With both the Fire and Red Stars back from their tournaments, it’s time to do a debrief on what went right, what went wrong, and what may come next.
FIRE: What started brightly with a win over defending champion Seattle, ended with a lapse in focus against a Vancouver Whitecaps side missing 11 regulars and on their third-choice goalkeeper leading to their elimination. The Fire had two matches to advance to the Round of 16, but an inability to be effective with the ball against San Jose and then six minutes after a weather delay against Vancouver sent the Fire back home.
It goes back to the same mistakes we have been criticizing this team for years. Not the least of which is not giving a full 90-minute performance in matches and the Vancouver match is proof-positive of that. It doesn’t help that the defense allowed two very soft goals against the Whitecaps.
There was some promise with Mauricio Pineda, especially in the match against Seattle, but an inability to do anything with the ball against San Jose and an inability to score despite a shot advantage of 25-4 against Vancouver shows that there is much improvement needed.
Plus, there will be questions on why Djordje Mihailovic was sparsely used in this tournament. Despite Pineda’s performance in the opener, it leads to more questions about how the Fire use their homegrown players which has been a pain point for the past decade for the Fire Faithful.
If and when the Fire return to play, Raphael Wicky’s side need to show visible improvement to give fans hope that they are really going to turn things around in the near future. Otherwise, Soldier Field will look at least 80% when fans get to return. The opening match gave fans hope that the Fire can contend and were in great position to advance, the next two games showed that the club cannot afford to keeping providing false dawns with an anemic offenses, questionable personnel decisions, and lapses in concentration.
RED STARS: The way Rory Dames approached the NWSL Challenge Cup was a bit curious as he decided to give younger players a shot in the preliminary round. Then again, he was afforded that luxury given that all eight teams competing were going to the quarterfinals regardless.
A shaky loss to Washington was followed by a respectable draw against Portland given the youthful lineup. That was followed by a loss to North Carolina and then a win against Utah to avoid the bottom seed. The Red Stars got by OL Reign on penalties and then put in their most impressive performance against Sky Blue FC in the semifinals and despite everything, reached the Final against Houston.
Unfortunately, an early penalty and constantly chasing the game led to Houston lifting the cup at Rio Tinto Stadium last Sunday. Mentioning Sam Kerr became a drinking game (not recommended) during Red Stars games. Kealia Watt was unable to get on the scoresheet, Rachel Hill did, and Bianca St. Georges became a discovery during the tournament. Otherwise, it was a second straight final for the Red Stars using just a different path entirely to get there.
It was almost similar to how Germany used the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup by fielding players more as an audition for the main World Cup the following year. They did win the Confederations Cup, but hopefully the Red Stars can do better the next time they take the pitch as opposed to how Germany fared in Russia.
If and when the Red Stars return to SeatGeek Stadium, there is reason for optimism that the Red Stars can continue to build towards a championship and finally get over that last hurdle.
FINALLY…: We at Prost Amerika strongly encourage to heed advice from medical experts and local and state officials. The sooner everyone does that, the sooner we will get to enjoy sporting events in person. It’s as simple as that.
