By Aug. 20 of a normal MLS season, Chicago Fire head coach Raphael Wicky and his team would be closing in on 30 matches played together.
When they take the field in Columbus on Thursday night to resume the regular season against Crew SC (6:30 p.m. CT | WGN-TV, ESPN+, TUDN WRTO AM 1200), it will instead be just their sixth.
With an opportunity to at last get a consistent run of matches together during the six games of Major League Soccer's phase one return to play schedule, Wicky expects points and progress.
“We are going there to win,” he told media on Tuesday. “We are going into every game to win and make points, but I want to keep seeing progress from the team. For us, we are still figuring out these players. We are trying to still find the best way to play, where these new players who we have seen - some of them two, three times in Orlando, some of them once - we had no friendlies to test other things.”
While in Orlando at the MLS is Back Tournament, it was Wicky and his staff’s first opportunity to get extended looks at 2020 newcomers like Gastón Giménez, Miguel Navarro, Boris Sekulić, and Ignacio Aliseda, each of whom arrived in Chicago days prior to the league’s COVID-19 suspension in March.
With lessons learned from their three tournament matches and with the three weeks of training in Chicago that have since followed, Wicky is hoping to continue honing in on the positive developments he’s seen from his group so far.
“We want to see what's the best position, what's the best way to play with them,” he said. “So, I want to see an improvement from that side and I want to see a continuation of what we have done. Again, as I said about the Orlando tournament, we did a lot of things well, but we have to be better defensively in those crucial moments. We didn't give up a lot of chances in Orlando on target at all. We gave up six shots on target, and we conceded five goals in the whole tournament.”
Of little concern ahead of Thursday night is his team’s chemistry. Despite the unique challenges his debut season in Chicago has presented, Wicky has kept team unity at the forefront.
“I saw this in every game that we were a team since January, February - I saw a team working together offensively, defensively, everyone runs in a structure; I want to keep seeing that,” he said. “I’m 100 percent sure if we keep doing that and improve in the final third, getting sharper there, our results will come. I'm 100 percent convinced of that.”
Crew SC represents a unique challenge on Thursday. Currently the league leaders in points (13), head coach Caleb Porter’s side is unbeaten through five regular season matches (4-0-1), and is coming out of an impressive showing at the MLS is Back Tournament.
“I think the Crew, they are a favorite in this game,” Wicky said. “We are going in with nothing to lose. They had a good start of the season and they had a good tournament.”
Columbus swept Group E with wins over FC Cincinnati, New York Red Bulls, and Atlanta United, and did so without allowing a goal scored. Minnesota United then took them to penalty kicks in the Round of 16, where they were eliminated 5-3 after finishing regulation level at 1-1.
“They are a possession-orientated team and have some good players in the build up,” Wicky said. “We have to make it hard for them. We have to make it hard for them as well, and more than everything else, we have to play our game. We are a good team as well. We have good players. We have to play our game so that they have to chase us more.”
The challenge of playing Columbus aside, Thursday’s match kicks off a stretch of six matches in 24 days that will continue to test the development of Fire roster. In a season that’s been anything but regular, Wicky’s keeping his focus forward.
“This is a weird year for everyone,” he said. “You're not really getting into your rhythm. We spoke about that, but we are just excited that we know what goes on and we know our schedule for at least six games. We know it's going to be game after game, and sometimes you have like four or five days. Sometimes you only have two-and-a-half, three days' recovery.”
“We know it's going to go fast in the next two and a half, three weeks,” he added. “So, we are excited about that and I think the guys are ready. The guys trained hard in the last three weeks. They are ready. They want to play. That's positive.”
