US Soccer announced this morning that Bob Bradley has called in Chris Rolfe and Brian Carroll to replace two players who suffered injuries in their Sunday matches, Robbie Rogers (sore back) and Pablo Mastoeni (knee).  It's a shame I was looking forward to seeing Rogers play.  And I was about as excited to see Mastroeni play [. Click to continue reading...

It was a wild ending but my team the Minnesota Thunder were elimindated 5-4 by Vancouver in the first round of the USL-1 playoffs last night. Damn it all. See details in the USL-1 section.

~and~

A big shout out to the fantastic Highbury pub in Milwaukee, where I spent a great Saturday morning. Click to continue reading...

I am heading off to Milwaukee this weekend for a family outing. And I will be at the Highbury Pub on Saturday morning seeing some friends. So come on down and rock with us.


MLS Scoreboard

Week 27
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Sep 25
Chicago 3-1 Los Angeles - CF goals by Chris Rolfe(2) & Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Click to continue reading...

The Los Angeles Galaxy just flat-lined. Coded. Went into cardiac arrest.

You don't need to watch Grey's Anatomy or ER, or be a doctor, to know the medical terms for what happened to the Galaxy's playoff hopes last night. An embarrassing 3-1 loss to Chicago all but squashed LA's faint playoff hopes less than a week after a promising win against D.

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I'm glad I resisted a trip to the movies to see Righteous Kill and instead stayed home and watched Chris Rolfe and the Chicago Fire take it to the L.A. Galaxy in prime time. No, not because the movie got... Click to continue reading...

Five days after breaking out of a 12-game winless streak in stunning fashion, the Los Angeles Galaxy again reverted back to their old form, allowing the Chicago Fire to capitalize on sloppy play and mental breakdowns on their way to a 3-1 victory on Thursday night.

Chris Rolfe, who had found himself riding the pine lately under Fire head coach Denis Hamlett, was injected back into the starting lineup and took full advantage of the opportunity, scoring once in each half. Click to continue reading...

Tonight the Galaxy tries to keep its flickering post-season hopes alive in a must-win showdown in Bridgeview, IL against the Chicago Fire. Chicago has been struggling of late, losing the last two games by a combined score of 6-1, but the legendarily leaky Galaxy defense might be just what they need to get back on their game.

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As the MLS regular season winds down and we find out who the real contenders are, the parity of the league has never been more obvious. All 14 teams are still in contention for a playoff spot while only one - the Columbus Crew - has absolutely clinched a spot in the postseason.Below is a breakdown of each team's remaining games, as well as the percentage of available points they have taken both at home and on the road so far this year. Click to continue reading...

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.

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Captain Kansas City now has five goals on the year. Not bad. His latest effort, our last-minute equalizer Saturday against FC Dallas has been nominated for Sierra Mist Goal of the Week. Come on Wizards fans...go vote and get Jimmy on the end-of-the-year ballot!

Take a look at the goal here, if you don't remember it:



He is now our leading scorer with a new career-high. Click to continue reading...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

What's that noise? Ah, the final whistle thankfully is here. This was one of those nights to stay home and watch synchronized diving or dressage rather than endure a game of over hit crosses, flubbed back passes and inaccurate shots.

John Thorrington of the Palos Verdes Peninsula saved the game from complete non-event status with a swerving shot from 19 yards served to him on a platter by Brian McBride to give the Fire a 1-0 win.

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This is a game stunning in its mediocrity and as one press box wit pointed out if you change the names this could be Scunthorpe verses Grimsby. And that's probably being unkind to Grimsby.

The first half highlights consisted of a wide open Alan Gordon missing a header from all of five yards out (never seen that before have we?

