CHICAGO, IL-Going from one season to another, it’s really a different one to look at. But when you see something similar, you have to wonder if you’re seeing the same thing from one year to the next.
Chicago saw by experience of a year ago of losing leads and chances of gaining three points in matches and hurt their chances of a successful season.
On Saturday night, the Fire once again had built a two-goal advantage with three points in their favor and their first win for 2023. But Chicago gave up two goals in a matter of three minutes for the 84th and 86th minutes that left them in a 3-3 draw with FC Cincinatti at Soldier Field.
“I think a lot of discipline and game management from every single player that field,” Chris Brady, Fire goalkeeper said. “Being up 3-1 in the 46th minute is a game that any team should win, especially against a team like that and the way they performed. So, I think a little bit of a lack of discipline, and for sure we need to manage the game a little bit better.”
Maybe, there’s plenty of frustration that sits with the rest of the team. The Fire earned a point, but lost a great chance of picking up two more.
“I don’t think there’s a direct answer I can give you other than us,” Brady said. “As a collective, we need to be more disciplined. I’m going to say it again, this game should’ve been ours. Three points should’ve been ours. But it didn’t happen, and we need to be more disciplined in the future.”
Losing leads doesn’t sit well not only with the club or with its head coach Ezra Hendrickson either. He was very unhappy with the result and wants to see something different in future matches.
“It’s simple. When we get in these positions, we have to fight,” Hendrickson said. “The mentality has to be better. And it’s all about competing. It’s all about fighting for the badge. You know, it’s 10 minutes to go in the game. We’re home, we’re up, we’re not going to lose this game. My man is not going to beat me. If they’re on a counter and I don’t have a yellow, I’m going to foul the guy, reset. And if they get a free kick, a corner kick or whatever have you, I’m not going to get beat by my man. And that didn’t happen. We almost lost that game. We almost lost that game. So yes, we’re not happy about this. We felt like we lost two points tonight, not gained one.”
Is there a way to explain what exactly happened on the field in such a short period of time. The competition part of seeing 75 good minutes of soccer proves the team can play, but what was missing was to what could be getting three points.
“I wish I could tell you,” Hendrickson said. “We’ll look at the film and maybe if we got a day in training, we’ve got to do more competitive stuff where we do more situational stuff; we’ll put a team up two and play for about 10 minutes and see if they can hold a lead. But it’s all about competing, it’s about competing. The football has been too good not to come out with results. We played probably our best game of the three and we still didn’t get the result that we want. It’s not an easy team to play against.
“But at the end of the day, when you have them on the ropes like that, you have to finish out that game. And again, we did not do it. And so that’s something that we’re going have to continue to address in training. Just put the guys in situations where they have to compete, make them uncomfortable. The team is coming at you. They’re trying to catch up to a two-goal deficit. So, they’re going to press, they’re going to come. You know, maybe you don’t need to make that little cheeky pass; maybe you’re under pressure, maybe it’s a ball down the corner, and we push them back a little bit and we regroup.”
In dealing with what’s going on with the two goals that were given up, the Fire will need a week of preparation before its next game on the road next week at Inter Miami FC. It will be hard to look back at what happened exactly to figure it out.
“We’re a team that wants to play with the ball, but there are times in the game when you just have to route one, you have to go long, because you’re under pressure. Because if you don’t and you lose it, they’re down your throat. And so, these are situations that, we have to find a way of finishing out games better than this. Last week is a different story (Philidelphia), you’re down a man and you’re fighting to hold on. This week? No excuse. No excuse whatsoever. I’m very upset about the way this game ended.”
