In many ways, the Chicago Fire weren’t their best selves Saturday afternoon in Toyota Park. They didn’t start the game passing straight through an opposition high press, as they did two weeks ago against FC Dallas. They didn’t string together mesmerizing pass-and-move sequences in midfield, as they’d done against Colorado. They didn’t ruthlessly snuff out anything resembling an opposition attack, as they’d done against DC United.
No, tonight’s Fire - bereft of their captain Dax McCarty, and seeming a half-step slow in the first real heat of the summer - didn’t dazzle, and didn’t dominate.