Michael de Leeuw gives Fire ‘another dimension'

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Michael de Leeuw hasn’t taken long to show he was worth the attention paid to him when the Chicago Fire acquired him this season.

The 29-year-old Dutch forward scored his second goal in four appearances with the Fire in the team’s 3-0 win against the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers on Wednesday.

The goal was almost entirely made by David Accam. The Ghanaian winger dribbled from midfield and rounded the goalkeeper before making a centering pass to de Leeuw to tap into an open net.

Other than Accam’s highlight-worthy moves on the ball, what stands out about the goal is what de Leeuw did off the ball. He read the play correctly and put himself in position for that easy finish.

“He’s a different type of player,” Accam said. “He’s like a box striker, a typical striker and that’s what we lacked all season and he’s contributing a lot to this team.”

In de Leeuw’s four games with the Fire, three of which have been starts, he has registered only two shots on target. Both of those have been close-range goals.

“I don’t think he has scored a difficult goal this season, but for me that’s a good striker,” Accam said. “He was in a good place. Most people will not be there.”

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It appears from his first few appearances with the Fire that de Leeuw is not a striker who is going to create his own shot by beating a defender or two. That’s what Accam did on that play and what Kennedy Igboananike has done on most of his four goals this season.

The key for the Fire is getting de Leeuw and Accam on the same page so they can complement each other like they did on Wednesday. For now, de Leeuw is learning what he has to do when Accam has the ball.

“Keep up, keep up with him,” de Leeuw said. “You know he’s fast. You know when he’s got the ball he goes for it. He’s like Usain Bolt. But you know you have to be prepared for the rebound. That’s what I’m doing. He made a shot and just be there for the rebound.”

Before de Leeuw’s arrival, the Fire clearly were a team looking to play on the counter to utilize the speed of Accam and Igboananike. That came at the detriment of the Fire’s ability to keep possession of the ball.

What de Leeuw gives the team is another way to attack. His hold up play means the Fire can retain the ball more easily and build up more deliberately as opposed to frequently having midfielders look for a sprinting Accam whenever they get a bit of time on the ball.

“I think it’s an outlet,” midfielder Matt Polster said. “We don’t always have to look in behind for David and try to counter. I think we have now have another dimension to our game. We can look in behind and break or we can try to combine with Michael so I think it just gives us another little bit of something for the other team to be worried about.”

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