Admittedly, it’s very early. Very early. But this Chicago Fire team just feels different, doesn’t it?
Saturday’s 2-0 erasure of a battered Real Salt Lake side wasn’t a dominating performance in any statistical category, either considered by itself or within a history of Fire home openers. Hamstrung by frigid conditions and a scrappy foe, the Men in Red didn’t string together passes until olés rang down, or construct incisive counterattacks through virtuoso acts of touch and power, or even consistently win the battle of wills that largely determines the game’s disposition when control is in dispute.