That's right folks, after being stomped 5-2 down in Trinidad, the Chicago Fire overcame the 3-goal differential to take the series with a 4-0 win tonight out here in Chicago. I just got back from the game, and it was positively inspiring. Two goals from Dipsy and one from captain Chris Armas (the one that sealed the upset) added to Damani Ralph's 1st-half goal to send Chicago into the next round of play. Cheers to Chicago and the Fire
First off Noob don't make a habit of putting the results in the title. 2nd I was at the game and the entire first half was a crap performance by the Fire. I don't even get how San Juan was able to score 1 goal. They flat out suck! Yeah yeah the Fire won, but they looked like ********!
Awesome result. I just got off MLSnet and caught the score. BTW, and I'm not trying to be a jerk here Gipper, but even though the match wasn't televised, Big Soccer has a policy of not posting the result in the thread subject......Hence the change in the title. Welcome to Big Soccer. Go Fire!
Before we get too excited... Despite the impressive 2nd leg, this is still a 6-5 aggregate win against an inexperienced side from Trinidad who qualified for the Champions Cup for the first time ever. Anything but advancement would be sheer embarrassment.
upon reading my post I sound unhappy with the results. I'm not but this Fire teams should of won with a global score of 8-0.
Even though I hate the Fire, I must say nice job. Congrats on the comeback. That was probably a really exciting game to be at.
Yeah the second half made a big difference with 3 forwards and a 10-man Jabloteh team. Who would have throught we'd play 3-4-3? And without Razov? Well I guess it worked. I had a gerat time at the game tonight too. Funny how the Jebloteh supporters took over the second right next to Section 8. Of course, they weren't near the force that S8 was, and I didn't hear a peep from them in the second half. What's with that ref? Crazy inconsitant calls. Did anyone notice that Beasley lined up as the LEFT BACK in the first half? I assumed that was to contain the very fast and tough forwards they had (who were not so deadly tonight). The jury is still out on Ring, I think. Hardly called upon tonight. That says good things about the defense and midfield. But they were a weak opponent. How DID we let in 5 goals in the first game? And only socre 1 (they had an own goal)?
Wow, what a great result. Way to go Fire, hopefully the Quakes will be able to step it up into the next round. Awesome result.
I love the difference in mentality between this and the Trinidad forum. Last week, Trinidadians said Jabloteh was great and should of scored more over a weak, overrated Chicago side. This week, Americans said Chicago was the much better team and should have scored more against a weak Trinidad side. Both sides believe that the results were based entirely on whether their team was playing well, and the other team was merely on the field standing around. Maybe Jabloteh was the better team last week and Chicago was the better team this week?
Part of the problem in the first half was folks getting used to the poor condition of the field. It really affected the play. Like watching Damani trying to cut back near the top of the penalty box....he pushed the ball from his right foot back to his left and got his body turned to dash towards the center of the penalty box....but before the ball had travelled a full foot, it hit some kind of divot in the ground and bounced straight up to his waist.... things like that kill the play dead...and it was really prevalent in the first half. Moreso from the Fire than Jabloteh, but in the first half Jabloteh really didn't have much possession running for them, they hardly held the ball at all.
You can feel bad if it makes you feel better, but..... Nah, couldn't be. If an MLS team goes on the road to a foreign country and loses, it's a clear indicator of MLS' inferiority. If that same MLS team then comes home and wins, it's a clear indicator of MLS' inferiority because they barely squeaked by another team from a country that could barely make up a state in the US. It couldn't possibly be that if you put 11 professional players on one side and 11 professional players on another side and put a ball between them and blow a whistle, that sometimes one side will win and sometimes the other will win. Geezus, Canadians look at many of you and say, "Damn, those people have inferiority complexes." What is in the mentality of many of the people who post here that they just have to rush to be the first to point out or exaggerate or just plain make up stuff about how substandard MLS is? Do you not get enough positive feedback in your own life from people, that you have to come off as experts here so that if someone from the outside is critical of MLS you can say, "Well, I've been saying that for a while because I'm a soccer expert?" Or when something that could be seen as disappointing for the league happens you can say "I told you they'd never get anywhere until they start listening to me?" We know already. It's a nine-year-old league. It's getting better. And we don't have to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup, we don't have to please Grahame Jones or Paul Gardner or the British wankers on Bigsoccer Radio or people at the BBC. There's a proven fan base for this league, a proven fan base that could and should be bigger, but one that, by and large, couldn't possibly care less whether or not we can beat some team from some small Carribean country in a meaningless tournament in March. Quit ascribing some great cosmic significance to every freaking thing that happens. We're building stadiums, we're growing the league, and through SUM, MLS is making sure more of the money that's spent on soccer in this country gets funnelled one way or another into one place, and that's a good thing. It's a hell of a lot more important than CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh, who can now officially be forgotten about, as this tournament will be shortly. As will I. With that, I bid you all adieu, and hope that you one day find more things to actually like and take pleasure from about soccer and from MLS than things to rant and rave and post indignantly about, claiming the sky is falling. Spring is here. The season is almost here. Watch the games. Enjoy the games. Cheer. And then go do something, anything else with your lives than wasting time trying to out-doom-and-gloom each other on a fvcking message board.
