With J Hutcherson -- We know a few things coming into tonight's game between Chicago and Salt Lake (9:30pm ET - ESPN2). Chicago is missing players while trying to prop up a home field advantage and Salt Lake needs to show they can get results on the road.
Chicago has 2 wins at home with 1 loss and 3 draws. RSL has 2 wins away, 3 losses, and 1 draw. On equal terms, this would be a game where contrasting mediocrity should make things interesting. Unfortunately for the neutral, Chicago is without Patrick Nyarko and will likely only be able to use Brian McBride as a substitute in the best situation. Gutting the Fire offense pushes the advantage Salt Lake's way, but the better question is why would anybody think the Fire would be competitive even at full strength?
Salt Lake's normal game is built to exploit a team like Chicago. Even if the Fire respond to their missing attacking players by going defensive, it favors RSL.
To put it simply, Salt Lake's pressure game works. They'll dominate the ball movement in midfield, compress their defensive space, and setup in the opposition's half. Normally, they do this while not giving up a whole lot on the counter. That potential for exploiting space on the counter is almost a carrot for the other team. Try to latch onto it, and suddenly you're no longer in possession and RSL has numbers, space, and time.
More often than not, applauding a team for work rate is a backhanded compliment. It means they don't have star players, they're not going to thrill, and their results are somehow suspect. Though Salt Lake is all about work rate, it's in the sense of a good team making themselves better by simply doing their jobs.
Figuring out RSL is simple. They're going to allow illusion of opportunity that most teams simply can't resist. Chicago should be no different, giving up another home result this time to a team they've dominated historically at Toyota Park.
Answers for Chicago are more complicated. This is a team that's spent years living off of a reputation built by people no longer involved with the club. They're fielding a significantly weaker squad than last season while wondering why thinks don't simply work out. Well, running off multiple quality MLS players, creating a keeper controversy that has your former starter in goal for a better team, and not replacing your star tend to do that for you.
Chicago needs a big game midfielder capable of turning things on his skill. The quick response is what MLS team doesn't. But remember, that's line one on Blanco's resume, and without someone filling that role they turned into an average club. Marco Pappa is having a great year, but he's doing forward work from midfield, further complicating things for what - at it's best - should be a traditional attack flowing throw McBride and Nyarko. The self-inflicted defensive problems this season and player attrition over several seasons obviously haven't helped.
This is the latest example of an old problem for Major League Soccer. A team that needs an overhaul just hanging on enough so that talk of the playoffs isn't completely out of the question. Right now, Chicago is risking the DC United model of multi-season floundering. Their problems have been identified, but there seems to be no real pressure to make the necessary changes.
Pushing past that with the current personnel seems very unlikely. There's the temptation to put too much on the 5-point gap between Chicago in 4th and Kansas City in 5th as an indication that this is a team with a lot more to offer. After all, they're just two points back of 3rd-place Toronto. Yet it's part of the broader problem with the Eastern Conference clubs, since Chicago's record would be good for 7th out West.
Hopefully sooner than later, Chicago has to decide what metric they're using. Eastern Conference success might be good enough to make the playoffs, but it's not good enough to be in the conversation as one of the better teams in this League. Chicago is used to having that voice almost by default. Now, it's Salt Lake with MLS Cup in hand alongside other upstarts like New York and Colorado joining the Galaxy and Columbus.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
