing the ability to distribute with either foot.  He is a massive upgrade over Pitch.  His addition combined with the improvement of Goodson this season gives Dallas a lineup with only three players (Dax, Yi, and Moor at right back), who would not feature for most teams in the league.

Chicago Fire

Chicago is in a world of hurt.  Not only are they reeling from back to back defeats where they were really dominated, but they also lose Gutierrez to suspension and Rolfe to injury.  The latter is especially crushing.  With 4 goals and 3 assists, Rolfe has played a part in every single goal the Fire have scored this season.  He will most likely be replaced by Calen Carr, who has done well with the reserves, but has not done much with the full team.  They do get Chris Armas back, who sat out the turf game last week because of his knee issues.

When Dallas attacks

It will be interesting to see how Chicago handles the Dallas attack.  Dallas has not been much of a threat on the wings, so the three backs will most likely stay central to mark Cooper and Ruiz.  Past results have also shown that teams that use two holding midfielders can take Nunez out of the game in this formation, so that doesn’t bode well for Dallas either.  The last two matches, the Fire have been broken down from the wing.  The addition of Ricchetti in the back allow Toja and Dax to get forward and wide quite a bit more than in the past, so this could give Dallas the width to generate an effective attack.  Segares and Guerrero are both defensive, and will directly mark Dax and Toja, respectively, but both will be encouraged to get forward a bit more at home, and could leave space behind them.  The Toja-Guerrero match up in particular could be interesting with Toja coming off his best performance of the season and Guerrero really struggling right now.

When Chicago attacks

I seriously considered leaving this section blank, but I suppose I will go ahead and fill it in.  There is absolutely no variety in the Chicago attack.  Segares and Guerrero do not provide much on the wing.  The loss of Rolfe will keep Chicago for overwhelming the weakness of the Dallas defense – the center backs.  And the Dallas midfield alignment should be able to sufficiently handle attacks up the middle of the field with the class of Ricchetti aided by the hustle of McCarty and Toja.  The biggest threat is probably over the top to Carr, but that doesn’t fit the Chicago style and Sala comes off his line very well.  This could be a long day for Chicago going forward.

Final Analysis

This will be another battle of who scores first.  In the past few years, several goals have come out of almost every game of this passionate rivalry, but this could be the exception to the rule.  Dallas doesn’t attack from width enough to consistently pester Chicago, and injuries and strategy will keep Chicago from threatening the Dallas D.

In the end, I think Chicago has more pressure to push forward at home, which will expose them at the back.  Look for Toja to play a major role in the Dallas goal, as Nunez and Mapp both struggle to make an impact on the game in a crowded midfield.

FC Dallas 1, Chicago Fire 0.

Categories: Match Preview.

9 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment