Landon Who?

I'm normally not a fan of Blanco moving up top, Rolfe moving to the right side of the midfield, and John Thorrington pinching in as a two-way central midfielder, but last night I think the Fire executed that formation better than they ever have.

Thorrington and Logan Pause were a collective straightjacket on Landon Donovan throughout the match, while Rolfe was obviously able to get forward and closer to goal. From the opening whistle, Chicago seemed hell-bent on washing the ugly taste of Sunday's embarrassment from their mouths. The passing was crisper, and the defense had appropriate cover for whenever Wilman Conde did something stupid.

Both Luis Arroyave and Ives Galarcep have reinforced this notion that Conde is one of the best defenders in MLS, but it's going to come as no surprise to anyone who reads my liveblogs that I don't even think he's the second-best defender on the Fire, let alone the league. He's athletic and tenacious, yes, but that's not the be-all, end-all of defending. He still commits more dumb fouls than any other defender, and gives the ball away a lot more often. Not everyone notices because everyone around him seems to know when he's going to do something stupid and compensates.

Actually, he's somewhat reminiscent of a young Carlos Bocanegra, who had this annoying tendency of getting beat applying high pressure, but then had the wheels to get back and make the crowd-friendly slide tackle. That's not the worst comparison in the world, but it speaks to the fact that Conde plays an immature game. He's certainly not a lost cause -- I said a lot of similar things about Gonzalo Segares early last season, and Sega has made me eat those words with huge gains in his maturity since then.