Chicago Fire vs Villa

[jembob]

Just watched the highlights on AVTV and we played some nice stuff. Good to hear Delph being so positive in his post match interview and particulalry his quote saying that the team are set up to pass the ball and to play it out of defence.
We've got some talent in that squad and I'm really looking foward to seeing what PL is going to do with it.

[Pete3206]

We're Aston and we play in purple.

Fire Game Day: Aston leads 1-0 at halftime
For enthusiastic fans of Aston Villa, Saturday's international friendly with the Fire was a good excuse to make a road trip.

The game drew dozens of purple-clad fans to Chicago, some making the 3,800-mile flight from Birmingham, England while expatriates living in the United States opted for a drive.
Wherever their home, fans of the Birmingham-based team were delighted as Aston Villa opened a 1-0 halftime lead over the Fire before an estimated 11,000 fans at Toyota Park.

Aston broke a scoreless tie in the 29th minute when striker Gabriel Agbonlahor alertly headed a six-yard shot past Fire goalie Jay Nolly following a feed from teammate Chris Herd.

Downers Grove native Eric Lichaj started for Aston Villa while the Fire presented a mix of reserves and regulars. Nolly was in the nets for his first start with the Fire first team. Orr Barouch also also got a rare start at forward.

Based in Birmingham, England, Aston Villa was founded in 1874 and has won 19 major domestic titles, including seven in the English League and seven FA Cup crowns.

One of the English Premier League's founding members, Aston went 7-14 with 17 draws during the 2011-12 season and narrowly avoided relegation to the Football League Championship level.

But a new manager in Paul Lambert had some Aston Villa fans at Toyota Park feeling optimistic that better days are ahead in the 2012-13 Premier League season.

The tour got off to a good start with last Thursday's 1-0 victory at Philadelphia on a goal by striker Nathan DelFouneso just before half. Aston Villa closes its three-city U.S. tour on Tuesday at Portland.

It's the second straight year an EPL team has visited Chicago. Last July, Manchester United beat the Fire 3-1 at Soldier Field.

In 2008, the Fire beat Everton 2-0 at Toyota Park.

Hi, I'm Troy McClure and this is my match report.

[kipeye]

Cheers Troy-what was the final score after the fourth quarter?

[VILLA MOLE]

We're Aston and we play in purple.

Fire Game Day: Aston leads 1-0 at halftime
For enthusiastic fans of Aston Villa, Saturday's international friendly with the Fire was a good excuse to make a road trip.

The game drew dozens of purple-clad fans to Chicago, some making the 3,800-mile flight from Birmingham, England while expatriates living in the United States opted for a drive.
Wherever their home, fans of the Birmingham-based team were delighted as Aston Villa opened a 1-0 halftime lead over the Fire before an estimated 11,000 fans at Toyota Park.

Aston broke a scoreless tie in the 29th minute when striker Gabriel Agbonlahor alertly headed a six-yard shot past Fire goalie Jay Nolly following a feed from teammate Chris Herd.

Downers Grove native Eric Lichaj started for Aston Villa while the Fire presented a mix of reserves and regulars. Nolly was in the nets for his first start with the Fire first team. Orr Barouch also also got a rare start at forward.

Based in Birmingham, England, Aston Villa was founded in 1874 and has won 19 major domestic titles, including seven in the English League and seven FA Cup crowns.

One of the English Premier League's founding members, Aston went 7-14 with 17 draws during the 2011-12 season and narrowly avoided relegation to the Football League Championship level.

But a new manager in Paul Lambert had some Aston Villa fans at Toyota Park feeling optimistic that better days are ahead in the 2012-13 Premier League season.

The tour got off to a good start with last Thursday's 1-0 victory at Philadelphia on a goal by striker Nathan DelFouneso just before half. Aston Villa closes its three-city U.S. tour on Tuesday at Portland.

It's the second straight year an EPL team has visited Chicago. Last July, Manchester United beat the Fire 3-1 at Soldier Field.

In 2008, the Fire beat Everton 2-0 at Toyota Park.

Hi, I'm Troy McClure and this is my match report.

what else have I seen you in Troy?

[Pete3206]

 

[danlanza]

We're Aston and we play in purple.

