The MLS match of the weekend kicks off tonight at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois, where the Chicago Fire play host to the Seattle Sounders.
The Sounders will be looking to win their first game on grass this year, having lost their only other match on grass to Chivas USA. The Fire comes in unbeaten, but has been dropping points by settling for ties in matches it has been favored in.
There are marquee match-ups galore in this one and we should expect a fast-paced and exciting match. We will be providing live commentary throughout the match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, if you are watching the match, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the match (Commentary is after the jump):
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FINAL– The Sounders fans at Toyota Park will have something to celebrate in Chicago tonight. The Fire will come away very disappointed to have not gotten three points tonight.
That's all for tonight. Thanks for following along. Feel free to share your post-game thoughts below.
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FINAL- Fire 1, Sounders 1. Seattle showed great poise to not only gain a point, but to do so down a man. Tyrone Marshall and Cuauhtemoc Blanco were the class of the game today.
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94th minute– Rolfe and Riley have words. Some bad blood there. Both get yellows. Remnants of the old Fire-Revs rivalry?
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93rd minute– Fire keeping putting pressure on but can't crack the Seattle defense.
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92nd minute– Nyarko caught offside for about the fourth or fifth time tonight.
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91st minute– Four minutes of stoppage time.
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90th minute– Fire corner
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90th minute– Fire corner for Blanco. It comes to nothing.
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89th minute– Fire keeps pushing.
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88th minute– Blanco shanks a shot and the Sounders color guy laughs out loud. He's getting a lot of joy out of Blanco's few errors tonight.
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87th minute– Chicago keeps pressure on, but still no dangerous chances here.
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85th minute– Blanco earns a corner kick.
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85th minute– Blanco wastes another free kick. Here comes Seattle.
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81st minute– Stephen King comes on for Ljungberg. King was a Fire player to start his career so it's a bit of a reunion. Pappa has also left the match. Banner replaced him.
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79th minute– Fire with a dangerous ball in but nobody can get a head or foot on it.
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76th minute– A real international flavor tonight. We've got the following countries represented on the field: USA, Colombia, Jamaica, Cuba, France, Costa Rica, Mali, Guatemala, Mexico, Ghana and Sweden. Not bad.
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75th minute– LeToux drew that corner, Ljungberg with the great corner, and some terrible marking by the Fire.
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74th minute- GOAL SOUNDERS!!!!! Tyrone Marshall gets his foot on a corner kick. He's all alone in the ara and the ball lands at his feet, he kicks it past Busch for the equalizer. Sounders 1, Fire 1.
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71st minute– Blanco, on the goal, dribbled into the right side of the area, he turned around and laid a pass off to Pappa, who got a free look for a left-footed shot from 18. Osvaldo Alonso got caught cheating a bit and arrived late to Pappa.
Brandon Prideaux is on for Segares.
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69th minute– That was the first MLS goal conceded by Kasey Keller.
Segares is hurt and getting treatment.
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68th minute- GOAL FIRE!!!!! And it's Marco Pappa off a great pass from Blanco, who sets up Pappa with a clear look from 18. FIRE 1, Sounders 0.
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67th minute– Blanco backheel-DRINK.
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66th minute– Rolfe is on the field for a matter of seconds and was already making things happen.
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65th minute– Chris Rolfe comes in for Thorrington. Good sub by Hamlett (and not just because I suggested it).
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64th minute– Blanco sends a hard free kick in from the wing but Seattle clears it out, Thorrington's follow-up shot is way wide.
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62nd minute– Chicago absolutely need a win here tonight. If they wind up with a tie or loss here they will have to be pretty disappointed considering how much of the game they've controlled.
Fire free kick from the left flank.
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59th minute– Seattle has had the better of the play since the red card, just like it did vs. KC. Unfortunately, the Sounders wound up losing that game.
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59th minute– Probably time for an attacking sub from Chicago. Rolfe for Thorrington wouldn't be bad.
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56th minute– And there's LeToux coming in for Zakuani. I don't think the rookie was happy about that one, but he had been largely invisible (save for some flashes) so he should probably relax. LeToux is a high energy guy who can also defend better than Zakuani.
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54th minute– Soumare gets the yellow for running into Keller.
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52nd minute– Look for Conde to move forward more. It should be noted that Seattle played very well a man down vs. Kansas City, but the Sounders also had Fredy Montero on the field for that stretch.
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51st minute– The man advantage won't matter unless Chicago can take advantage of sending an extra player into the attack.
