Chicago Fire 1 (9), Club Puebla 1 (10) | Player Ratings

After coming back to win 3-2 against Minnesota United just four days ago, the Chicago Fire hosted Club Puebla in their final match of the group stage and lost on penalties despite dominating most of the match. After going down 1-0 in the 74th minute, a deflected Xherdan Shaqiri freekick ended up in the back of the net five minutes later, with that score carrying on until the final whistle. After a penalty shootout that meant nothing, Rafael Czichos banged the top of the crossbar, ultimately resulting in Puebla winning 10-9. Here is a short recap of the Fire’s individual performers.

*Players are listed in the order they lined up, followed by substitutes in the order they appeared

Starting XI

Chris Brady (7.5) – Despite Spencer Richey performing well against Minnesota, Brady returned as the Fire’s starting goalkeeper. Brady was fairly untested for most of the game, but as Puebla came out of nowhere with a few goalscoring opportunities, the 19-year-old recorded four saves against 0.39 expected goals. The goal he conceded in regulation was a banger, and he read Puebla’s penalties quite well so it was very unfortunate the shot-stopper did not record more saves.

Alonso Aceves (7) – Aceves got the start at left-back against Puebla as Frank Klopas elected to make several changes to last game’s starting XI. Aceves looked energetic in defense and also tried to link up often with whatever winger had rotated over to the left side of the pitch. Aceves completed 91% of his passes, won 66.7% of his duels, and converted his penalty. It was an overall good showing from the fullback

Carlos Terán (7.5) – Retaining his starting spot, this time Terán sat on the left of the defense in the absence of Rafa Czichos. The Colombian passed extremely well (93% overall accuracy and 75% for long balls) and did his part on defense, recording seven ball recoveries and six clearances. With all center-backs currently in good form, Klopas is going to have quite the selection headache for the remainder of the season.

Mauricio Pineda (7.5) – It was not a question of “if”, but rather “for who” Mauricio Pineda would start in the place of, as the defender has been in inspiring recently. Mauri took the place of Rafael Czichos and did not look back, having another stonewall performance at center back. Mauri won all of his tackles, 67% of his duels, and sat second for total shots across the team, which should explain the 1-1 regulation result a bit.

Arnaud Souquet (6.5) – Souquet had an up-and-down performance against Puebla, starting the game a bit flat-footed when defending but proving to be very eager to provide service into the box. The problem with that was the service was that the quality of his crosses was just not there, with one seemingly even hitting the scoreboard. Souquet engaged in 11 duels but only won 22.2%, later being substituted for Jonathan Dean in the 66th minute.

Gastón Giménez (7) – Earing his tenth consecutive start for the Fire, Giménez connected very fluidly with his new midfield partner in Ousmane Doumbia. Gastón linked the defense to the attack very well, often finding a winger out wide or spraying a longball behind a high-sat Puebla defense. Tonga maintained a high passing accuracy of 91% but was eventually substituted for Czichos in the 88th minute as Klopas looked to park the bus.

Ousmane Doumbia (8) – Getting his first start for the Fire, Doumbia began the match in the midfield pivot alongside Giménez and looked outstanding. The Lugano-loanee did everything he could, racking up the most touches on the ball for a Fire player as well as leading the team in duels. I could probably write an entire piece on his statistics from just this game alone. To top it off, he buried his penalty effortlessly. This looks to be another good piece of business from Joe Mansueto to himself.

Maren Haile-Selassie (6) – Swapping over to the left-hand side for the most part of this match, Haile-Selassie was extremely active straight from kickoff, however, his lethality died out early in the second half as he found himself on the ball less-and-less due to a variety of reasons. The Swiss winger only had 16 total passes despite his efforts to get into the box and dribble at Puebla’s defenders early on and was eventually substituted for Brian Gutiérrez in the 66th minute.

Xherdan Shaqiri (8) – The Fire’s captain and only goalscorer in this match, Shaqiri swapped places with Guti and started the match as the Fire’s attacking midfielder, but found himself drifting out wide or outright swapping places with his wingers. Shaq’s goal came in the 79th minute from a freekick he earned when Carlos Baltazar stomped on the back of his heel while he was about to enter the 18-yard box, then seeing red. Although the shot was poor, it deflected all the way across the goal and into the back of the net. As dumb as the goal was, Shaq played well all game, with a good chunk of the Fire’s central play running through the power cube.

Fabian Herbers (7) – Once again being deputized as the team’s right-winger, Fabi had plenty of good moments out wide and was involved in a lot of the Fire’s attacking play in the first half, but nothing ever came from his efforts due to a lack of a noticeable presence in Puebla’s box. Unfortunately, Herbers was sacrificed at halftime as Frank Klopas looked to make changes in attack as the Fire continued to look for their go-ahead goal, making way for Jairo Torres.

Georgios Koutsias (6) – Returning as the Fire’s starting striker, Koutsias’ performance could be simply described as clumsy. The Greek forward had a few decent linkup moments with his wingers, but when he himself got on the ball things got a bit messy. His biggest moment came when a FIFA-like sequence occurred in the box resulting in the forward having a moment to bury the ball in the back of a net without a keeper nearby, however, he struck the leg (or the ground?) of a defender and whiffed. Koutsi was substituted for fellow acrobat Kacper Przybyłko in the 66th minute.

Substitutes

Jairo Torres (6.5) – Swapping with Herbers at halftime, Torres had another game of “should have scored, but X, Y, and Z happened”. To be fair, his most solid opportunity was drowned out by a great save, but you get the point. Jairo made an effort to get involved in the game and did defensively, but going forward it was quiet, again. He did score his penalty, so that has to mean something, right?

Jonathan Dean (6.5) – Replacing Arnaud Souquet in the 66th minute, Dean came on to try and lock in a bending defense, and did his part for the limited action he saw. Dean had only a small handful of defensive or offensive actions but did pass with 79% accuracy, which is actually on the middle-to-higher side for the fullback.

Brian Gutiérrez (7.5) – Appearing as a substitute for aile-Selassie in the 66th minute, Gutiérrez was unfortunate to not come out of the game with a goal (I feel like I say this a lot). The youngster scored a thunderbolt header with his first touch in the same minute he appeared, but the referee called ball-delivery man \ Shaqiri offsides, even if it was just his arm. Gutiérrez was a refreshing substitute in a match where the attack was always lacking a final pass or finish, however, nothing ever came for Guti as the match went into penalties.

Kacper Przybyłko (5.5) – Man. Kacper reminds me of when I make a Pro-Clubs player but I don’t properly allocate the stats correctly and he ends up with 99 physical but 50 shooting. I don’t want to just tear into him but he missed two open nets in a game we lost, and although the game did not mean anything as long as we didn’t lose by a considerable margin, we still lost a game where goals should have came easily. Przybyłko only had 12 touches paired with a 57% pass accuracy. Oh yeah, he subbed out Koutsias in the 66th minute.

Rafael Czichos (N/A) – Rafa appeared as a sub in the 88th minute for Giménez, and as the center-back only played about seven minutes, a proper rating cannot be entirely warranted.

Manager

Frank Klopas (7.5) – Starting the match with a different set of rotations from the last game, once again there are no major complaints about his personnel selection that can be directed at Klopas himself. Rotations should be expected for almost the rest of The League’s Cup as the Fire find themselves in a great spot to push up the table in Major League Soccer given the remaining schedule of themselves and their opposition. The team looked very competent for the majority of the game and really should have gotten three points at the Geek.