Well, I have returned from my vacation out west only to discover that I have Lyme's Disease! I went to urgent care yesterday, and they found an irregularity with my heart enzymes. I was sent by ambulance to the Hospital. They did EKGs, Heart Ultrasound and Heart Catheter (which was pretty cool to watch). Fortunately, all came back clear and I neither had a heart attack nor was there any damage to my heart. I still have Lyme's Disease, which sucks. Goddamn ticks (probably picked up right before we left for vacation). I was release about 2 hours ago and arrived home a little while ago. We simply CANNOT avoid having a game day thread, even if I am editing as they are kicking off the game. As for the game, the Fire are chasing a playoff slot, Charlotte is 7th in the East. Look at those good Polish players...for Charlotte!
How did they not call a foul on the elbow to Torres’ face?!? Anyway we win this game 3-1. Charlotte sucks. Goals from three different players tonight, we’ll say Kacpar, Torres, and Shaq from the penalty spot.
The "Great" (fire legend) Brandt Bronico is in the starting line up! I watched a very interesting documentary this morning (while in the hospital) about Charlotte FC midfielder Chris Hegart, not in the line-up tonight. He was a "good" player at 7 years old. In a game, an opponent kicked the ball and smacked him in the abdomen. He went down, got up, threw up a bit and then continued to play. His dad took him the hospital and they discovered internal bleeding. They also discovered that he had an extraordinarily rare form of liver cancer. Intensive chemotherapy and a liver transplant at age 8. While in the hospital, Sacha Kljestan (then with Chivas) stopped to see him and give him a jersey. He recovered, played youth soccer, signed with Seattle Sounders academy, and went to college to play at Georgetown. In December, 2021, he was picked up by Charlotte and played in Charlotte's first home game (in front of 75,000), playing against LAG...with Sacha Kljestan. Before the game, Hegart's mom sees Kljestan and says "You don't remember me, but 12 or so years ago, you visited my son in the hospital when he had liver cancer." Kljestan said he remembered that. Mom says, "...and he is playing against you tomorrow." After the match, Hegart and Kljestan exchanged jersey and the mic picked up Kljestan saying, "Hey, yesterday, you mom came to see me..." It was a great story.
Click to see the video of the goal (21st minute of the game, the video is only like 45 seconds) https://www.mlssoccer.com/competitions/mls-regular-season/2022/matches/cltvschi-08-06-2022/feed
We’re presently in 6th place due to NYFC scoring vs. da Krew. If Orlando loses, we jump them to 5th place.
Torres is much better two way player than I expected. I noticed last week as well that he’s usually one of the first midfielders back on defense and has been disruptive more than a few times. Still waiting to see some more offensive contributions from him but encouraging to see he plays both sides of the field.