Fire Rains on DC United’s Parade 3-1

DC Untied 1-3 Chicago Fire

WASHINGTON, DC–DC United came into Wednesday’s game after finally achieving an even record via five straight games undefeated.  The first half seemed to foreshadow another decent result, but the Chicago Fire had other ideas.

Both teams were aggressive, with United playing a higher primary restraint line making it difficult for Chicago to play from the back.  Chicago was slightly less confrontational up front, but their change to similar aggression against DC paid off in the rain-soaked second half.

United goalie, Sean Johnson, stated that rain was not the reason for the loss.  Indeed, both teams play under the same constraints.  However, when he parried a well driven shot to his right, his wise choice to avoid trying to catch a wet ball fed Maren Haile-Selassie, who was cleverly positioned to score.

The more delightful game features open play where skillful execution is more readily apparent.  The swarming game chosen by both sides meant that goals would more likely come from clustered play with chance playing a big role.  Thus, a game played fairly evenly territorially had a disparate result.

Wing attacks both ways were difficult to manufacture, and United moved somewhat more to the long ball as the game progressed.  The tactic responded to the Fire’s halftime change echoing United’s aggression.  The referee kept control while allowing unusually physical play by both but had to resort to 5 cautions to Chicago to tamp it down a bit.

Coach Rene Weiler described the Fire’s change, “They changed three players, brought in new power.  We felt it, and at the end, it was difficult to come back.”  He noted that the Fire are a strong team, “It’s often about the quality of the opponent and we have to respect and to accept.”

He contrasted that with his own team’s lack of depth, “Our squad it’s really difficult to rotate, so you don’t have only to rotate. You need good players on the field, quality on the field. And yeah, we don’t have a big squad.”

He has lost the services of two players expected to make strong contributions as his international right back has stated he wishes to leave, “(Aaron) Herrera wants to leave. So that is a fact, and he told us that.”  This explains his choice to start Nikola Markovic who performed reasonably well.  His choice to sit Gabriel Pirani, who looked ready for a breakout season, reflects his long term view to risk some losses now to identify the path forward by testing various other players under “fire”.

Meanwhile, the attacking combination of Tai Baribo and Louis Munteanu finally came together with a resulting Baribo goal from Munteanu’s assist.  He averred, “I don’t like to judge now these two players for the first time together.  When Baribo went out, we led the game one zero, so they did a good job.”

Weiler emphasized that the recent successes did not mean that United is, “overnight, a top team.  We have to play on our boundaries every game.”  Anticipating Saturday’s match against a struggling St Louis team, midfielder Brandon Servania observed, “We had a good little stretch and it ended, but we’re looking to start a new one and make it even longer this time.

With Montreal following St Louis at Audi Field before the long hiatus, one must heed Weiler’s caution while hoping to climb above the middle of the table.  Some of United’s recent success seems to spring from the swarming approach which requires close coordination and mutual trust, less entertaining, but perhaps more effective with a limited squad.

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