Player Ratings: Montreal Impact 2-2 Chicago Fire

In boxing, occasionally a fight will be called tough to score. Doing player ratings for Saturday night’s 2-2 draw between Chicago Fire and Montreal Impact at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey feels much the same way.

There were a lot of fair, but unspectacular performances by the Fire tonight. Maybe fatigue is setting in, or maybe it was playing a team that sits deep as Montreal did, but all in all, it was a meh performance for the Fire.

Robert Beric: 6 – He scored an opportunistic goal in the 15th minute to put the Fire ahead early. He was in position to score a couple of chances if the service was clean. A little quieter in the second half. A solid shift overall.

Ignacio Aliseda: 5 – While not a terrible night for the young, designated player, it was a quiet one. It feels like the flair that Nacho had in his first few games has disappeared a bit and was definitely missing tonight.

Fabian Herbers: 4 – While Fabian has looked great at Soldier Field, away from home is another story. His footprint on the game was minimal. This could be due to the way Montreal plays. With five across the back, it takes away from Fabian’s greatest strength, exploiting holes in the defense. There were not many of them and thus the German struggled tonight.

Djordje Mihailovic: 6 – He intercepted the pass from Diop, which lead to the goal by Beric. He spent more time pushed inside tonight, which had mixed results. The reason why he got a solid mark is two-fold. One, he set up a goal, and the other is Montreal knew he was important and thus he suffered three of the Fire’s seven fouls.

Álvaro Medrán: 5 – While Alvaro was active tonight, he did not have a lot to show for it. His set pieces were decent and his corner was the assist on Calvo’s equalizer in the 73rd minute. However, part of that was Montreal’s decision to sit so deep.

Gastón Giménez: 6 – It was really a standard performance for the Chicago Fire’s central midfielder. He had a total of six unsuccessful passes, four of which were on set pieces. He took a shot at goal of the year in the 51st minute, but he launched it well over the bar. His absence on international duty over the next month will be huge.

Miguel Ángel Navarro: 4 – It made sense to start the 21-year-old with national team duty upcoming. He definitely did not make the most of it. He was beaten one-v-one, which led to the fluky deflection by him on Brault-Gillard’s cross leading to Urruti’s goal. While the deflection was unfortunate, the defense was lacking.

Francisco Calvo: 7 – After several lean games in “MLS is drunk” and the first few games in the MLS return, the Fire’s captain has found his form with the new squad. He took advantage of a free header and Clement Diop going walkabout on a corner kick in the 73rd minute, and brought the Fire level. He had several clear clearances and was positioned well evening.

Mauricio Pineda: 5 – He was closest to the ball after Shuttleworth spilled Bojan’s shot, allowing Lappalaninen to step in and bring Montreal level in the 21st minute. He was also marking Urruti on his goal, but on that goal, his positioning was sound. Urruti was just able to deflect the ball enough to put the Impact ahead. But, all in all, a fair performance for the Fire rookie.

Boris Sekulic: 4 –Boris was nearly spun into the ground by Bojan prior to Bojan’s shot, which was ultimately spilled by Shuttleworth. As a starting defender, he needs to be better there. He did well early getting forward, especially early on in the game, but was unable to get anything out of it.

Bobby Shuttleworth: 5 – He made six saves during the game—three of them brilliant—helping the Fire secure the point on the road. However, it was his spillage on a shot from Bojan that allowed Lappalainen to score.

Jonathan Bornstein: 5 – Johnny B came in the 72nd minute to make sure the Fire stayed in the game and he did his job. He wasn’t very involved overall but had one interception and provided a bit of stability in the Fire’s back four helping them to defense to see the game out.

C.J. Sapong: 4 – He is credited with one clearance and appeared to be offside on at least one occasion with the Fire trying get back in the game.

Elliot Collier: 4 – Whether you call him the Kiwian Crouch or Kiwinho, this was largely a forgotten performance. He was only able to complete one of four passes and had no shots. He really needs to do better at being a weapon on set pieces and crosses.