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50th minute– Watching the play live it looked like a bad call, but on the replay Montero's elbow is stretched out a bit, so it looked like he was trying to catch Segares. That's how the ref saw it.
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48th minute- RED CARD to Freddy Montero!!!!! Montero caught Gonzalo Segares with an elbow when they went up for a high ball. It looked a bit intentional.
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47th minute– Seattle sends a free kick in but it's unsuccessful.
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46th minute- We are back and no subs for either team.
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HALFTIME– Chicago has been the first team all season to make Kasey Keller move around a lot. It's easy to forget just how much slower he is now. He's still a very good goalkeeper, but he has his weaknesses and Chicago will look to exploit them.
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HALFTIME– Nice to see some Sounders fans making the road trip to Chicago. Then again, it's Chicago. I go there every chance I get.
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HALFTIME– Apologies for the lack of first-half drinking games. Blanco back-heels would certainly have been one. That and Nate Jaqua errant headers.
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HALFTIME– A few thoughts. Chicago is NOT packing numbers back. The Fire has its back-line and two defensive midfielders and is generating more than enough attack with its foursome of Blanco-McBride-Pappa and Nyarko. Ward has done well to overlap. Seattle can't get through the Pause-Thorrington central midfield and Conde-Soumare central defense tandem. That foursome has been a brick wall.
What can Seattle do differently? This would be a good game for Sebastian LeToux to come in and provide a spark. Nyassi as well.
What about Chicago? I haven't been impressed with Pappa in the first half so Rolfe for Pappa is a sub that should probably happen at some point.
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HALFTIME– Fire dominate but score no goals. Seattle didn't do much but will be happy to go in tied.
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45th minute– Pappa hasn't been the sharpest for the Fire tonight.
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43rd minute– Not a great game from Sturgis at left back for Seattle, but Hurtado and Marshall have cleaned up most of the messes.
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41st minute– A beautiful passing sequence by the Fire but Blanco's shot is soft. It was a, dare I say, Barcelona-like build-up.
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39th minute– Nyarko with a DANGEROUS cross in but McBride can't get onto the low ball in.
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38th minute– Seattle looks to be settling down and getting into the attack much more. Zakuani has shown some early flashes.
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37th minute– Chicago clears the free kick away.
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36th minute– Seattle with a free kick from the left wing
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33rd minute– The Blanco-Alonso battle hasn't really transpired because Blanco is spending much of his time attacking from the flanks. Alonso needs to find him though.
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32nd minute– Zakuani sends a dangerous ball in but nobody gets to it. Not a bad look from the rookie.
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31st minute– Credit to Chicago for applying heavy pressure on the ball and not letting the SOunders get comfortable.
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27th minute– Seattle needs to get the ball to Ljungberg and Montero but Alonso and the back-line hasn't done enough to gain possession.
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28th minute– Not sure what has gotten into Blanco tonight but he's attacking from a variety of positions.
Seattle is weathering this storm pretty well.
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24th minute– Freddy Montero has been VERY quiet early on. It has more to do with the midfield not providing service than his own struggles.
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20th minute– NYARKO OFF THE POST!!! Great volley from Nyarko that hits the left post. Seattle got lucky that time.
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19th minute– Zakuani, Alonso and Evans need to get more of the ball. They have been invisible early.
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18th minute– Blanco with another great move, toasting Riley, draws a corner.
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15th minute– Great build-up from Blanco, but Nyarko is waived offside. Alonso is giving Blanco WAY too much respect. Alonso usually has four fouls in a game by now, but he's laying off Blanco. Could he be worried that Blanco gave the ref a nice gift before the match?
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15th minute– Don't you love soccer in HD? Everything looks so good and Blanco looks even slower.
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14th minute– If you are following the commentary let me know in the comments section.
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12th minute– Blanco with a nifty back-heel to set up Pappa but Pappa sends the shot way high. Blanco's very involved early on.
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11th minute– Not sure I've seen Seattle absorb this much pressure since the first half of the KC match. Where's the Sounders midfield?
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10th minute– FIRE with a chance but Keller beats Nyarko to a dangerous ball. Chicago looks good early.
Pappa with a dangerous ball into the area. Chicago is all over Seattle
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8th minute– Here is what the Fire's lineup is looking like:
——————–McBride————————
———————Blanco————————
Pappa—————————————-Nyarko
———-Pause———Thorrington—————
Segares—Conde——-Soumare———Ward
——————-Busch————————–
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7th minute– The Fire's formation is looking more like a 4-5-1. They've had more of the ball early. Seattle with a little foray into the area but no chance comes of it.
