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Posted by
Steve Bottjer,
August 2, 2012 |
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Email Steve Bottjer
Twitter @BottjerRNO |
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Fresh off their most potent offensive display of the season in the Champions League on Wednesday, Toronto will look to make it two in a row in all competitions on the road against the Chicago Fire on Saturday. Both teams will have some momentum coming into this game from their most recent performances, as well as an expected boost from major player acquisitions made over the last couple of weeks.
This fixture will be notable for the fact that both Toronto and Chicago will likely see their new Designated Players debut for each respective club. Frenchman Eric Hassli, who has shown a penchant for scoring dramatic world class goals during his MLS tenure with the Vancouver Whitecaps, is expected to make his Toronto FC debut against the Fire on Saturday.
The Chicago Fire made a splash of their own last week with a major trade with Seattle seeing them pick up Uruguayan DP Alvaro Fernandez. The 26 year old Uruguay International is expected to bolster a Fire midfield that already boasts considerable quality with players such as Marco Pappa and Sebastian Grazzini, who lead the team in goals and assists respectively.
Chicago also recently added another formidable offensive weapon to their arsenal with the addition of Dutch striker and Designated Player Sherjill MacDonald. He made his Fire debut against the San Jose Earthquakes when he entered the match in the 64th minute and he could be in line for his first MLS start against Toronto on Saturday.
Keep Thinking
Outside of the three new Designated Players, both Toronto and Chicago have recently been clubs that have enjoyed a reversal of fortune under a change in management. While Toronto’s has been more recent and has only come over the last couple of months with the team’s switch from Aron Winter to Paul Mariner at the head coach position, Chicago is a team that has been vastly improved since May of last year. After struggling in 2010 and the early part of 2011, the Fire fired previous head coach Carlos de los Cobos and replaced him with Technical Director Frank Klopas, who quickly turned around a club into one that just missed out on making the 2011 MLS Playoffs after earning 24 points in their last 12 league matches. Chicago has continued to be competitive this year and will enter Saturday’s match in 5th place in the Eastern Conference with a solid record of 9 wins, 7 losses and 5 draws.
Toronto and Chicago have already met once this season in a match that the Fire won 3-2 at BMO Field. That defeat stretched TFC’s losing streak to start the season to six games and highlighted a miserable run of poor performances at home.
In many ways, that previous loss to Chicago highlighted all of deficiencies that were evident during the less than successful – at least in the league - 2012 iteration of TFC under Aron Winter, with goals being conceded due to poor marking on set pieces and a lack of organization at the back. A memorable goal by Fire striker Dominic Oduro goal also basically came about as a result of Winter’s stringent philosophy of always playing the ball out of the back on the ground, as the speedy forward was able to pick off a predictable play and get the better of Torsten Frings following a short pass out from keeper Milos Kocic.
While the chorus around Toronto has been very repetitive in recent weeks in calling for veteran reinforcements for a very young back line, the pace and athleticism of Eckersley, Emory, Henry and Morgan should actually be able to at least physically match up well against Oduro and Patrick Nyarko. However, the savvy, creativity and experience of players like Pappa, Grazzini and Fernandez will surely test the positional aptitude of a young Toronto defence. All in all, it is not a stretch to say that Chicago will be facing a vastly different and more confident and inspired TFC squad this time out.
Furthermore, the Fire’s offense has struggled since late June, as the team has not scored more than one goal in each of their last six matches and has been shut out three times during that stretch. However, at the same time, Chicago has earned some decent results over the last month and they are coming off an impressive 1-1 draw away to the San Jose Earthquakes, who lead the entire league with 44 points. Essentially, Chicago is not scoring a lot, but they aren’t conceding many goals either.
The Fire hold a 5-3-2 all-time regular season advantage over Toronto FC and Chicago has never lost to TFC at home with a 2-0-3 record in all matches played at Toyota Park. Interestingly, Mariner recently lead Toronto to their first ever win in New Enlgland and the Reds would undoubtedly like to follow up that feat by getting another monkey off their backs and notching their first three points away in the Windy City.
In the End
Realistically, you would expect Toronto FC to be up against it in this one, playing on the road and coming off a midweek Champions League fixture. That said, the Reds should also be buoyed by the five goals they scored against Salvadoran side Águila on Wednesday, as well as the manner in which they bounced back from a poor performance in losing to 2-0 to the Houston Dynamo in Toronto last Saturday. The Reds probably learned something about the fundamental need to be 100% focused tactically and physically for the entire 90 minutes of every game in their winning streak ending loss to the Dynamo last week. If TFC had been getting too overconfident due to their recent success under Mariner, that loss was probably a useful dose of realism for the team.
TFC will likely also receive a big boost in the form of recently acquired striker Eric Hassli, who is expected to make his debut for Toronto against Chicago. While it would be a lot to expect the Big Frenchman to have a major impact in this game after being inactive for the last several weeks, it would not be a major stretch to see him playing an inspirational role for his new club and giving his new teammates a boost by virtue of his very presence.
Prediction
Toronto FC 1 – 1 Chicago Fire
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