Was yesterday’s game a letdown with no scoring? A positive result against a side at a higher level of play?

I went to the film to find out. Here’s a distillation of the 5,000 or so words of notes.

Tactics and substitutions

Once against, Nashville SC came out in a 5-3-2 formation, but in comparison to the Atlanta United friendly, the wingbacks were pushed much higher (while the defensive midfielders and CAM Lebo Moloto were a little more recessed), and you could consider it a legit 3-5-2 for this one. Playing Ryan James and Kosuke Kimura farther up the pitch, rather than giving them some freedom to run, but using them as key defensive pieces, changed the nature of the NSC attack. It was more oriented toward getting space wide and using that to create openings for the strikers, rather than building through the middle of the pitch. There seemed to be a bit more freedom with Moloto bot pushing forward much, either.

At the half, Taylor Washington entered at left back, Kimura came off, and James flipped to the right side (as predicted). In the 60th minute, there was a wholesale line change – outside of Washington – and a switch to a 4-4-2.

The midfielders had quite a bit of fluidity in the 4-4-2, as well, though Alan Winn and Martim Galvão tended to stay wide while Bolu Akinyode (defense-first) and Ramone Howell (more of an attacking posture, and tending to drift toward the right side) were in the middle of the pitch. The fullbacks still pushed forward to enter the attack, with central midfielders hanging back to replace them, but there’s clearly a little less familiarity with this shape, given that the overlapping seemed to be counter-productive with players almost getting in each other’s ways, rather than building a cohesive attacking form at times.

Keeper

There was a but of buzz for backup goalkeeper CJ Cochran as man of the match (and indeed, on first viewing I picked him as such), and he had a nice performance. A couple very impressive saves constituted basically the only danger that either keeper faced. He still struggles in distributing the ball accurately downfield though, and that’s where a veteran presence like Matt Pickens is going to be a boost for his long-term future.

Pickens has a feel for being in the right place at the right time – he stepped out to handle a couple dangerous crosses from the Fire – and is far better in getting the ball upfield accurately. He didn’t face a shot on goal, so holding “no spectacular saves” against him is a bit unfair, especially when his play in other phases was partially responsible for the Fire getting nothing going. He’s still your No. 1, NSC just has an extremely solid No. 2, as well.

Defenders

The biggest note here was a change to the starting lineup – and indeed the only change from the XI that opened against Atlanta United. Liam Doyle slotted in the center, while London Woodberry moved to right centerback and Bradley Bourgeois did not see the pitch. I presume this was related in part to a minor injury (rather than performance) since he didn’t come on at halftime, either. Doyle was solid in that position though, and his ability to pick out a long pass – you may recall his tertiary assist on the only NSC goal to date – is truly notable. He’s comfortable inn the middle, seemed to be a little more assertive than he had been against Atlanta, and wasn’t responsible for anything dangerous.

Woodberry and left centerback Justin Davis were about as they were against Atlanta: nothing spectacular, but they don’t need to be. Woodberry showed a little bit of ability to get forward, though obviously those opportunities are limited by his position. Davis had service that was just OK on a set piece or two, and had an iffy pass that Woodberry couldn’t settle and resulted in a Chicago corner.

As noted above, the wingbacks in the 5-3-2 (and even the fullbacks in the 4-4-2) were pretty involved in getting forward and creating width in the offensive third.

I did notice that, when under any amount of pressure, Kosuke Kimura was uncomfortable getting a longer pass off. He attempted a couple in that situation, and badly missed the mark (his shorter passing to midfielders or strikers was fine). While he has the energy and speed to get up and down the sideline, putting him in areas where he’s going to be tightly marked can, at times, make things tough on him.

Ryan James was solid on both flanks, though he seemed more comfortable getting upfield once he switched to the right side (ironically, given that he seems more comfortable passing toward the interior with his left instep). Washington seems to be pretty intent on getting upfield in the 5-man backline – though that’s partially by design, of course – but he is one player who either has bad luck in getting the ball passed to him on overlapping runs down the sideline, or is running into too much traffic.

The four-man backline featured Jordan Dunstan and Ian McGrath as the right and left centerbacks, respectively, and Washington and Michael DeGraffenreidt on the outside. DeGraff had a couple opportunities to get up the sideline on dangerous runs, though the service from the midfield to the outside was only OK in this one (more on that later) so it didn’t turn into much.

Dunstan still seems a little tentative, or perhaps it’s a lack of knowledge about when he has defensive cover and should tighten his marking versus when he should sit back and mark a zone to prevent runs coming through. Some of the communication stuff from the first match was cleared up a little bit, but the game awareness is still a work in progress at this higher level. McGrath was solid on the ball, and I didn’t note much for him defensively other than a play on which his man was able to get into the box and flick a back-heel (nobody was home to receiver the pass though) when Dunstan couldn’t quite deflect the pass in.

Midfielders

In the first half, Matt LaGrassa and Michael Reed were their typical selves with solid play in the defensive midfielder roles. He had a couple plays that he’d like back with a pass that was too soft for the situation resulting in a turnover, but he also had a relatively hopeful long-ball turn into a really dangerous moment when Robin Shroot was able to come down with it.

Reed is a little more stay-at-home and defensive among the two CDMs, though he did get a nice pass laid off from Shroot that he blasted high from about 25 yards out in one of the offensive threats of the first half.

