Children of the mind of Blanco

(I’ve been gone awhile. I may talk about it later. For now, we stick to the football.)

In week 4, this would have seemed a pretty solid result. Now, though – eeugh. That was some ugly sheet, mang.

Not ugly from a technique standpoint, really. The passing in MLS can surprise me sometimes now, and the quality of the balls Conde and Segares (from one end) and Conrad (from the other) were serving up made it look like these teams were actually, honestly playing long-ball, and not just hoofing the damned thing every chance they got. But in the end, does that increase in quality matter, if the team is still so bereft of ideas?

NobodyBeatsTheWiz got the better chances in transition, and no wonder – KC has always had good speed to counter, and this edition is no different. The Chicago attackers (putting aside Blanco from all criticism here) are generally better in combination – Rolfe, Frankowski and Thorrington, particularly – but the possessions seldom led to anything. The ball would cycle through, the movement was compelling, but no one seemed to agree who should do the daring thing and actually try to score.

I’m afraid the reason for that is that the team, generally, has delegated all the creative thinking to our very favorite L’il Hunchback, Señor Blanco. Blanco’s brain was disconnected from everyone else’s feet by Kansas City’s double- and triple-teaming of the man. And so, except for a few wild slaloms from Mapp, and a couple of mule-kick half-chances from Rolfe, the Fire went quietly.

Until the – uhhh – let’s say, the non-Mexican attackers rediscover aggressiveness, this club is going to struggle to score goals. McBride isn’t coming for a month. It’s time for Rolfe to show he’s got what we all hope he’s got, and for Frankowski to show he’s worth that sack of coin.

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