Portland Timbers v. Chicago Fire: Hella Continuity

Industrious. Pointless.

The Chicago Fire played the Portland Timbers to a 1-1 draw tonight. Now, two teams knotted at ones in a preseason game wouldn't normally bear notice, but this result is different. Think about it: Chicago tied and Portland fucked up on defense.

That, my friend, provides precise thumbnail descriptions for both Chicago's and Portland's 2014. The details updated for this 2015 saw Michael Nanchoff score on a deflected free-kick, while Chicago picked up their obligatory draw courtesy of a Norberto Paparatto own-goal. (Say, the Timbers scored both goals – silver lining!)

Just some general notes to make before doing the whole bullet thing. I like Caleb Porter's approach to this one, even if I'm totally unaware as to why he adopted it. If nothing else, starting mostly bench players afforded all of us amateur scouts a chance to see what the new kids can do. And, broadly, the new kids impressed - especially the first shift. I'll lard this point below, but, all in all, Portland took the game to Chicago.

I'll get back to Chicago – after talking about the Three Big Things for Portland. Which brings us back to those new kids:

Chicago Fire 2015 Season Preview: On Breaking the (Countless) Deadlocks

Good enough. They were ties, man.

What Happened Last Year
The Chicago Fire tied over half of their games in 2014. Literally. Think about that. That's less a season than an intellectual/physical exploration of mediocrity as a philosophical construct – e.g. can mediocrity to have "heights" and, if so, how many draws does it take to achieve the Platonic ideal? I didn't watch Chicago much in 2014. With the outcome at least heavily implied – again, literally, over half the time – I figured I knew how the games would end. I caught enough, however, to form some impressions, among them: Quincy Amirikwa's solid season as a bee-in-the-bonnet forward; Harrison Shipp's Rookie-of-the-First-Half-of-the-Year season; the now-departed Bakary Soumare, by all appearances, not giving a fuck (an impression confirmed by later comments); the essential wisdom of Gonzalo Segares' recent retirement; the nice send-off for the long-serving, lately-suffering Logan Pause; long-time midfielder Jeff Larentowicz shifted to the Fire backline midway through perhaps per Soumare's visible lack of shit-giving; Juan Luis Anangono...he played in Chicago last year, right? (Barely, but right). The Fire had a crap year by anyone’s standards. Six wins is the unpalatable flipside to all those ties...that's blue balls frustration. Worse, something larger loomed over the franchise – specifically, an apparently widely-held belief that the front office is reluctant to invest in winning (uh, turns out the evidence is scarce; swear it showed on message boards; or something). The contrast with the original, winning Fire teams must sprinkle salt in the wounds.
Final Stats: 6-10-18, 36 pts., 9th in the East; 41 gf, 51 ga