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The Chicago Fire played rude hosts to Everton FC in an international friendly on Wednesday night, dismantling the Premier League club by a score of 2-0 at Toyota Park on goals from Chris Rolfe and Tomasz Frankowski. Newly-fined designated player Cuauhtemoc Blanco did not play in the match, but was not needed, as the MLS side largely controlled play from whistle to whistle. Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Good morning all. Last night was a good night to be an MLS fan. New England toppled Mexican champions Atlante in SuperLiga while the Chicago Fire defeated Everton in a friendly. Couple those results with the latest in the European soccer world and we've got a lot to get to this morning.

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With the recent trade of Scott Sealy, the Wizards again have an open roster spot to fill. From comments made by Coach Onalfo and Peter Vermes, the team is looking to fill that spot with a player. Will the Wizards go out and try to get a forward to partner Josh Wolff? Pushing Ivan Trujillo to the bench? Click to continue reading...

John Thorrington has become Mr. Clutch for the Chicago Fire.

We all remember his goal in last year's regular season finale against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Well, he delivered again, scoring a stoppage time game-winner to give the Fire a crucial 2-1 home victory against East Rival (and Brian McBride allocation foe) Toronto FC.

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Toronto's huge demands made to Chicago in exchange for the rights to former US international striker Brian McBride has left the former Fulhman mans prospects for returning to MLS during this season in Limbo. According to sources within the Chicago front Office, the names of Justin Mapp, Chad Barrett and Chris Rolfe have been brought up by Toronto as compensation. Click to continue reading...

SuperLiga begins Saturday!

~and~

It's nice to have your own hotel. (Thanks to FS for the photo.)


US Open Cup

One last round before the tournament takes a month off.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

4th Round/Quarterfinal Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jul 8
New England Revolution v Crystal Palace Baltimore
DC United v Chicago Fire
FC Dallas v Charleston Battery
Kansas City Wizards v Seattle Sounders
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MLS Scoreboard

Week 15
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Jul 3
Salt Lake 0-0 Houston
Attendance: 17,898
-Fri Jul 4
Dallas 1-1 Kansas City - FCD goal by Abe Thompson. Click to continue reading...

The Chicago Fire are a good soccer team.

I can say this, with full confidence, in reference to both the club's general state of success in recent seasons and their present form as of July 2008. I have seen them efficiently dispatch favored DC United sides in two of the last three MLS Cup playoffs and on several regular-season occasions in recent years as well. Click to continue reading...

Top XI

G: Joe Cannon Kevin Hartman
D: Bakary Soumare
D: Ramiro Corrales Claudio Suarez
D: Michael Parkhurst Frankie Hejduk
M: Emmanuel Ekpo
M: Guillermo Barros Schelotto
M: Steve Ralston
M: Marcelo Gallardo
F: Kenny Cooper
F: Brian Ching
F: Luciano Emilio

Coach: Tom Soehn went right after the LA Galaxy's defense and kept the pressure on one of the league's worst defenses and never really let the league's top offense get on track. Click to continue reading...

Yesterday and today both provide plenty of reasons to celebrate with a party.
Yesterday:
One down, two to go on the south side.
After watching the Sox demolition of the Cubs from Giron's Italian Restaurant in Brookfield, i met up with Section 8 Chairman Ben Burton to see a living legend perform in Berwyn. Click to continue reading...

Bob Bradley named his squad today for the irrelevant return World Cup qualifying leg in Barbados Sunday (caps and goals are in parentheses): goalkeepers Dominic Cervi (out of contract: 0/0), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA: 1/1 SO), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake: 0/0); defenders Carlos Bocanegra (out of contract: 12/1), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland: 1/0), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC: 0/0), Drew Moor (FC Dallas: 0/0) Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege: 8/0), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock: 1/0); mikdfielders DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers: 15/4), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen: 1/1), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA: 0/0), Eddie Lewis (Derby County: 18/2), Danny Szetela (Brescia: 0/0), John Thorrington (Chicago Fire: 0/0; forwards Freddy Adu (SL Benfica: 1/0), Chad Barrett (Chicago Fire: 0/0), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire: 0/0).

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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.

