Chicago is poor all over the park; Houston dominates and destroys woeful Fire.

Toyota Park; looking to be under new ownership within a couple of months; starts with a lively atmosphere, the Luchadores are out and the fans are ready to welcome new Colombian coach; Juan Carlos Osorio for his first game in charge.

New coach Juan Carlos Osorio goes for 4 5 1, Barrett gets the nod up front, Mapp should provide some class out wide, he'll miss the defensive skills of Brown; due to suspension; but will count on Soumare to cover the back four.

Basic 4 4 2 for Kinnear, faceless and solid back line, Holden and Mullen on the flanks with ex Fire Jaqua partnering Ngwenya up front.

Gutierrez states the Fires intentions early with a rough challenge on Ngwenya. The response is Mullan crossing to the far post for Holden to head into the side netting.

Ngwenya continues to get beat up but Jaqua provides a threat. Houston is looking for the early goal.

Thiago feeds Menezes in on the right and when the Brazilian looks for support he finds none and the move fizzles out, typical of what happens the rest of the night for Chicago.

Jaqua latches onto a great through ball and forces Pickens to save; Holden is just about to slam the rebound goal wards when Armas sneaks it away from him, good tracking back from the midfielder. Ngwenya heads wide from the resultant corner kick.

Guerrero makes a good run on the left but Waibel is there to win the ball back for Houston, forcing a corner kick, Mapp reacts first as the ball sails over everyone pings the ball into the box for Curtin but Onstad tips it over. Mapp delivers a better second corner and Curtin beats the non existent marking, Onstad does well to tip the ball over.

Ngwenya shows his acting credentials with a great dive and Chicago displays nothing when a run from Barrett takes the attacker 50 yards before he fails to find one of his three team mates or shoots and is tamely stripped of the ball.

Mapp shows some gumption when he reaches the byline after being put clear by Barrett; he looks up and no one from the Fire is running into the box, Mapp does well to win the corner kick.

At the other end Clark gets a great opportunity as he beats Pickens but not the woodwork and Holden's free kick is touched over by Robinson.

Barrett does well to win a ball wide left and pings in a bullet towards the spot, Holden wants it more and buries it beyond Pickens through a static Fire defence; Soumare the worst culprit.

Mapp gets a good ball and works himself space on the right, he crosses into the box but Cochrane nicks the ball off Barrett for a corner kick. Mapp gets it to Armas who tries to chip Onstad.

Ngwenya and Segares tangle on the byline and the uninjured Costa Rican falls out of play, he manfully crawls onto the pitch before flopping down and crying wolf, play is eventually stopped and he's obviously OK. Go figure!

Ngwenya has an opening but fires at Pickens and Soumare and Cochrane clash heads, Cochrane is substituted for Ianni, and the defender has a concussion.

Both coaches keep things the same coming out for the second half.

Holden puts through Ngwenya whose soft shot is well saved and Jaqua stabs the rebound wide.

Barrett feeds Tioga on the edge if the area, the striker spins and shoots wide, Mapp crosses well from the left to nobody in particular, then Guerrero has a great opportunity to pull the trigger but decides not to.

Same story for most of the second half, Houston are very good at the back and quick and full of passion and ideas going forward, Chicago are tepid and mostly clueless up front and shambolic or uninterested at the back.

Ngwenya gets the ball on the right, he stumbles and loses the ball, it isn't cleared at all and pops up fro Jaqua to slam into the roof of the net for Houston's second, poor defending; Pickens did pull a few good saves out in the second half though.

Houston gets a third; Ngwenya skins Curtin in the area, rounds Pickens and scores from the tightest of angles.

Houston's fourth is easy, De Rosario is open on the right and nutmegs the defender with a shot, Pickens does well to react and get a hand to the ball and as it softly trickles to the back post Mon08769876987 is there to tap it home

Did Osorio know what he was getting when he agreed to take this Fire job; the home team was poor all over the park, really bad.

Easy victory for the saliva rich Houston coach. Another batch of goals and another clean sheet and this without Ching and De Rosario starting. Kinnear will be pleased the way Houston put away chances away from home.

Pretty inconspicuous, this for a referee is good.

Chicago:-

Pickens

Segares

Curtin

Gutierrez

Menezes (Carr 73)

Soumare

Guerrero (Oliveira 64)

Thiago

Mapp

Armas

Barrett

Bookings:-

Gutierrez

Thiago

Goals:-

Houston:-

Onstad

Barrett

Robinson

Cochrane (Ianni 45)

Waibel

Holden

Mulrooney

Clark

Mullan

Jaqua (Wondolowski 91)

Ngwenya (De Rosario 81)

Bookings:-

Holden

Goals:-

Holden 31

Jaqua 58

Ngwenya 62

Wondolowski 91

Attendance:-

20034

Referee:-

Alex Prus