Player Ratings: Chicago Fire 1, FC Cincinnati 2
Despite a crowd of over 26,000, the Fire fell flat to Cincinnati for the first home match of the season. Aaron Boupendza scored in the 39th minute, but after Obinna Nwobodo went studs-up on Brian Gutiérrez in the box, the team was awarded a penalty, which Xherdan Shaqiri stepped up to convert. It took until the 68th minute for Cincy to get themselves ahead again, as Miles Robinson found himself free in the box to tap it home for all three points. Here is a 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 (8.5) – The night before his 20th birthday, Brady was comfortably the Fire’s best performer. Even though he only registered three saves, all of them came from good attempts or point-blank. Brady was the team’s sole saving grace for large stretches of the match, given how flat the team looked for a full 90 minutes.
Fabian Herbers (6) – Fabi deputized as a left wingback to begin his 2024 positional bingo chart and put in a decent shift for most of the game. The German was good in possession and combined well with Brian Gutiérrez on the left flank, but like the rest of his teammates, he struggled to provide ample attacking service. Despite the offensive headaches, though, Herbers also had a major defensive error for Cincinnati’s second goal, as he completely left his mark, allowing Miles Robinson to score an uncontested finish inside the box from a low corner in the 68th minute. Fabi was substituted for Georgios Koutsias in the 75th minute.
Rafael Czichos (5) – It was a rough outing for the Fire’s former captain, as Czichos struggled both in possession and when defending. Cincinnati’s first goal came as the German forced a pass into midfield that reached Luciano Acosta instead of Gastón Giménez, who then passed it to Boupendza to finish to go ahead 1-0. Besides that instance, Rafa was dribbled past three times and only won four of his 11 total duels, which made the center-back’s first time in Chicago red a night to forget.
Mauricio Pineda (7) – Mauri sat in the middle of the three center-backs and was relatively solid during his 90-minute stint, showcased by his 95.3% pass accuracy. He was the team’s most consistent ball-distributer as the Fire spent the majority of their time in possession moving the ball across the backline, but like his fellow defenders, Pineda struggled to lock down the Cincy front line. Mauri completed two tackles but only entered into seven total duels, which he won four of.
Allan Arigoni (6.5) – The Swiss sat on the right side of the center-back line, but looked less comfortable than he had against Philadelphia when he played as an outside back. Arigoni was involved in possession fairly frequently, but only yielded a pass accuracy of 82% and had just three accurate long balls out of seven attempts. He also completed a sole dribble from three attempts and had the same numbers for his crossing. Given he is still new to his surroundings, his positive glimpses suggest improvement as the season goes on.
Maren Haile-Selassie (6) – It was an evening of highs and lows for Maren at right wingback, as struggled after he moved past the half-field line. He finished the match with a pass accuracy of 93.3%, but a vast majority of that was done in linkup play with Allan Arigoni or the midfield pivot before going into Cincy’s half. When he went forward, Maren struggled both in his dribbling and his crossing, as he completed zero actions in either statistical group, with four attempts in dribbles and two from crosses.
Kellyn Acosta (6.5) – The Texan got his first start for the Fire and played well in tandem with Giménez, but like the rest of the squad, he struggled at getting anything going offensively. Acosta moved the ball well with his defensive line and his wingers, and made a major effort to get involved defensively with 11 duel attempts, but was very reliant on hucking the ball forward for Hugo Cuypers to try and bring down. With a relatively low passing accuracy and only two other passes into the final third that were not long balls, this match likely served as an instance for the MLS vet to find his footing for the club. Kellyn was swapped for Federico Navarro in the 75th minute for some fresh legs as the Fire began chasing the game.
Gastón Giménez (7) – Tonga had a good showing in the midfield after a mediocre performance last weekend, as he worked well with the backline to switch possession and move the ball forward. Gastón passed into the final third five times, also completing 75% of his long balls. The overall reliance on long balls is what caused headaches for fans though, but given that this was a team-wide issue, at least the Paraguyan was the one with the most accurate passes over the top.
Brian Gutiérrez (7) – The team’s more threatening of the two wingers, Guti had some moments where he looked very dangerous, but simultaneously he also looked to be on the lower end of confidence. The homegrown looked great in his small-space linkup to move the ball into openings, but when it came to his finishing and dribbling, he was rather tame. Guti only completed one dribble out of four attempts, but that number does not tell the whole story given that one of those failed attempts turned into a penalty. Besides that, there were instances when Guti could have shot, but he opted to try and find seams to pass into instead, which in some instances was not the choice to be made. Because of that lack of selfishness, he finished the game without a single shot.
Xherdan Shaqiri (6) – Shaq played in his more traditional right wing spot, but once again failed to make a major impact despite scoring his first goal of the season. In terms of the goal, it was a beautiful penalty to level the score, but besides that, it was more of the same from the Swiss international. Shaqiri should have been more supportive of Hugo Cuypers when the Belgian checked in to bring the ball down, but he never really made much of an effort to do so. Besides that, Shaq completed a sole longball from four attempts and also failed to complete a single cross from another four efforts. The Fire’s captain was substituted in the 85th minute to make way for Chris Mueller.
Hugo Cuypers (6.5) – It has been a not-so-easy start to life for Cuypers in Chicago, as he is simply not being provided anything to work with in the final third. The striker has often found himself having to drop into the midfield to pick up the ball, but at the same time, he then is forced to get back upfield to hold play up. His hold-up play is great, but his teammates are not utilizing the potential to play off of him nearly enough. Besides this difficult mixture of duties, Cuypers has had only a single shot in 182 minutes, which shows the team is not providing him with any realistic service to make a difference.
Substitutes
Georgios Koutsias (6.0) – Koutsi made his season debut when he came on as a substitute for Fabian Herbers in the 75th minute, but he was unable to make any sort of impact as he only registered five touches during his 19 minutes played. His most important moment of the game came when he got on the end of a long ball around the 80th minute, but unfortunately took too many touches and eventually dribbled out of bounds to kill the chance to square it for an equalizer.
Federico Navarro (6.5) – Fede came on for Kellyn Acosta in the 75th minute to partner Gastón, and he played pretty well during his short stint. Despite only getting a 77% pass accuracy from 13 attempts, his completed passes often got the team going in transition, which was a decent surprise given how conservative the Argentinian typically plays.
Chris Mueller (N/R) – The Schaumburg native made his first appearance of the season as a substitute for Xherdan Shaqiri in the 86th minute, but was only able to get seven touches in nine minutes, thus he was unable to muster enough involvement for a rating.
Manager
Frank Klopas (6) – It was a bit of a surprise to see coach Klopas start the team in a 3-4-2-1 formation, but nevertheless, this may be the direction the team heads into tactically for the rest of the season. The team had solid moments of buildup play, but they clearly need more time to grow into the formation. Besides the formation itself, the team was tactically lacking when going forward. There was no game plan at all besides forcing long balls, and when it came to getting the ball out wide, the Fire’s wingers made a limited impact. The underperformance from the wingers should be coachable, but only time will tell if Klopas can get the team past this roadblock. All subs were fairly reasonable, but the game could have used more Chris Mueller when it became 2-1.