Re: You can feel bad if it makes you feel better, but..... In some cases, they're just Burn or Crew fans who feel stupid now that Chicago came back and won the home leg, thereby making the gloating they did last week, when the match was essentially at half-time, look extra ridiculous.
Re: You can feel bad if it makes you feel better, but..... Well, there is also some of us who, despite being happy for the Fire (after all they are representing MLS), think they played in a pathetic way last week vs. a team from a league that should be below us by a wide margin, 9-yr old league or parity notwithstanding...And I doubt there is a need to remind anyone Jabloteh was also in preseason, but still last week's performance is not something that ought to be excused....
Re: You can feel bad if it makes you feel better, but..... Wait... so the 1-1 draw to Haiti didn't set soccer back ten years in this country? Oh thank heavens!!! Aleaguer, well written.
Congrats to the Fire. In the end they won the series and that's the bottom line. I'm looking forward to how they'll match up against Saprissa. The way the Quakes dominated Alajuela last night (24-10 in shots; 2 shots off the cross bar; 3 shots cleared off the goal line), I certainly think the Fire can take the current Costa Rican league leaders.
Oh yeah, and "woo hoo" to the Fire. Great comeback. 6,100 fans, nice crowd. That's double the average Burn home game. Chicago fans are itching for soccer.
Re: You can feel bad if it makes you feel better, but..... Like I told a prominent Fire fan via IM, the second-leg result didn't shock me, but at least I got a week's worth of yuks out of the first leg. Which is the most important thing. So congratulations on beating the coconut bankers from Heywood Jablome. And thank you for entertaining me for a week.
Oh, by all means, let me bow down and grovel before the vet here. So I didn't know the forum policy on that, it wasn't included in the sign-up acceptance policies (which I read). I wonder why it is that some folks feel that they need to put people down by that old and overused n00b term. At any rate, yeah, the Fire didn't play well in the first half, but does that mean you didn't enjoy the game? We won, so despite a lackluster first-half performance and horrible field conditions, it all turned out ok. "I don't even get how San Juan was able to score 1 goal." If you're referring to the game down in Trinidad, remember that they played before a home crowd of 7,000 fans who ALL act like Chicago's Section 8. Players draw energy from the crowd when it's friendly and try to ignore it when it's not. I don't care how professional an athlete is, though, fans can psyche them out sometimes. That's one of the major reasons there's such a thing as home field/ice/court advantage. If you doubt it, you've never played in front of a huge crowd. And I did notice how Beasley had lined up in the back. He made end-to-end runs all night. It was fun to watch, that guy's got some serious endurance. It was impressive, too, to see how fast those Trinidad players were on getting to the ball. Even though most of our guys were taller, the shorter Trinidadians beat us to the ball a lot in the first half (not so much in the second). Both teams played with a lot of guts and I had a great time at the game
I think we just underestimated them last week, and that, combined with their speed (and despite getting crushed last night, they were indeed mighty quick), the home crowd, and maybe some spotty scouting, we were massively underprepared. This is, of course, entirely speculation. Peter Wilt said we were man-marking their forwards last week with a four-man defense, but I sorta doubt it was the same style of man-marking we threw at them last night. Whitfield and Brown didn't leave Naray and Glenn much room at all, and Jimmy cleaned up the garbage in the middle. DMB played all over the craptacular-shape field. Later, COZ