What went wrong for the Fire defense in Saturday’s 4-1 loss at Toronto FC? According to center back C.J. Brown, it was more of a matter of what didn’t go wrong.
“It was a very bad day for our back four,” Brown said on Tuesday morning. “The communication wasn’t very good, the organization wasn’t very good, and our 1 v 1 defending wasn’t good.
“It was everything: from us stepping at the wrong time, to not man marking at the right times, and then losing our marks in crucial points. There’s not one thing you can pinpoint.”
Strangely enough, the Chicago back four—which had only conceded six goals in the six games prior to Saturday’s debacle—didn’t start the match too poorly. Toronto only scored once in the opening 45 minutes and that tally—which Nick LaBrocca put in from the right sideline—couldn’t exactly be pinned on the back line.
Rather, it was the second half that saw the performance of the Fire defense dip to appalling levels.
Down a goal at the start of the second frame, the Fire quickly conceded to give Toronto FC a 2-0 lead in the 47th minute. Midfielder Logan Pause gave the Fire hope when he scored on a stunning 30+ yard strike (that was voted Goal of the Week on Wednesday) in the 50th minute, but the Fire back four let the team down again, allowing former Chicago striker Chad Barrett to score in the 66th and 69th.
”We went in the second half with intentions of pushing the game,” said Brown. “[But] when we push it doesn’t mean our back line needs to get involved, we just need to stay tight to marks and I lost that. I don’t know how the other guys felt, but I felt like I had to push and that got me out of sorts and guys were just running behind us. It was just a bad day for the defenders.”
Most of the defense’s struggles appeared to come after Fire head coach Carlos de los Cobos subbed center midfielder Peter Lowry off in favor of forward Collins John, which switched the side from a 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2. However, both Brown and de los Cobos denied the formation change had anything to do with the defense’s poor performance.
“I think this is not the reason,” said de los Cobos, who claimed full responsibility for the back line’s disappointing effort. “I think the problem was we didn’t stay alert and we didn’t play with good concentration in very important moments in the match.”
