These are troubling times for Chicago soccer. The Fire are on an eleven-match winless streak dating back to last season and off to their worst start ever. The Red Stars are on a seven-match winless streak and slumped to their worst defeat ever, 5-0 to Portland. Both teams need to do something as fast because it is still a while yet before House AC take the pitch in NISA.
FIRE: Head coach Raphael Wicky has all but indicated that drastic measures are needed to turn the Fire’s fortunes around. They finally gave some of the homegrowns a chance to show what they have and arguable Brian Gutierrez was the best player for the Fire against DC United. On the other hand, the match ended with two homegrown players and no healthy designated players on the pitch.
Both Robert Beric and Gaston Gimenez have underachieved mightily and the third DP Ignacio Aliseda is still out. Alvaro Medran is struggling as well and Miguel Navarro does not look like he is at full fitness.
It just is not working in its current form and the next two home matches against Inter Miami and CF Montreal are essentially must-wins if the Fire are to save their season. Otherwise, there are a lot of other major changes to the club that will have to precede that of logo.
RED STARS: Anything that could have gone wrong for the Red Stars on Sunday night did go wrong. 4-0 down in 30 minutes, Julie Ertz going down with an apparent knee injury, and always looking two steps behind the NWSL Challenge Cup champion Thorns on the evening.
It’s worse when head coach Rory Dames says that his charges often didn’t seem to want the ball at their feet. You can’t score goals if you don’t have the ball. It follows that you can’t win if you can’t score. There needs to be more cohesion up front and if Rachel Hill, Kealia Watt, and Mallory Pugh are on the pitch at the same time; they need to form a tandem to attack. The rest of the midfielders and defense need to wake up out there for a team that made the 2019 NWSL Championship match and the final of the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup.
While the Red Stars are getting deep in owners, the Red Stars need to get out of their early hole starting with the home opener against Gotham FC on Saturday (7pm, Paramount+). Otherwise, they may end up digging a deeper hole for themselves and maybe some changes will be required here as well. Their last win was on September 20th.
Yes, these are troubling times for soccer in Chicago. It’s up to both teams to fix their respective messes. The Fire’s problems are many and it may turn out the Red Stars have as many problems themselves. The best time to start solving them is now for both sides.
Chicago Fire
