Just our luck. Hristo is back, nowak is almost back, and the Wolff has to get injured. Say your prayers tonight that it is a mistake and he will be fine.
At halftime, I was thinking about yelling at all the people who thought that the reason our offense had stagnated at points this summer was because of the admittedly not-ideal turf. But 3 goals is 3 goals, and hell, that was awesome. But then Wolff's injury happened. There was no contact, and as much as I've, well, not defended Cardinal Stadium, but refused to accept the continuous, fruitless bashing of it, I naturally have a fear that Wolff's injury may have been caused by the turf. That said, all other things being equal, if Soldier Field was still up, and the Bears had chewed up the turf there on Saturday, the same thing may have happened there. I don't know...I don't play on the stuff at their level and I'm not a professional groundskeeper. Great win, fun game, though.
It all depends on how he "tripped". Did the bottom of one of his feet catch on the turf? Or did he trip over his toes? If he tripped over his toes then it's all on him. If he was flat-footed than maybe the turf was a factor.
Watching on the tube (KC had a close up replay of the bottom half of both players running towards goal from midfield) it looked like he had turned the defender (Garcia?) and was starting to cut back in to his left. When he planted to cut (no trip) it didn't look like much more than a minor twist and that was it. I don't beleive any contact occured and although a KC fan I'm truly being unbiased. He took one step on it and knew he needed out right away. I truly hope it's just a strain/sprain. By the way, you guys handed our a$$es to us tonight in every position on the field. Props to Chicago. Good win for you.
Great win, Fire. You guys continue to be the class of the league (even partially healthy). Let's hope the Josh's injury is only nagging and not season threatening. Nice work, Fire. Meola is third on the US depth chart for a reason. Let's hope this silences the calls for Tony to be included at the expense of younger, more deserving keepers.
It was folded over. Wasn't enough room in that spot. Besides, it's not like we have the flag to represent Norway, so who cares.
According to my orthopaedist, tearing the same ACL twice is very rare. Josh's injury seemed to happen in two stages...he went down all alone about two minutes before the run against Garcia. Unfortunately, this doesn't bode well if he sprained first and tore second. Later, COZ
Definately i thought this was the best game to be at this year. Not much i have to said that hasnt been said, but what was the deal with the yellow on Dema for the dive?? From Section 8 it was hard to tell, but was it really that intentional to earn him a yellow?? It doesnt get much better than this though. Beasley, Wolff, Hristo, Dema, and Razov all scoring, that is great. Meola getting sent off. Good crowd, good weather, i couldnt have asked for more.
Dare I say this??? But I thought the officiating was very well done. This guy seemed to have taken and kept control over the entire game. The flow of the game was kept up nicely. I thought the yellow "dive" card on Dema was questionable - while Dema isn't a world class diver, he usually doesn't go down with that light of a touch. I have to say he earned my respect with the red-card on Garcia and second yellow on Tony - how many of the veteran refs would have shown Tony that second yellow immediately after correctly sending Garcia off the field? We rip the officals on here often enough, I thought I should give kudos where they are due.
I agree with you. Nice job by the ref. and YEEEEEHHHHAAAA!!!!! Great win. Nice to see Stoich in from the beginning and Kelly Gray. Section 8 was awesome. So was my kid in section 9. At 3 years old, he's ready to sit in Section 8 already. Rumors heard: The Fire will be in Naperville next year. They hope to finish the season in Soldier Field, it has to be ready by Sept 21st so if it finishes early, we will finish there. Very few day games next year, maybe one. Apparently the lines at NCC don't look good on TV.
from what i heard at the bears tail gate last saturday... the bears will probably have to start their season in chambana... they don't think it will be finished in time they had heard things are behind enough to warrant that
Just wanna congratulate y'all on a great performance...one of the best this year in MLS....outstanding football...with a great crowd and superb atmosphere...outstanding performance on and off the field...it was a pleasure to watch.... Thanks -Richard
This was my first chance to see that the Fire won! Woo Hoo!!! Good work, Fire!! Good work, Section 8!!!! Special props to everyone who pissed off Meola!!!
