After royally screwing up the thread on Wednesday, I am back home and back on track for this weekend's preview. That can't be said for the Fire, though. Unfortunately, we have some tough things to discuss. Fortunately, the Fire sucking at everything, everywhere all at once, is NOT the toughest thing to discuss. Let's start with the game: The mighty Fire kept their post Leagues Cup streak intact with the 3-0 game on Wednesday against that team from Ohio that begins with "C" -Columbus. Sadly, the "streak" is a winless streak, that sits at 6 in the league and 8 in all competitions (including the Puebla match, which was "officially" a draw, and then a loss in penalties). Tonight, our favorite MLS team comes up against our long time foe, the evil spawn of Matt Reis' mom- New England Revolution. This marks what might be the 87th (or 89th) meeting between the two. According to the Fire's website, the Fire lead with 34 wins, 20 draws and 32 defeats. What is strange is that the Revolution website has it as 37 wins, 19 draws and 33 losses overall. Come on, MLS, at least give us consistent records. According to the Rev's site, the Fire are 25-11-8 at home against the not-quite Bostonian bastards. This is probably not a surprise, but the game day preview on the Rev's site is way better than the one on the Fire's site. Why? Because there isn't one on the Fire's website. Just a page with the 34-20-32 record and the results of the last three matches, plus a few generic blurbs. https://www.chicagofirefc.com/competitions/mls-regular-season/2023/matches/chivsne-09-23-2023/ Fortunately, the Fire have NOT lost to New England since September 22, 2021! Unfortunately, the Fire have not beat New England since 2019, a 5-0 shellacking in May 8, with goals by Nikolic (2), Gaitan, Frankowski, and, surprisingly Brandt Bronico! Recent record between the teams: 2017- 3-0-0! 9 goals for, 1 against. Those were the days! 2018- 0-2-0 2019- 1-0-1 2020- 0-1-1 2021- 0-1-1 2022- 0-2-0 2023- 0-1-0, with Saturday being the second match Note, this does not include Playoff records...because the Fire have only had a single playoff game since 2017 (the 4-0 capitulation at home to the Red Bulls. One of the Fire's worst ever performances. That game was just awful, down 2-0 within 11 minutes, an injured Bastian was subbed into match in the 65th minute to try to do...something and David the moderately tall Arshakyan actually played in the game). New England, despite being on their third coach in two weeks, sit comfortably in 5th place in the East, with 48 points from 28 matches. The Fire, of course, are sitting comfortably well outside the playoffs with 33 points from 29 matches. Fortunately, the Fire are 6-6-3 at home, so there is chance the Fire could actually get something from the match. Unfortunately, the last time the Fire were home, they were beaten by Vancouver. The Fire's last win at Soldier Field was July 15th, a 1-0 crushing of Toronto (on a 90th minute goal by Kacper Przybyłko). New England are led by Carles Gil, with 8 goals and 13 assists. The other DPs are Gustavo Bou and Giacomo Vrioni. By the way, the salaries of all three do not equal Shaqiri's salary this season. No idea who will lead the Fire tonight. One thing for certain it won't be Shaqiri, as he has privilege of standing around and watching the game from somewhere other than on the field, with his red card on Wednesday. Also out are Navarro (F), and the usual suspects of Mueller, Bezerra and Casas (Jr.). Pineda is listed as doubtful. I read on mlssoccer.com that Souquet is out on yellow card accumulation, but I did not read that on the Fire's website, of course. The Fire could conceivably be back "above the line" with a win tonight (and DC United and NYCFC lose). Unfortunately, DC United play a terrible NYRB team and NYCFC play an even worse assemblage of suck from Toronto. New England will clinch a playoff spot if they avoid losing to the Fire, something that is easier done than said (unfortunately). In light of the long history between the two teams, the Fire cannot let this happen. The Fire MUST win this game. Actually, even with a loss, New England can secure a playoff spot, if DC United fail to beat NYRB. Clint Peay is the new interim coach. Tonight is his second game at the helm, after losing to what might be the worst team in the history of MLS, the 2022 Colorado Rapids. Colorado are so bad ("How bad are they?") they have more points (22) this season than goals scored (19). Yes, they are averaging .67 goals per game and have a -23 goal differential. They have given up more than twice as many goals as they have scored. And this is after they put 2 in against NER last weekend. And, Toronto (with two of three highest paid players in the league), are almost as bad. 22 points, 24 goals scored, -21 goal differential, winless on the road. I can confidently (or, at least, Optimistically) say that the Fire will not compete for the Wooden Spoon this season. However, it is mathematically possible. If Toronto win their remaining matches, they would end up on 37 points. If Colorado win out, they would end up with 40 points. The Fire could end up anywhere between 33 points (lose every remaining match, and they are giving that their damnedest) and 48 points (if they win out). Somewhat surprisingly, the "Win" probability (according to google) for tonight's encounter actually favors our men in light bluish, with a 40% probability of a Fire win, 34% probability of a Fire loss (can't write "New England win") an 26% of a draw. So, the Fire have 66% of NOT losing! Woo! Hoo! Fire WILL win 2-1, with Kei Kamara FINALLY getting a goal. Now, for the real news related to the game: New England hierarchy has been in shambles, with Bruce Arena being suspended in August and officially departing from them over a week ago for “inappropriate and insensitive remarks.” According to at least one news outlet, he made racist comments, although that has not been confirmed. His interim replacement, Richie Williams (ABMOD), was also relieved of his coaching duties, as the players refused to train for the little dickhead. According to news reports, Williams is still with the team in some capacity. Assistants Shalrie Jospeh and Dave van den Bergh were let go. Clint Peay is the new interim coach. There is this bit of bad journalism: Commentary: Bruce Arena's ugly exit from MLS shouldn't tarnish his immense legacy I call bullcrap on that. If he said something racist or bigoted (as has been alleged), it absolutely should tarnish his "immense" legacy. If he was "inappropriate" and abusive (as has also been alleged) it should tarnish his legacy. Legacy is based on the entirety of one's experience, not just the "good points" of it. https://www.latimes.com/sports/socc...legacy-mls-resignation-inappropriate-language I say that especially in light of this statement from MLS This is a pretty strange statement, a coach with more than 30 years of experience, the winningest MLS coach of all, who has multiple coach of the year awards, multiple MLS Cups and US Open Cups, must "petition" the Commissioner if he wants another job. It is a bit weird that the team and MLS have been so tight lipped on what it was that he said that set off this firestorm. The Boston Globe has made a formal request for the actual investigation report, so I suspect we will know more at some point. I suspect it will be pretty bad. I guess we'll see.
