The red-hot Chicago Fire will look to maintain its status as the best team in MLS by beating D.C. United tonight at Toyota Park (8:30 p.m., FSC).
These teams met a month ago at RFK Stadium and the Fire dominated the action, beating D.C. United in their own stadium, 2-0, back on May 8. D.C. is playing a little better than they were back then, but still haven’t found the type of form expected of them before the season.
Chicago is coming off a bye week and should be rested, but the concern will be whether the Fire can step up their form at home, which hasn’t been as good as their road form this season.
If you will be watching the match, and will be online, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play by play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the match.
1. Emilio seems to be getting his mojo back. That’s bad news for the rest of the league.
2. It will be interesting to see who isn’t on the field for the Red Bulls-United match. Given the various ailments by Reyna, Angel, etc. and ejections to Namoff and Gallardo…both teams might field some “interesting” sides (United especially).
3. Outstanding shot-stopping by Busch until that last extra-time goal by Emilio.
4. I also thought that Chicago’s defense (which has looked extremely impressive to this point of the season) was pedestrian.
Here’s a theory about chicago (that perhaps also explains their great road record and “meh” home record). As a team they like to defend in depth, let Blanco do whatever he wants and consistently attack with 4 players (and then guys like Rolfe will drop back and even Barrett works hard). As a result, they’re a really tough team on the road because they don’t need to push numbers forward in order to score and Blanco exploits space so well. But at home, there is more pressure to go forward. And a Chicago defense that looks tough when playing with numbers and not a lot of space suddenly isn’t as impressive. That’s just a theory but it’s one born out by how this game played out (where United had the better of play in my book).
It’s official: We’re back. Have fun losing to us next week NYers.
VAMOS UNITED!
Clearly the way to beat the Fire is to physically beat them up. Houston did it and now DC.
That was not the Chicago Fire I know that I saw on the field.
The defense was shaky at best. We gave too much room to d.c. and we paid the price.
Two defensive lapses cost us the game.
If it wasn’t for Busch we would have lost 6-1.
Questionable subs by Hamlett but hey the game is now over and the Fire have an US Open Cup game against columbus on Tuesday.
I am and forever will I be….
FIRE TILL I DIE!!!!
I’m still waiting for the commentators to admit that half the time Blanco’s writhing on the pitch, he’s totally full of crap.
I had to walk away for a while.
1. I just needed a break from the games after the crap in Columbus and Gallardo getting hosed in Chicago. I was going to get Ives mad at me for all the profanity I was about to start with.
2. I needed to get my stuff ready for my Sunday morning pickup game before I forgot and was scrambling around at the last minute in the morning worrying about it.
Glad that DC came back to win.
Angry that MLS refs can’t control a game worth a crap.
Embarrassed that any Europeans might’ve been watching this weekend – tho I’m hoping they were all distracted by Euro 2008.
I watched RSL-LA for a few minutes, but the color balance was waaaaaay off – it was like it was being filmed by a 1980s music video director, and I turned it off rather than kill my eyes.
And I think the Mexican team had hit a rut with Mexican coaches, but the diff btw them and us is that they have more of an identity already established…