PREFACE: It seems like we have been repeating a narrative with Chicago’s soccer teams. One has an established striker and a team that can win critical matches and will have a home playoff game for the first time in four years.
The other team cannot get that match-winning goal to save their lives and cannot win when it matters. True, it was eventually a result elsewhere that officially eliminated the Fire, but you then have to go back to all the other times that team did not win when it mattered (like the previous week against FC Cincinnati).
RED STARS: The Red Stars ended their regular season with a late winner from Yuki Nagasato over Utah and then watched as Portland were defeated by Reign FC giving the Red Stars their first home semifinal in four years.
The Red Stars will now have just under three weeks to prepare for either Reign FC (whom the Red Stars are 2-1-0 against) or the Portland Thorns (0-2-1). We’ll see if this is finally the year the Red Stars get into the championship game.
FIRE: In the end, the result was a moot point as New England defeated NYCFC on Sunday, but being in this position in the first place involves not winning when it matters, not finishing chances, not being consistent with lineups, and just not being good enough. Simply put, Joe Mansueto needs to make big moves in 2020 to get people believing in the Fire again after a lost decade.
Whether those plans include Nelson Rodriguez and Veljko Paunovic remains to be seen. There’s also the question about whether they should be included in those plans after they have to produce just one playoff match in the last four seasons and the club itself has had just two playoff matches in ten years.