Dema dove. The replay angle was perfect to show that there was absolutely no contact and he went down. Your post, and posts in the KC forum, proves how biased fans can be. All KC fans seem to think that the ref sucked hard, while the Fire fans think he was just fine. Oddly, those opinions arent surprising since KC was booked 5 times and Chicago just once. I'd say it would be somewhere in the middle, that he was ok, but not great. The linesman missed the offsides call on the second goal. (not that it would have mattered in the end.) Meola's second yellow was for not rolling the ball directly to the ref???? Did the ref just want to kick him out? And then there's Garcia. The foul was a yellow, nothing more. But Beasley, as much as I like him, is a pro at going down hard since he has such a small body. Add on top of that the fact that Garcia has earned the reputation for red cards in MLS, and international play, and Garcia gets a red. In the end the refs decisions couldnt have hurt this match, as the Fire simply outplayed us for 90 minutes. But his seeming desire to eject two players will effect our next game, and possible another for Garcai as he was one yellow from a suspension anyway. PS-Wolff's injury, just from the replay, looked bad. He wasnt touched, he planted his foot, it turned funny, and he hit the turf. Next thing you know he hops up calling for a switch. Hope he's ok.
Re: Re: Gm #22: Chicago v Kansas City - 14 August, 7:30 PM CDT [R] Not all of us, I thought Simmonds did a good job. He certainly had control of the game. I don't think Garcia intended to trip Beasley. In fact it looked on replay like Nick was trying to avoid DB and run around him, but it certainly was a trip and DB was alone on goal. By law that's red. It isn't a discretionary call. I don't want to watch players screaming at a ref or cussing him out and I want to see players carded for gamesmanship, dissent, diving, and anything else that detracts from the game. The big mistake was the passive offsides call by the linesman, that one was brutal.
Re: Re: Gm #22: Chicago v Kansas City - 14 August, 7:30 PM CDT [R] Why was FatTony standing with the ball in his hand more than 20 yds away from where the free kick was to be taken? Yellow for delay of game. (MLSNET didn't have any details). Last man foul on a breakaway is a red. The ref showed that he can read the rule book.
Maybe I'm not clear on this, but the offsides guy (stoichkov I believe), took himself out of the play with his hands in the air. The second player was not offsides, swooped in and made the pass. Is this not legal?
"Passive" or not, I think Hristo was so close to the ball that an offsides call would probably have been justified. Wolff (I think) practically tripped over Hristo getting to the ball. At the time I couldn't believe that the flag stayed down. I don't think it made much of a difference, though. I think we still would have won handily.
Great match. We're still a white bread crowd, but hey - at least people are being exposed who would never have been at a match otherwise. If they buy tix to a couple of matches a season in 2004 and beyond, this move will have worked. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. Just when the healing was beginning, Wolff goes down. Even though I was at the other end of the field in Sect. 110, just by the look of it, it screamed turf injury. He just went down on the dribble. Not pretty. I'm really pleased to see Bob make some gutsy lineup moves. It was nice to have the option to do that because you actually HAD players to move around and experiment with in combination. I just pray that continues.
Re: Re: Gm #22: Chicago v Kansas City - 14 August, 7:30 PM CDT [R] 9 out of ten times the linesman would have raised his flag but there are no absolutes, the rules allow the ref and linesmen judgement calls on whether the person offsides is passive offsides or not.
Last night was a classic, pure and simple. I got to the game a little grumpy because with all the turnout I was 4 minutes late and I was edging into a packed Section 8 and missed the Wizards first goal. Then I noticed a big chunk of the people in Section 8 weren't there cuz they wanted to be. They were there cuz there was no place else to sit. So when I started singing and chanting at the top of my lungs they were kinda looking at me funny which peaved me a little. I just moved down a few rows with my sons to get with the real section 8ers. At times we really rocked last night, other times we kinda sucked. Just a note to anyone who cares, you don't have to stop singing just because the bass drum stops. Keep it going! The game was near perfect. Who could have asked for more. Meola stunk the joint up and was annoyed and scowling the whole game. Beasley scores, Wolff scores, Stoichkov scores a beauty and most importantly DEMA SCORES!!! He has been in a funk for a while and after the game he was genuinely happy. Grinning and laughing. I hope this is what he needed to get him going again. Then at the end Meola get's tossed and Ante picks one up too. Could anyone have scripted it any better? Well, I guess we could have left Josh going down basically untouched (scary after seeing it happen to Armas). Doesn't look to good for him from reading stuff this morning, but he was walking ok after the game with a big bag of ice tied to his knee last night. I had the greatest time last night. Section 8 bleachers might need some extra reinforcement!