Five Things We Learned: Chicago Fire 1, New York Red Bulls 0

The Chicago Fire hosted the New York Red Bulls in their last game at Soldier Field until September and walked away with their third home win of the season. The 1-0 win gave Chris Brady and his team their second-consecutive clean sheet as Carlos Terán made a welcome return for the Men In Red.

Here’s five things we learned from Chance the Rapper’s opening act last night.

1) The team is better than its record

Going into the match against the Red Bulls, the team was out of the postseason spots, albeit with a game in hand over most of the field. The victory over the Red Bulls put the team in ninth in the East, in a postseason spot and giving the team control of their own destiny.

While that may not sound that impressive – after all, it means there are eight teams ahead of the Fire in the table – take a look at who’s around the Fire in the standings. Ahead of the Fire are New York City FC, Charlotte, Orlando and Miami.

The Fire have managed results against all of those except New York with two wins over Charlotte, a win and a draw over Orlando and a 0-0 draw against Inter Miami. The team looked fully in control in both matches against Charlotte and managed a draw against Orlando even when down a man for most of the match. Full strength? An easy victory.

Their one loss to that group of teams also came while down a man, in their game May 25th against New York City where the Fire saw their one goal lead evaporate after nearly half an hour shorthanded.

The team still needs to get results going forward, but in reality, the play we’ve seen from the team on the pitch against mid-table opponents suggests they’ll get more than they give in the final 10 games of the regular season.

2) The defense has stabilized

The victory was the Fire’s first of the season by a 1-0 scoreline. The Fire’s second shutout in a row was enough to bring out the sense of humor from Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter.

“Two clean sheets and I feel like I don’t know this team anymore, right? My goodness,” Berhalter joked with reporters after the match. “No, it feels good, especially 1-0 wins. They go so far for confidence, because when you’re pushed – and you normally are when you’re winning 1-0 – to be able to bend but not break is a good quality of any strong team.”

Early on, the story for the Fire was that they’d score plenty of goals but give up easy ones going the other way. There’s a serious argument to be made that we need to shift that narrative. The Fire haven’t trailed in their previous three games – 270 minutes of competitive soccer – and yes, even if they gave up a late goal they wish they could take back in Atlanta, that has been more the exception rather than the rule for the Fire lately.

Since the Fire’s disastrous outing against Nashville back in April, the team’s only losses by more than one goal were 3-1 defeats to NYCFC and Minnesota United (in the U.S. Open Cup) while playing down a man and in the reverse fixture against Nashville in June. In that stretch of 15 MLS matches – almost half the season – only time that the Fire allowed more than two expected goals against (xGA) was the shorthanded match in New York.

Problem fixed? Not necessarily, and the team needs to keep it up down the stretch. Still, odds are things are likely to get even better for the Men In Red, because….

3) The center-back pool feels a lot deeper

Carlos Terán made his welcome return to the lineup for the Fire against the Red Bulls in his first game since getting injured in Cincinnati back in April.

He put in a strong performance in his hour on the pitch, doing a great job breaking up oncoming attacks. He also had some good looks going forward. In the 18th minute, we saw the return of Terán’s long throw-ins. Getting the ball back seconds later, he launched a cannon at Carlos Coronel’s net. The effort sailed wide but didn’t miss by that much.

Terán looked comfortable, and there weren’t any visible signs of rust after three months out. Still, according to Terán, that doesn’t mean that they weren’t there.  “After three months, it’s hard to come back,” the center back told reporters following the match.

“Especially with this difficult weather, it’s really humid and the rhythm of the game is high, but I knew how to manage it,” later going on to say “I don't think I’m fit because after 15 minutes, oh my god I was so tired. You can see the team was on another rhythm than me, but in that situation, you need to use the mentality that you are being a professional to control the emotions, control your body, and understand the game faster and replace the physical you don't have.”

That form will return, and Christopher Cupps – who has shown amazing promise for a 17-year-old at the position – is also working his way back from injury. Are the Fire’s woes at this position relegated to history?

It’s far too early to say – and I’ve fallen for the “Terán’s penchant for dumb fouls and cards is behind him” line too many times to get fooled again anytime soon – but it’s starting to feel like the Fire have a solid, workable group to play alongside Jack Elliott, who has been a stalwart all season.

4) Jonathan Bamba needed the rest – and then some

After coming off the bench for 10 minutes last week against Montréal, Jonathan Bamba put together one of his strongest performances in a Fire uniform last night.

He may not have made it onto the scoresheet, but according to American Soccer Analysis’s goals added (g+) metric, the single best statistic we have to measure a player’s overall performance, he was the best player on the pitch at Soldier Field for either team.

He completed 44 passes out of 49 attempts (both season-highs for the attacker). He had 61 touches – also a season high – and generated six shot-creating actions for the Fire. That ties the third most he’s had all season. He also set or matched personal season highs for carries and progressive carries, shots and shots on target as he played the full 90 minutes.

“He worked hard, played well, created chances,” Berhalter said of Bamba’s performance. “He was unlucky in a number of situations to not get it on frame, but I think he did a great job and we kept him in for a reason: because he was working his tail off.”

Still: It often feels like Bamba was letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. There were several attacking sequences where he was bearing down on the Red Bulls’ goal and he didn’t even glance at the net, with his focus entirely on finding a pass. Other times, he’s had a propensity for taking one too many touches, and by the time he has, the moment has gone.

Hopefully, fatigue is still the root cause here. Coming from Europe, Bamba has been playing for well over a year with little time off, and the little bit of rest – just one week without a Wednesday game, plus coming off the bench, rather than starting, last week, has clearly helped. Here’s hoping that the Fire’s last week off this year gives him enough to recharge for the rest of the season.

The Fire will need that because…

5) They need to be more clinical with their chances

Good news: In 2024 (and 2023, and 2022 and…) the Chicago Fire were not doing this with any kind of regularity, and now they are.

https://twitter.com/MattDoyle76/status/1949476350911516810

That’s seven solid, team- and system-based attacking sequences. All in one match! Against a team that went into the game in a playoff position!

Bad news: Eagle-eyed readers (viewers?) with advanced ball knowledge may have noticed that none of those sequences resulted in a goal.

That may seem like nitpicking considering the team is third in MLS with 1.87 goals per 90 minutes, behind San Diego (at 1.92) and Inter Miami, at 2.23.

But the fact is, especially in the postseason – the team’s stated aim this year – you have to finish your chances if you want to succeed.

Overall, I’m firmly of the belief that getting quantity and quality of chances will eventually get enough of them in the back of the net – and the Fire have been doing that (see: and I’m just reiterating here – the Chicago Fire are scoring the 3rd most goals on a 90 minute basis in the 30 team league). Battles are often won and lost on the margins, however, and the fact is, the Fire have made a habit out of leaving things on the table.

There’s reason for optimism here – see above about Bamba – but the Fire are doing 95, 98% of the work to get a lot more goals than they ultimately are.