There are some feelings around this team that have become all too familiar. One is definitely feeling awful about what is objectively a decent result. Getting a point against the best team in the league? Great! Feeling like I wanted to die the whole time? Not so great!

Anyway, here are some takeaways from the goalless draw in LA.

Our Attacking Talent Is Being Wasted

I didn’t really expect Chicago to get a win here. A draw is perfectly fine by me.

A goalless draw, however, gets my goat.

Forget the points haul from this road trip for a moment (although, let’s be clear, one point from a possible nine isn’t great!). The Fire were shut out in all three games. With the forward line we have— led by the 2017 MLS Golden Boot winner— that is simply unacceptable. Maybe everyone’s going through dry spells at the same time, but I don’t think it’s that. This smells like a coaching problem.

Our Defending Is Still Awful

Sure, yes, LAFC have some of the strongest attackers in the league. That’s no excuse for the kind of shoddy defending the Fire displayed all night.

Chicago managed to survive LAFC’s pressure— barely. But there were too many close calls, too many goalline clearances, too many times where David Ousted had to play hero, too many times where we benefited from sheer dumb luck.

And that’s what it all boils down to— we got lucky. I’ll take the point all day long, but... goddamn.

For The Love Of God PLEASE Stop Sticking Wingers At Fullback

Unpopular opinion time!

Maybe this is just me being grumpy after following WoSo and seeing promising attacking players get misused, but I have just about had it with wingers being deployed as fullbacks.

Attacking fullbacks are great. The Fire ran roughshod over the league in 2017 because we had a pair of fullbacks who liked to bomb forward and exert pressure on opposition defenders. (Gee, I wonder what those two are up to?) But good attacking fullbacks are, first and foremost, defenders.

Przemysław Frankowski did a good job as a right back on Saturday night. Enough that a number of people hailed him as their MOTM. Heck, he’s a big reason why we got out of LA with a point.

But the fact remains that he never should’ve been played there to begin with.

The problem, of course, is that fixing this problem means bringing in adequate personnel. Maybe Francisco Calvo will help solve our fullback problem. Maybe he won’t. Regardless, Frankowski is one of our more promising attacking players at the moment, and we need goals. Sticking him on the backline is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

What were your takeaways from the game? Let us know in the comments!