Chicago come from behind twice to keep play off hopes alive; 2-2 against New York.
Toyota Park; feeling the first chills of Autumn nevertheless had a season high attendance for the crunch match with new York; both teams have missing players but with the play offs. just around the corner three points would be a bonus.
Osorio goes for back three in front of ‘keeper, Pickens; Conde in the middle flanked by Brown and Robinson; Blanco will be the point man in a midfield five with Pause, Gutierrez, Segares and Rolfe; the absence of Mapp and Guerrero will leave the flank play of Chicago lacking some bite; Wanchope and Barrett looked to provide some goals.
Arena looked to use a basic 4 4 2 away from home; Waterreus in goal protected by Leitch, Parke, Stammler and van den Bergh, Richards, Reyna, providing a different approach than Mathis, Vide and Kovalenko filled the midfield with Angela and Liberian, Doe up front. Altidore was not in the squad for tonight.
The football isn’t that great tonight, neither side has brought it’s A game. Reyna gets an early (1.44) yellow card. It’s going to be that sort of night.
Van den Bergh is the class of New York, better going forward than defending but his crosses cause all sorts of problems for a less than perfect Chicago back line.
Blanco is by far the class of Chicago, busy all over the pitch, making tackles, working hard and delivering good, incisive balls to his team mates; the game is still scrappy with no real quality in the final third.
New York is obdurate in the middle and tends to utilize the flanks whilst all the good stuff for Chicago flows through Blanco.
The scrappiness is typified with New York’s first goal, a corner kick is only half cleared and van den Burgh puts the ball back in, Gutierrez pokes it into his own net under no pressure.
Waterreus is the busier of the two ‘keepers and makes a handful of fine saves throughout the first half.
Osorio wants more from Rolfe and Blanco, Arena’s side were initially flummoxed by a back three, Vide and Reyna needs more of the ball. Van den Burgh is the first to voice his discontent with the shoddy refereeing; getting a yellow card after having the ball thrown in his face has got the Dutchman ticked off.
The scrappy play and terrible refereeing continue in the second half. The early pressure is mostly Chicago Rolfe; only being denied by a class save from Waterreus; Blanco, Gutierrez and Barrett all involved in a series of fruitless but well constructed passing moves; interrupted by a great chance for Angel; van den Burgh finds Richards at he far post, he heads the ball into the path of Angel on the opposite side and with Pickens cut out of the game the Colombian sees Segares make a last ditch interception. One flowing Chicago move results in the Chicago equalizer; Blanco receives the ball just inside the area on the right and crosses for Barrett at the far post, the Chicago forward tangles with Leitch and the referee points to the spot. Replays were inconclusive but it looked like incidental contact; Blanco beats Waterreus easily for the equalizer.
The highlight of the game is a great move started on the left by the Dutchman; the ball flows to the other side of the field then comes back to van den Bergh at the far post, his volley is first class and needs a great reflex save from Pickens to stop it, quality in attack and quality in goal in a game with more huff and puff.
Reyna whips in a great ball from the corner kick and; under pressure from Angel; Conde uses his right hand to intercept the flight of the ball, Richards scores anyway but the referee; again a terrible decision; point to the spot then hands Conde his second yellow followed by the red. Angel converts easily but what if the Colombian had fluffed it, poor refereeing.
Down to ten men Chicago up the tempo and bluster and force New York into the back foot, less than two minutes after the second New York goal Chicago equalize, Blanco delivers a good; nut not great free kick; New York can’t defend it and Segares heads past a rather static Waterreus.
Still looks like eleven versus eleven, Chicago are hungry for the win and New York look to have settled for a draw. Kovalenko hits the side netting, Magee; his replacement; is denied by Pickens and Wolyniec is well tackled by Segares as New York get into good positions, with ten men Chicago don’t really fashion much but have some of the play in midfield.
Last Chicago home game the entire team was poor, this match Blanco exuded class and the rest were mostly average, Conde looked good going forward. Osorio is making progress but it’s slow, they may make the play offs but don’t expect this Chicago team to go very far.
Arena; his customary bewildered expression pasted on his face; will be the happier manager tonight, a scrappy performance but an away point will make his run in for the play offs tight. In spurts the team was good but flow was difficult to find and Reyna may not ever be the player he was in Europe. Van den Burgh was the visitor’s best player followed by Richards.
Awful refereeing performance; basically cut Reyna’s legs off with a booking in the second minute, failed to sort out some handbags between van den Burgh and Blanco and then hands the innocent Dutchman a silly yellow. Consistently inconsistent with plenty of dubious decisions, including both penalties. The first looked inordinately harsh and the second; he was right to book Conde but should have let Richards’ goal stand.
I do understand that referees have a hard time of it, it’s a difficult job and hard to do well, some MLS referees manage games very well and get the majority of things correct, this referee needs to go back to basics, he was awful, and it’s not just me, Wanchope, Arena, Osorio and van den Burgh also questioned the validity of some of the man in the middles decisions. Two words Mark Clattenburg!
