As Ives reported Tuesday, there was indeed a salary increase clause in Marco Pappa's contract with MLS that would have made him much more expensive had he moved clubs. One has to wonder whether Frank Klopas had the foresight to make sure such a clause was included in the deal with the expansion draft in mind, or if it was simply standard MLS loan-deal boilerplate.

In about an hour and a half, we'll know for certain whether or not the Fire organization has managed to give away another quality player in that oh-so-MLS institution that we all know and love, the Expansion Draft. If your eyes are rolling like mine are, you recall the loss of Honduran international Iván Guerrero to San Jose at the end of last season.

The Fire and Kansas City to a 1-1 draw Sunday to the disappointment of the 40 or so traveling fans from Chicago. The Fire had a goal ruled out for offside before Blanco converted a free kick on the stroke of half time. KC scored in the first minutes of the second half and to be honest, there wasn't much more action following that.

What a difference a week makes! A brilliant win by the Fire last week and now on to Kansas City this weekend. Its 6:36 am in Chicago and as soon as I post this I will be jumping in a bus for a 9 hour trip to KC to watch the game. Section 8 is also playing some Kansas City fans in a supporters match on Sunday morning before we go to the stadium to tailgate.

After watching the Fire get dismantled by Dallas last Sunday I decided that it would be better if I forgot about the game completely and not write about it. So with that being said lets move on to the next game which happens to be tonight against everyones favorite team to make fun of: The LA Galaxy.

The Fire come into this game on the back of their worst performance of the season against Colorado last weekend. With the playoff's just around the corner this is not the time to be in a slump and the Fire will be looking to do that against a Dallas team that if fighting for their playoff lives. Perhaps the most surprising and disappointing thing for the Fire has been their poor performances at home.

Hello fellow Fire fans!
My name is Steve and ill be taking the reins as the new Fire blogger for The Offside. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a college student living in Chicago. I am originally from Ireland and moved to US 11 years ago. I've been going to Fire games since year 1 an have attended most home games since 2002.

It's the 60th minute, the Fire are losing 0-1, and the main thing I'm noticing right now is the difference Louis Crayton has made in goal for DC United. Good lord, is he making Zach Wells look like a U19 backup right now.

Twice in the first 10 minutes or so, the Fire would complete a sweeping move with a raking cross, and Crayton would explode out of goal and snag the damned thing 15 yards out, snuffing out the whole move with one decisive intervention.

... we really, really hope.

The yellow-card accountants are having their way with the Fire this weekend, exiling Señors Blanco and Gutierrez to the bench for (meta-)persistent infringement. Adding in the loss of Barrett, however one feels about him, and suddenly it's three starters who need replacing.

Oh baby, don't it feel like heaven right now
don't it feel like something from a dream ...
- The Waiting, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Now, trust me, I'm not one of those people who bought into saving anything for marriage.

(Sorry to butt in here. This is Sean's internal editor. I don't usually do this, but I just wanted you the HILARIOUS SHIT Sean has been typing and erasing for the last hour. I'll talk in these handy parenthetical devices.)

The last month has been barren, dessicated, a landscape of twisted metaphor ending in eventual collapse from overwritingfatigue.

(I've been gone awhile. I may talk about it later. For now, we stick to the football.)

In week 4, this would have seemed a pretty solid result. Now, though - eeugh. That was some ugly sheet, mang.

Not ugly from a technique standpoint, really. The passing in MLS can surprise me sometimes now, and the quality of the balls Conde and Segares (from one end) and Conrad (from the other) were serving up made it look like these teams were actually, honestly playing long-ball, and not just hoofing the damned thing every chance they got.

There's just this hair's breadth between Chivas and Chicago right now, despite the 2-0 scoreline.

The Fire are identifiable as the team that won routinely a month ago - calm in possession, organized, with an extra gear when they burst out of deep midfield - but they're just ... missing ... that cutting edge.

Funny thing about cable providers - if you don't pay them, they will shut the thing off. Wild. Who knew?

So, err ... where were we? Oh yes - we were letting Emilio run at us in injury time to win it for DC. And then we staggered around creating nothing much at all in Dallas. Has someone on the Fire forgotten to pay the results provider?

Oh, sure, it's easy to write the lads sonnets when the wins are coming. I mean, who didn't want to write a few lines after hanging five goals on Juan Carlos and the Toros Rojo?

Today, though. Today. Losing at home to those guys in black, losing at home in front of a full house on a perfect evening for football .