PBP: Fire entire Charlotte's Webb 5/17/25 6:30 pm Apple TV

The Fire hopefully took the rest they had this week, being one of the few teams not to play a midweek match this week and became a bit healthier.

The Fire have responded from their humiliation at the hands and feet of Nashville by going three matches unbeaten.

First, was the fortunately dull 0-0 draw against Orlando.

Then, the Fire dominated an outmatched Detroit City team in the US Open Cup.

Now, after last week's 2-1 bitch slapping of the heathens from Atlanta,

The Fire take another team from "Dixie" (fourth straight in MLS Play) in Charlotte with the unfortunate shortened version of "CLT"

Venturing into the South is always a scary proposition, but the "Queen City" (bizarrely named after the wife of King George III, yep, the same King who's ass we kicked in the Revolutionary War. Odd they did not change the names of the cities named after "the enemy" (at the time) after Independence) is not nearly as bad as Atlanta or Houston or Dallas, I guess.

For the season, Charlotte have been "okay" with 19 points from 13 matches and have been quite good at home with 15 points from 6 matches (5 wins, 1 defeat).

Currently, they sit in 7th in the East. Charlotte are on 19 points, NYRB and NYC are on 18, NER are on 17 and the Fire are on 16 points.

That changes Saturday night.
The Fire will win and will jump into a tie with Charlotte and WHEN the Fire win by more than 6 goals (it could happen, something stupid will inevitably happen, why can't it be something stupid to the very, very good for the "men in red" or white/light blue?), the Fire will leapfrog Charlotte (of course, a bunch of other teams could, as well)

Charlotte are coached by veteran sucky English coach Dean Smith, who has been in charge of such luminous teams as Walsall, Brentford, Aston Villa, Norwich, and Leicester City, so he has some EPL (which sucks) coaching experience, helping Aston Villa earn promotion back to the EPL (which sucks) after a year in the Championship, which is not really a "championship," but a second division, but such is the idiocy of how football leagues are named around the world.

Charlotte have former Cystal Palace and Man U striker Wilifred Zaha as their primary DP, on loan from Galatasaray.
Their other DP is Israeli winger Liel Abada, who Charlotte bought from Celtic.
Attacking midfielder Pep Biel helps spearhead the attack.
37 year old Tim Ream, inexplicably still a starter for the USMNT, anchors the defense.
Also, the largely useless Brandt Bronico is still managing to draw a decent salary from Charlotte after being a Chicago Fire castoff. He has managed to be a contributor there for the better part of four years.
Charlotte did dump Polish international striker Karol Świderski after the season, after sending him out on loan for much of last year, managing to squeeze a couple of million out of Panathinaikos.

Beyond that, I don't have much to say about their players, as they are most nobodies.

All time, the Fire have a TERRIBLE record against the team with one of the stupidest nicknames in football.
"The Crown" is just ridiculous. Note, it is singular and not plural.
Might as well just call them the "wristwatch" or the "calculator." Stupid, stupid, stupid

The Fire have been terrible versus "The Crown" (and they have not been very good against the team, either!-Read that in a Groucho Marx voice)

The Fire have won once and lost five times, including every time they have played in Chicago.
Last season, the Fire capitulated 0-1 at Soldier Field in May and had just crumbled in October, losing 3-4 in Charlotte to kill off any playoff hopes.
The Fire's sole win against Charlotte was in 2022, a 3-2 win in Charlotte.

Considering their dire history against North Carolinians, I can only predict a resounding win by our favorite Chicago team.

3-1 will be the score.

Cuypers will cuyper a goal.
Gutierrez will break his scoreless run and add a fourth on the season.
I am going with Zinckernagel to keep up his good run of form with either a goal or an assist.












.GO FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Chicago Fire FC

• OUT: Leonardo Barroso (lower body)
• OUT: Chase Gasper (lower body)
• OUT: David Poreba (lower body)
• OUT: Carlos Terán (lower body)
• QUESTIONABLE: Chris Mueller (not due to injury)

Charlotte FC

• OUT: Nimfasha Berchimas (foot)
• OUT: Nathan Byrne (neck)
• OUT: Brandon Cambridge (thigh)
• OUT: Souleyman Doumbia (hamstring)
• OUT: Jahlane Forbes (thigh)
• QUESTIONABLE: Kristijan Kahlina (not due to injury)
• QUESTIONABLE: Tyger Smalls (knee)
• QUESTIONABLE: Idan Toklomati (thigh)

 

I apologize for typo in the thread title.
It should be "Enters" not "Entire"

If there is a ball sucking mod about, could that be changed?

 

Yep. I almost reached out to a super mod, since our mods have disappeared.

 

I saw that in an email from MLS today and had the same thought.

 

Kouamé not starting, again.
Acosta not starting, again.

A lot of money tied up in players on the bench.

 

Not much happening in the first 20 minutes.