Primetime, under the lights. The self-proclaimed World Leader in Sports. Our old nemesis. It's a Toja world. Chicago's just living in it.
so, our record against "good" teams this year: LA - win [in actuality LA is not a good team] New York - loss x2 [a legitimately good team] New England - loss [but we outplayed them] KC - win [in actuality a team playing above their level at the moment, but still good] Chicago - ...I'm going with a narrow win for us. not just based on our dominating history with them, but based on them fitting the trend so far. they're a good team, but less good than New York, and with the exception of the latter we have so far beaten or outplayed good teams, especially on the road. 2-1 FCD.
Chicago coming off being embarassed by TFC.....Dallas coming off a "feel good" win in KC. Which team is hungrier? Second game on the road in 5 days. This one smells like a loss. I'm skered. Then again....it's Chicago. I'm suddenly optimistic.
Diego Guttierez is out with a red. Anyone know why Armas wasn't playing as is he injured again? If both of those are out Chicago is in a bit of trouble unless they have another d-mid I am unaware of. As soon as Guttierez was sent off TFC started taking over the game. Our midfield should destroy theres if they are all offensive types unless they bypass entirely and play long ball.
Rolfe got pulled from the Toronto game with an ankle injury. That's potentially an even bigger loss for them.
They claim to have an "arsenal of d-mids." We will see about that. Also, I hope that THE Hoops bring that attitude to Chicago that they had at KC and aren't afraid to get up in someone's face if they have to, I loved that badass attitude they had last Saturday.
Someone in their threads called us a "bunch of friggin' thugs" for all the fouling. I never would've seen that coming. My goggles see Nunez, Cooper and Dax getting pushed off the ball and dispossessed constantly.
Maybe I can be in the minority on this like I am on almost every other issue and say that I like the stigma of being know as the team with a "bunch of friggin' thugs." edit: as long as they are known as thugs for being physical, not like the piece of crap windbags in Colorado.
I think Armas was just held out because of his knee on turf. Pause will slide into the middle next to Armas and Guerrero will play right mid.
We've beaten Chicago so much lately, I'm at the point where I'm okay with a loss as long as we knock the crap out of them for 90 minutes straight.
You have to like the looks of our new "Tango" style - fighting for loose balls, extra hustle, interesting passes and control, lots of good communication, good finishing, strengthening defense. I like our chances on Thursday.
Hey Kevin - pull out the tapes - we've got a Brimstone virgin who needs to see a couple moments from some of those tapes.... Broken leg, Hail Mary Zarco goal, the escaped convict behavior of Chicago's usual suspects, 90+ minutes of pure end-to-end adrenaline with an attitude. check out http://www.brimstonecup.com/games.htm for some great quick hits on why
anyone gonna be at the londoner? im hittin it up with some fcd noobs so we need to show em a good time
Yeah - you've only known success against Chicago. And our ownership of them of late probably doesn't help that. But once upon a time, they were the upstart newbies - expansion kids who thought they were the cat's meow. Didn't help that they knocked us off as defending champs of the USOC and went on to not only with the USOC in their first year, but also the MLS Cup. As a league owned team, we had a pretty good "us-against-the-world" mentality already. So throw in a bunch of northerners who thought their personal feces were not odorific, and who didn't hesitate to look at us as a bunch of toothless hicks, and you have the beginnings of a nice little hate-fest. Add in the fact that the teams played hard. Real hard. Sometimes too hard. Dema breaking Brandon's leg in 1999 certainly spiced things up. But it was solidified when we used the next game to return the knockout favor and knock them out of the MLS playoffs. After that two years, it was pretty much on. But it kept getting better. And people in Chicago and Dallas noticed that we had a real rivalry - not one created out of the league office, not one based on geographical rivalry, but one based on two organizations from the GMs down to the bleacher bumbs not liking each other and taking great joy from beating the other. Hence, Brimstone. Major props to Liam from Chicago and Matt from Dallas (Viking64 on Big Soccer) for helping to arrange the deal that led to the fans of both groups putting in for a format and a cup that was created to respect and maintain the rivalry. It is funny - go read their threads. Even now, they assume that they are going to beat us. Of course, that probably has more to do with their club being embarrased by losing to Toronto rather than getting up to beat us, but there is this "oh, they're from the South - no way they know anything about soccer" attitude that is really quite silly considering they have won what, two games in the series since 2001? Despite Liam's efforts, it appears that for the most part, most Chicago players and fans have lost their hate for Dallas. We've had somewhat of a loss as well, but not nearly as much - and I think that is why you see us winning both games last year, 3-2, by coming from behind. And considering that Oscar Pareja, Steve Morrow, Jeff Cassar, Bobby Rhine, Carlos Ruiz, Dario Sala, Drew Moor, Clarence Goodson, Chris GBandi and Kenny all have had varying degrees of the taste of that rivalry, I sincerely doubt that we'll not bring it on Thursday. See what Morrow had to say on 3rd Degree today to see what he thinks about Brimstone. No, Chicago hasn't done much to get Dallas' ire up for some time, other than maintaining their superiority complex. It is kind of sad, really. They try to pawn it off as "well, we've won all these championships." But see, if we got in DC's grill, it would bother them. And they would respond on the field. Chicago? They sound like Mexico fans - "of course we're the better team. It is just [insert standard broken record excuse]" after we beat them again because we wanted it more. Hence, as was said last year, beating Chicago never grows old.
What he said. Well, that and their fans suck monkey balls. I hate seagroves...where's he been lately?