One line on Bruce Arena would have been sufficient for me. Not very excited about this one! Latest Update- betting sources have fixed Over/Under number at 0. However, MLS stated that, despite rumors to contrary, extremely poor play would not result in goal deductions from game score. Good news! I was afraid Fire would lose -2 to 0. (Two teams playing poorly 0-0).
I almost named Waste Management for shirt sponsor, but they are too big of a company for our team these days.
Good poll as usual. I hit the sauce pretty good last night so I'm making better life choices at the moment however I can definitely see me going raccoon in the kitchen before kick off and opening that bag of Ruffles, dip and a cold beer because I wasn't that far gone. Fire's website SUCKS SO BAD! Fire MEDIA TEAM is...let me rephrase...Is there a Fire media team? If I were Joe I'd just hire the entire crew of guys from MIR '97 including sir Jiggs and make it worth their while to handle the press/promotion/news/etc for the Fire because it's damn sure no-one currently on staff seems to have the time to do it currently. and no one in the front office seems to care as much as those guys. Hell give me a few bucks and I'd gladly transition from ex footballer wannabe, turned musician, turned carpenter into a content creator. I've got a BS degree in communications and I care so I'd make myself available. How the Fire post Twitter updates until your team loses badly then seem to get embarrassed and go completely silent for 48 hours is beyond me in this land of 24/7 news coverage. Other teams in the same league are turning out content, injury updates, tactical information, interviews, puff pieces and funny content etc. I know I'm not the only one who notices this lack of update and it reflects directly on the level of "caring" the club shows which appears to be very little. This is why on the BS daily news here I post the opposition news links because that's about one of the only sources for information because just like the last regime, the only thing coming out of the current Fire front office is Jack and Sh*t! My Future I predict watching the Revs clinch a playoff berth while enjoying the following: Oh and I never cared for Bruce Arena so no tears shed here... EDIT: Oh and I'm only watching because I've come this far. What's more heartbreak?
If it wasn't for the folks on BigSoccer, I'm not sure how I would be doing mentally following this team. Everyone makes me laugh!
It's the best therapy out there! <Sitting in a virtual circle > "Hello my name is Dave and I'm a Fireholic. It's been 3 days since I watched my last match..."
Moving away and giving up my season tickets this season puts me in the same boat. The dysfunctional group here on BigSoccer Chicago Fire keeps me interested in the team.
Good god, what a line up. Kamara Torres, Gutierrez Herbers Gimenez Doumbia Navarro Teran Omsberg Dean Brady Maybe 5 starters who would even make the bench for a decent MLS team. I stand by my prediction of 2-1 win. Something stupid WILL happen!
Players to watch: Fire-Chris Brady That's it. NER-Carles Gil and Nacho Gil. I just learned they are brothers, not that I had really heard of the nacho-man previously. Now, Week 33 "Best Goals" NONE by the Fire. Can you believe it? Oh, NONE for Week 32 or 31 or 30. Fire's last goal, 47' minute on August 20, 2023. 492 minutes since they have scored.
That literally is the best available I'd say. I still think Kamara should be a 60th minute super sub but when no one else is scoring either why not? I like Koutsias' off ball movement but he's still a project under construction which we all knew but since the Fire don't seem to have a proper goal scorer it is what it is... I fully expect a loss but hope for a win.
That literally is the saddest thing I've read today. True, but sad. On the happy side, my bathroom renovation has been completed (save for the glass for the shower) and it is spectacular. The guys left an hour or so ago. I was hoping they would stay one more night, but wanted to get back to Chicago. Their loss.
I just pulled some shower glass out of a perfectly good shower but they have money to burn so wanted to redo the whole bathroom. I think my co-worker is going to see if he can make it work on his house. Not cheap that stuff. WOW 4 shots!
Yeah, it has cost us quite a bit, so far, but the glass will likely be the second most expensive thing. I haven't received the bill for the labor yet. 6 shots in 12 minutes. At this rate, we will have 45 shots for the game.