Technical Difficulties: Chicago Fire 2, Tulsa Roughnecks 1, preseason game recap

Chicago Fire 2 Nikolic 69’, Collier 78’

Tulsa Roughnecks 1 Pirez 16’

Here’s the executive summary: the Fire won a close game against their USL affiliate, and by all accounts didn’t look particularly convincing en route to their 2-1 victory. Yaaaaaay.

Slightly longer version:

In what is totally not a sign of ongoing sporting and operational deficiencies to come this year, the Chicago Fire announced 1 hour and 40 minutes before kickoff that there would be no livestream after all.

Coooooooool.

Unlike last weekend’s “shadows on the wall” thought experiment, we have a lot of evidence that today’s game actually did happen.

(Our own Adnan Bašić was also in attendance. So, we’ve got a good line on this one.)

From what we can glean: the Fire went down 1-0 early, with Jhon Pirez capitalizing on a huge mistake by Stefan Cleveland. The scoreline stayed that way through the rest of the first half and a good chunk of the second, with the Fire looking decisively meh through much of the game.

They were spared a loss thanks to a tap-in from Nemanja Nikolic, making good on a rebound attempt following a meaty shot from Bastian Schweinsteiger.

And the winning goal came thanks to SuperDraft pick Elliot Collier, who pounced on a bad backpass and made it count.

Other than the result and the uninspired performance, the big takeaway from this game was the teamsheet.

There’s a non-zero chance that this is the Starting XI for Sporting KC next week. And if today’s friendly against a USL team is any indication, you’re probably justified in being a little worried about this season.

We’re at the point in a Great British Bake Off challenge when the judges say time’s up but the bakers are still trying to add to their dishes. I’m not sure the Fire are ready to present.