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Nothing like a healthy hatred for Cuauhtemoc Blanco to bring out the Chivas USA fans.

A crowd in the low 20,000 range is expected tonight, which would be the biggest crowd for Chivas USA so far this year.

Brad Guzan has returned in goal for Chivas USA (4-6-2) from international duty, relegating backup Dan Kennedy to the bench.

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A couple days slimming his roster down to 12, it looks like US coach Bob Bradley is about to fatten things up with the addition of a bunch of MLSers.

Various reports have Bradley calling Drew Moor (FC Dallas), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake), John Thorrington (Chicago Fire), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire) and Chad Barrett (Chicago Fire). Click to continue reading...

Toronto FC just traded first-round draft pick Pat Phelan to the New England Revolution for an international roster spot through 2010. This very well could be a deal that could signify a possible deal with Chicago before long regarding US striker Brian McBride. Toronto makes up the roster space to get the room for a possible [. Click to continue reading...

One at a time and alphabetically...here are the starting lineups you are looking at the start of the season.
Projected Starting Lineup:

---------Frankowski------Barrett-----------

-------------------Blanco--------------------

Mapp-----------------------------------Rolfe

------------------Soumare-------------------

Segares----Conde------Brown------Robinson

-------------------Busch--------------------

First off the bench: GK Nick Noble, DF Brandon Prideaux, MF Logan Pause, MF Diego Gutierrez, FW Calen Carr, FW Andy Herron
Now there's a good chance Logan Pause will be in there for Bakary Soumare. Click to continue reading...

Saturday night, the US Men's National team will take on Sweden in the Stars and Stripes' 500th international match. When last we saw the boys, they managed a nice 1-0 win on the road, on the far, far road that is, at South Africa last November.

Against Sweden at the Home Depot Center Saturday at 7:30 p. Click to continue reading...

So one day in December I was checking out ChrisRolfe.com and noticed that he had a tab at the top of the page titled "Ask Chris". Being the chancer that I am I took advantage of this chink in the Chicago press dept. armour to ask the national team striker about his off season doings. Click to continue reading...

Chicago Fire Record (W-L-T): 10-10-10; 31 GF, 36 GA Source Material: Schedule/match reports; roster Overview Do you remember, kids, just how goddamn awful the Chicago Fire seemed in May? It wasn't so much that they handed Toronto FC their first win in franchise history, but the utterly supine crouch from which they did it. Click to continue reading...

Is that all there is? The New England Revolution beats the Chicago Fire, who beats DC United? Will it take the revival of Kansas City, or the arrival of Red Bull New York, or - god forbid - the Columbus Crew to confound this predictable procession? Lord, I hope not, because the status quo sure [...] Click to continue reading...

I'm about to do something I almost never do: preview a game, namely, the Eastern Conference Final pitting the New England Revolution against the Chicago Fire. For the record, I blame the quality stuff other people are turning out. Even MLSnet.com's typically tepid preview contains a vital information-nugget: Shalrie Joseph will have to [...] Click to continue reading...

After the Chicago Fire's 1-0 win at their home in Toyota Park they had to go to DC, one of the toughest places to play in all of MLS. Expectations were high for DC United even though they were coming into the game down by a goal.

Chad Barret and Chris Rolfe both scored for the Fire in the first half and the season appeared to be just about over for DC United being down 3-0 on aggregate.

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A lot happened in the final 30 of the Chicago Fire's tighter-than-a-preacher's-butt win over DC United - as much as the game as I caught after getting home from work, picking up the kids, feeding the kids, etc. While that shortened viewing time limits my ability to speak to big concepts like Justice (upper-case? [...] Click to continue reading...

At its worst, last night's Eastern Conference semifinal between DC United and the Chicago Fire looked like a pugnacious midfield scrum in which every ball seemed 50-50, not unlike an endless series of drop-balls put in play by an angry god. Think a lower-tier game in the English Premier League, but without the skill. [...] Click to continue reading...