Lebo Moloto was much more in line with that duo, forming a true 3-man line in the middle (whereas he’d been more out in front in a 5-2-1-2-ish look against Atlanta). He’s still obviously going to be the offensive threat from that trio, even if the wingbacks were the bigger piece of the offensive gameplan. He had a cross that seemed harmless live, but in hindsight probably should have been a bit more dangerous with runners coming into the box, and he – along with the rest of the offensive personnel – seemed more comfortable connecting passes in the offensive third than against Atlanta.

In the wave of 60th minute subs, the midfield became (left to right) Alan Winn, Bolu Akinyode, Ramone Howell, and Martim Galvão.

Winn tends to stay pretty wide, though he cuts in to shoot right-footed with the ball or in expectation of receiving it. Given that his defensive deficiencies were put on display a couple times, it becomes tough to see where he fits in what appears to be the standard 5-3-2 formation. He’s also too good to be consistently kept off the field. How and where he gets on the field will be one of the key storylines to watch for the rest of preseason. He did flub a wide open shot when a Martim Galvão cross found its way through the box…Winn’s going to finish that more often than not – just didn’t do it on this day.

Akinyode and Howell were a nice defense-offense central midfield pairing, though the ways in which Akinyode is good defensively are different from those I expected when reviewing his resume and highlights prior to the season. He likes to push up a little bit and provide pressure a little farther up the pitch, rather than letting the ball come to him, and he can win it pretty well and pick out dangerous passes. Howell is comfortable sliding back into a more defensive posture to cover for some of those Akinyode walkabouts, as well. I’m less convinced than I was before that he ends up a centerback in the long-term.

I’ve also been pretty clear that I think Martim Galvão has a role to play on this team, but as a full-90 player, he might not have the chops to hold up at a USL level. He went a long way toward dispelling that opinion I hold. He’s still a little physically weak on the ball and can get pushed off it by MLS-caliber defenders and midfielders, but he walked through some heavy traffic for the would-be Winn assist mentioned above, could have picked out a couple nice line-breaking passes if he’d been able to pop his head up a little quicker, and took a shot that may have gone in if not deflected. Surely, it will make the Roadies happy to read that he’s a stock-up guy for me.

Forward

The starters (and subs) were the same as the Atlanta match, with Robin Shroot and Michael Cox getting the start, with Tucker Hume and Ropapa Mensah coming on in the 60th minute.

Shroot was my man of the match, accounting for most of the dangerous moments NSC had in the first hour of gametime. He got buried close to the endline with the ball on a couple occasions, on one of them rounding the keeper but being unable to find space or a teammate, and on the other learning from the mistake of waiting around for something to happen (and instead trying to put a cross toward goal that nobody came away with). He created his own opportunities through the high press, laid one off for a good long shot by Reed, and was a pest for Chicago throughout.

Unfortunately, the other end of that striker pairing didn’t have the greatest time (and indeed, I thought Cox was one of few weak links on the day). An early cross from Shroot at one point was left wanting because his striker partner didn’t make a run into the box, and on both the above-mentioned dangerous Shroot forays into the box, support was way too late in coming – if it did at all. He missed a couple opportunities to hit Shroot and Moloto on the run because he didn’t dribble with his head up, and didn’t win physical battles consistently enough. I would chalk it up as a mediocre day, rather than any long-term failings (by any stretch of the imagination), but I’d like to see Mensah get a bit of run as a starting striker before the games count.

Mensah had a nice half hour of action, on one play collecting a nice head-on from partner Humer and playing wide to Alan Winn to set up what should have been a dangerous situation. That was incorrectly (by my estimation after multiple Youtube VARs, he was on by three-plus yards – it wasn’t even close: preseason for the refs too, folks) ruled offsides. Mensah, like Winn, missed what appeared to be an open net, though his was blocked by a sliding defender, rather than simply flubbed. He also had a bad pass or two, but nothing particularly concerning.

Hume won some aerial battles – in the non-shocker of the century – but his most notable play was a bad one. Akinyode intercepted a pass well up the field and played square to Hume, who tried to step over the ball and get it on his right foot (allowing a defender to arrive), whereas trapping it and keeping the ball on the left side of his body would have had him in acres of space alone. He also hilariously fell down on the Galvão-to-Winn goal that wasn’t. He was solid otherwise, nothing particularly notable.

Overall

This wasn’t a full-strength Chicago Fire team at any point, but they played a former Germany captain (no, he isn’t the Bastian Schweinsteiger of Bayern Munich or Man U, but he’s still Bastian Schweinsteiger) and the reigning MLS Golden Boot winner, and at no point outside of a couple pretty long shots did the Fire look a threat to score.

In fact, before Schweinsteiger and Nikolić came on at halftime (and at times after), I would be comfortable saying that NSC was the better side. That certainly wouldn’t happen with consistency over the course of an entire season, but playing man-for-man level with a good MLS side is an encouraging sign for USL play.

Whereas the offensive difficulty against Atlanta came from an inability to generate many chances in the first place, there were opportunities against Chicago. NSC just didn’t have the poise to finish any of them on this day. It remains to be seen if this game was the outlier in terms of building into the offensive third, but I’d suspect the lower caliber of finishing is indeed going to prove to be an anomaly.

Going forward, a couple things I’m still looking to see…

How does NSC get Winn on the field?

Can Mensah work his way into the starting lineup and prove a dangerous option?

How will the central defense shake out?

On that note, are we going to continue seeing multiple formations in each outing or is the 5-3-2 going to be dialed in?

Can the connecting in the final third and finishing come together at the same time?

Certainly we have partial answers to some of those, and more questions will crop up in the friendlies going forward.