Soccer games are a sort of generic matter, endlessly malleable, prone to contamination. The 90 minutes can be a breathless gallop, or a canny communication-and-positioning contest, or repeated attempts at elusive moments of skill, or all of these and more in various mixtures. No plan survives contact with the enemy.
This match as billed as Zlatan v Basti - two legends, recent teammates, facing off in the New World. But the real enemy today - for both the Chicago Fire and the visiting LA Galaxy - was the weather. The wind that howled over the heads of Section 8 in Harlem End and toward the goal the Men in Red defended in the first half made the sleety drizzle sting, while also making it conspicuously easy to press a team playing into that wind; the effect was to tilt the field conspicuously toward the beer-garden end throughout the match.