Coming to Wednesdays on NBC this Fall. Wait, different Chicago Fire.
The essentials
Opponent: Chicago Fire (5-7-8)
Time, Location: Saturday, July 8, 7:30 p.m. CDT • Chicago
Weather: 69ºF, 3% chance of rain, 70% humidity, 8 MPH NNE wind
Follow: MLS MatchCenter • @ClubCountryUSA • @NashvilleSC
Watch/Stream • Listen: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV (Mark Followill/Danielle Slayton) • 104.5 The Zone (Wes Boling/Jalil Anibaba
Match officials: Referee: Pierre-Luc Lauziere. Assistants: Jason White, Adam Wienckowski. Fourth official: Alexandra Billeter. Video Assistants: Kevin Stott, Emma Richards
Vegas Odds: Nashville SC +191, Draw +234, Chicago +142
Etc.: Rate, review, subscribe.
| Stat | Nashville SC | Chicago Fire |
| Record (W-L-D) | 11-5-5 (1.81 PPG) 2nd East | 5-7-8 (1.15 PPG) 13th East |
| Recent form (most recent first) | W-L-L-W-D | L-W-W-L-L |
| GF/Game | 1.43 | 1.30 |
| GA/Game | 0.76 | 1.55 |
| xG Power | +0.22 (9th MLS) | -0.40 (24th MLS) |
| G Power | +0.60 (1st MLS) | -0.22 (24th MLS) |
| “Luck” | +0.38 (6th MLS) | +0.18 (11th MLS) |
| Offense | -0.01 (15th MLS) | -0.12 (19th MLS) |
| Defense | -0.23 (7th MLS) | +0.28 (24th MLS) |
| Venue advantage | -0.46 Away (23rd MLS) | -0.30 Home (20th MLS) |
| Injury report | OUT: CB Nick DePuy (leg, season) INT’L: M Aníbal Godoy (Panama), W Jacob Shaffelburg (Canada) SUSP.: CB Walker Zimmerman (red card) | OUT: F Victor Bezerra (lower leg), M Javier Casas (arm), W Chris Mueller (upper leg), M Federico Navarro (lower leg), CB Wyatt Omsberg (lower leg), |
Chicago Fire
This team stinks, and also has fired head coach Ezra Hendrickson, which feels unfair to me because the roster stinks and that wasn’t his fault. Nevertheless, the top-line signings in recent years have been Xherdan Shaqiri – the highest-salaried play in league history until Messi arrives later this month – who is terrible, young DP Jairo Torres, who is… not notable, and Ousmane Doumbia, who can potentially play his first match for the club this very evening.
Starting with Shaqiri, the Swiss International who has been the quintessential “get paid in a retirement league” type of DP, just going through the motions. This felt predictable for a guy who hadn’t been able to get onto the field in the three years before joining, but nevertheless: he plays largely as the No. 10 in a 4-2-3-1 (Chicago has also mixed up tactics with a 3-4-3 at times, and he’s one of the attackers under the striker in that instance). Shaqiri is… well, basically a poor-man’s Shaqiri at this point: defensively uninterested, capable of playing a gorgeous pass here and there, but getting forward and shooting less than he had historically. Essentially “what if we had Xherdan Shaqiri, but let him just stand in one spot in possession and defense.”
He’s actually been pushed out of the starting lineup at times when the Fire wants to start 19-year old Brian Gutierrez at his natural position (he’s often pushed out to the wing when Shaqiri’s in the starting lineup, though in that 3-4-3, they can play next to each other underneath the striker. Gutierrez has a more-rounded game at this stage of his career, willing to play defense, get into the box, etc., though obviously the ceiling is not going to be what it is for a World Cup vet like Shaqiri. Gutierrez also dribbles frequently but not particularly successfully, for what it’s worth.
Moving along to Torres, he has under 500 minutes on the year, incapable of beating out locked-in starter Gastón Giménez and a combination of Federico Navarro and out-of-position CB Mauricio Pineda (another Homegrown, though one who’s aging out of the distinction soon) in the central midfield. When he’s not at CM, Pineda is a starter at CB, for what it’s worth: he’s a crucially important player to the Fire’s whole deal. It will be interesting to see what Doumbia brings: he’ll almost certainly be the starter next to Giménez in central midfield, freeing up Pineda to play his natural position more regularly, but also freezing Torres out basically completely.
Up top, Methuselan journeyman Kei Kamara has taken over starting striker duties, while former Philadelphia Union standout Kacper Przybylko has been reduced to something of a luxury piece. Winger Maren Haile-Selassie and Fabian Herbers (who also slots in to CM at times) are doing the bulk of the setup work and are also finishing for themselves.
The backline – which is led by Rafael Czichos, with Carlos Terán filling in next to him when Pineda is drawn into duty out of position – has been pretty poor, but that brings us to Chicago Goalkeeper Pipline® talk, where homegrown Chris Brady has stepped in and not missed a beat in comparison to Gaga Slonina… and is possibly performing at a better level than the Chelsea signing did for the Fire.
Keys to the game
- Make Shaqiri move. Because LOL.
- Don’t play a week after Wisconsin and Northwestern turn the field to doo-doo. Relatedly, “have Hany Mukhtar available” is a good plan.
- Be patient and let them come to you. Chicago stinks regardless of location, and stinks in attack even more so. They’ll have to get numbers at some point, in the hopes that Brady can steal one if that leads to a fast break. With Fafa Picault back and Hany Mukhtar in fine form, the Boys in Gold should be poised to punish. that.
- Be physical in the back. Chicago does have some crafty veteran presence up top, and those guys can make up for a lack of quality around them in any individual moment (even if the quality is low enough that those moments don’t come at a frequency that the Fire, like, wins very often). Preventing Kei Kamara or Kacper Przybylko from finding the space for that one magic moment is important against a team that’s gonna struggle to score in any other way.
- Set pieces. Because duh/
Prediction
Nashville SC 3, Chicago Fire 1
Club and Country 