Debriefing for Match 11.28: At Chicago Fire

CHICAGO FIRE 1 : 0 DC UNITED

Media, Traditional and Otherwise

The Washington Post, Jack McCarthy: "The host Fire scored a 1-0 Major League Soccer victory on Sunday in a physical match in which United was issued seven yellow cards and closed the game with just nine players following two late ejections."
BlackDogRed: "What's distressing is that I no longer expect anything better than this. There is no magic. Win draw or lose, it's going to be a grind."

The Good

1. Nobody was Hit By Lighting: Thats about it.
   

The Bad

1. Terry &%*#@ Vaughn: Taking the game as a whole there should have been two PK's (one for each team), ONE yellow card for Namoff (not two), a Gros red. Also, some sort of warning to Chicago players doing the same things that got United players booked would have been nice.
   
2. Not United's Game: The problem that I begun to see when DC plays Chicago is that United has started to play their game. It is a game that plays to the Fire's advantage instead of United's. DC usually starts out playing alright, but after two bad calls everything falls apart, as illustrated by the non-foul on Moreno combined with Boswell's yellow ending up with Moreno's dissent yellow. They need to work on not letting a poor call or two get to them.

Man of the Match

Terry &#*($@ Vaughn, a real game changer.

Final Thoughts

United played well before they imploded. Even when they weren't completely on, they made sure that Chicago wasn't either. It was a classic 0-0 tie game until Chicago beat the offside trap and United saw red. Shame it wasn't in reverse order or Namoff wouldn't have been on the field to keep Herron onside.