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6th minute– Hamlett wanted heavy pressure on Keller. Here's what he had to say before the match:
"For us the mindset from the get go is to put him under pressure. We got to get balls across the goal, driven balls hard, hard crosses, you got to shoot and you just got to keep him on his toes. You can't not test him because he's too good of a keeper that if he goes 10-20 mins without anything he's gonna come up with the big save so its got to be a constant peppering so you can get one past him."
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4th minute– Fire with the early pressure. Before the match, Fire head coach Denis Hamlett said he wanted his team all over Seattle early on. Looks like they're following instructions.
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3rd minute– Not sure who Seattle's color commentator is but he managed to say "us" and "we" five times in the first two minutes. Hello MUTE button.
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2nd minute– We are underway and the Fire with a free kick early but it goes nowhere.
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PRE-GAME– Here is the Sounders formation:
————-Montero——-Jaqua—————-
———————Ljungberg————————
Zakuani————————————-Evans
———————-Alonso————————
Sturgis——Hurtado—Marshall———Riley
———————-Keller————————–
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PRE-GAME– Wow, talk about a sparse crowd at Toyota Park. That's pretty bad when two of the best teams in the league can't draw a good crowd. The Fire front office isn't winning many awards this year.
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PRE-GAME– Here is the Fire's formation:
————-McBride——-Nyarko—————-
———————Blanco————————
Pappa———————————-Thorrington
——————–Pause————————
Segares—Conde——-Soumare———Ward
——————-Busch————————–
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PRE-GAME– No surprises in the starting lineup for either side. Sturgis keeps his hold on the left back spot for Seattle. Steve Zakuani with another deserved start. Still no Chris Rolfe for the Fire. Justin Mapp is also not in the lineup.
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PRE-GAME– Here are the starting lineups, courtesy of SBI correspondent Sam Stejskal, who is at Toyota Park:
Seattle:
18- Kasey Keller – GK – Captain
7- James Riley – DEF
34- Jhon Kennedy Hurtado – DEF
14- Tyrone Marshall – DEF
12- Nathan Sturgis – DEF
3- Brad Evans – MID
6- Osvaldo Alonso – MID
10- Freddie Ljungberg – MID
11- Steve Zakuani – MID
17- Fredy Montero – FWD
21- Nate Jaqua – FWD
Chicago:
1- Jon Busch – GK
5- Tim Ward – DEF
22- Wilman Conde – DEF
4- Bakary Soumare – DEF
25- Gonzalo Segares – DEF
11- John Thorrington – MID
10- Cuauhtemoc Blanco – MID
7- Logan Pause – MID
16- Marco Pappa- MID
20- Brian McBride – FWD – Captain
14- Patrick Nyarko – FWD
Cliff McGrath did a good job as color commentator. He was very accurate about Blanco, the good and the bad. He was honest and not a homer in his analysis of the Sounders. And he nailed the changes Sigi had to make. I believe that those who disliked him are addicted to network cheerleaders.
Oh Seattle fans, comeback in 12-10 years before you complain about Chicago’s or anyone else’s attendance. If it was so easy to sell out stadiums for a decade or more, more cities would be doing it.
Anyway, I had 4 season ticket holders just give me their tickets. Because they were watching the hawks, bulls, sox and manny/hatton tonight. I’m sure casual fans we’re even more reticent.
regarding attendance, it’s a large city that attracts new residents who aren’t born as Chicago sports fans, yet become fans of the teams through marketing, word-of-mouth, being residents, etc.
There’s no reason that the Fire can’t latch on and snatch up 20k of them
regarding the game, we were lucky to escape with a point, but also showed great maturity and resolve to come back down a goal and down a man.
why didn’t the fire have a guy on the far post for the corner? seems strange. he would have been in the right spot
Quit bitching about the referee. He did a fine job — was not a factor at all. Contact above the shoulder is a major point of emphasis in the league this year and Montero was stupid for leading with the elbow. The ref would be hammered by his assessors if he didn’t give the straight red card for that.
Otherwise the match flowed. Nobody pays money to watch a ref blow his whistle every three seconds. Let them play.
PS I don’t care what the Chicago fans say. In a city with a population of 9.5 million-plus, it’s a joke that they can’t get more than 10k out for the game. The club ought to be embarrassed — especially when you consider Chicago is home turf of the US Soccer Federation. Shameful.
Chicago looked to be the better side for most of this match. I’m happy coming home with the point.
I’m excited to see Jaqua and Le Toux up front next match. Montero has not convinced me much recently and Le Toux’s hungry.