Offense was lacking for the Fire because they needed to play defense, Red Stars because of red card.
THOUGHTS ON THE FIRE: One way to look at the Fire’s 0-0 draw with LAFC is that the defense did its job to stymie LAFC’s attack and did well to earn a point. The other way to look at it is that this was the third successive match in which the Fire did not score. Veljko Paunovic put virtually all his main attacking options out to start, though two of those options were in the back in Bastian Schweinsteiger and Przemyslaw Frankowski.
The Fire ended up making three defensive subs to counter LAFC’s three attacking subs and ended up doing well to get a point which has been a rarity in the Pacific time zone. However, the goals will eventually need to come and that should start Wednesday against New England (7pm CT, ESPN+).
The Chicago Red Stars overtake the Seattle Reign 3-0, Sunday April 28, 2019 (photo by Leslie Smith).
THOUGHTS ON THE RED STARS: Needless to say that the Red Stars did not get the better of the officiating decisions on Friday against Utah. Katie Johnson’s red card was harsh and the Red Stars did what they could playing a woman down, but ultimately fell to a goal by Amy Rodriguez.
It was a physical contest, but it just seemed more of the breaks were going Utah’s way and Sam Kerr was clearly frustrated at referee Farhad Dadkho from not getting a penalty decision to being booked for a frustration foul.
How the Red Stars recover on Sunday against North Carolina at SeatGeek Stadium (5pm CT, NBCS-CHI) will be interesting to see considering that they will likely not have Sam Kerr and/or Yuki Nagasato after this match for the Women’s World Cup.
Chicago Fire
Chicago Red Stars