Fire Game Day: Aston leads 1-0 at halftime
For enthusiastic fans of Aston Villa, Saturday's international friendly with the Fire was a good excuse to make a road trip.

The game drew dozens of purple-clad fans to Chicago, some making the 3,800-mile flight from Birmingham, England while expatriates living in the United States opted for a drive.
Wherever their home, fans of the Birmingham-based team were delighted as Aston Villa opened a 1-0 halftime lead over the Fire before an estimated 11,000 fans at Toyota Park.

Aston broke a scoreless tie in the 29th minute when striker Gabriel Agbonlahor alertly headed a six-yard shot past Fire goalie Jay Nolly following a feed from teammate Chris Herd.

Downers Grove native Eric Lichaj started for Aston Villa while the Fire presented a mix of reserves and regulars. Nolly was in the nets for his first start with the Fire first team. Orr Barouch also also got a rare start at forward.

Based in Birmingham, England, Aston Villa was founded in 1874 and has won 19 major domestic titles, including seven in the English League and seven FA Cup crowns.

One of the English Premier League's founding members, Aston went 7-14 with 17 draws during the 2011-12 season and narrowly avoided relegation to the Football League Championship level.

But a new manager in Paul Lambert had some Aston Villa fans at Toyota Park feeling optimistic that better days are ahead in the 2012-13 Premier League season.

The tour got off to a good start with last Thursday's 1-0 victory at Philadelphia on a goal by striker Nathan DelFouneso just before half. Aston Villa closes its three-city U.S. tour on Tuesday at Portland.

It's the second straight year an EPL team has visited Chicago. Last July, Manchester United beat the Fire 3-1 at Soldier Field.

In 2008, the Fire beat Everton 2-0 at Toyota Park.

Hi, I'm Troy McClure and this is my match report.

You may have seen me in such films as..............

what else have I seen you in Troy?

[not3bad]

Just watched the highlights on AVTV.  EVen in those few minutes you could see there was some great passages of play between the Villa players.  This is going to be a good season I think!

[pelty]

How did Carruthers look in his limited action?

[Matt C]

How did Carruthers look in his limited action?

The game had gone into a bit of a lull as there were some many substitutes made in a short spell but when Carruthers & Johnson came on they certainly lifted us and looked promising in the brief spell they had.

[Brian Taylor]

Images of Chicago game

[PeterWithesShin]

Caption competition opportunity!

"And I thought the car park Chelsea used to have behind the goal was a strange place for one."

"Proof American women can't park either"

[Chipsticks]

Caption competition opportunity!

"And I thought the car park Chelsea used to have behind the goal was a strange place for one."

"Proof American women can't park either"

"Despite much hard work on the training ground, McLeish's 'park the bus' tactic is still embedded in the player's minds, yet Lambert has managed to at least reduce it to a car."

[Matt Collins]

Just watching the first half of this game. Having read the comments I thought I'd post the following:

- a typical pre season friendly and loath to read too much into it. Fairly slow paced game against a poor side.
- I didn't find it to be the free flowing passing game some comments had led me to believe. But am going to watch the Philly game next.
- tactically, very noticeable that cnz and ireland in particular had a lot of freedom to cut in from their wide positions. At times it was 4231 with gabby left.
- ireland some touches of class but looked a bit rusty
- cnz was better than I'd expected, given the comments. Still frustrating, but also looked dangerous
- I thought delph looked pretty decent actually, although still gets caught when he shouldn't. But he manipulates the ball with adegree of class, opening his body up and playing some good forward passes
- whereas I'm still not really convinced by Gardner. Yes he's young, and he has a great shot on him. But he looks pretty slow to me, with slow feet too. A couple of excellent shots apart, I thought delph was a fair bit better than him.
- gabby was very good, Weimann did little.
- defence untroubled

[Matt Collins]

Now into the second half of this one. Just quickly:
- karim looks very good after coming on. Not sure he's a defensive midfielder though? Could imagine someone like herd playing in there with him. I sometimes think Gardner might be more of a defensive midfielder than an attacking midfielder? He is big and composed, but not sure he has quick enough feet to play further forward
- Collins looks slow!
- I think this is the best of the two us games in terms of our midfield play. Bannan looks very involved, as does karim. Holman looks a clever player and carruthers looks good to me too.

[peter w]

We still winning?