PREFACE: Both the Fire and the Red Stars head into their respective international breaks on a bit of a down note. The Fire are winless in their last four and are still winless on the road this season. The Red Stars have lost back-to-back games and have not scored a goal since Sam Kerr left for the Matildas and the Women’s World Cup. So let’s begin this debrief.
THOUGHTS ON THE FIRE: Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic said that his team “dominated” the match against Atlanta United despite losing, 2-0. He must have meant two other matches—one of which was the DC United match three days prior. Atlanta were clearly the better team on Saturday, but it’s clear the Fire are not good enough right now and need to improve if they are going to reach the playoffs. Fire captain Dax McCarty had another opinion on the match.
“Look in the mirror. Have honest conversations with ourselves,” McCarty said after the Atlanta loss. “It’s not been good enough, so if guys can’t figure what they want and if they don’t want to be here then maybe we need to have honest conversations with ourselves because it’s not good enough from the team.”
People need to figure this out from Nelson Rodriguez on down and they have a three-week break (save the June 11th Open Cup tilt in St. Louis) to figure out how to win again. Paunovic is clearly on the hot seat after these recent matches and it will/should get even hotter if the Fire somehow fall to Saint Louis FC on the 11th.
THOUGHTS ON THE RED STARS: Most have concluded that the main strategy of the Red Stars is get the ball to Sam Kerr. Kerr leads the NWSL with six goals and has an assist meaning she’s been involved in the most goals for her team (7 of 13) than anyone else in the NWSL. At most, the Red Stars will have three more games without Kerr, but there is a three-week break to figure out how to score a goal without Sam Kerr.
Chicago Fire
