Half Way On

Sitting behind me @ Thursdays Fire playoff game v D.C. United were talkative people who were @ their first soccer game. At one point I overheard them noticing D.C. very rough play: “They play dirty, y’all”. Fire star C. Blanco feels the same- he’s having the Fire front office to assemble a tape of fouls committed on him by United. Although the customary red, white, and blue playoff bunting was missing, this was a typical MLS playoff game against teams that have now faced each other four times in the last ten years. Each time the Fire have advanced, and they got a good result in the first game on the playoffs: Thursdays game ended up with the Fire wining on a 17th m goal by Chris Rolfe.

This year finds the Fire being the final team to qualify for the playoffs. D.C. had the best record in the regular season and has a roster full of talented players. However, injuries have taken a bit of a toll on the visitors. 13 year D.C. star Jaime Moreno only entered @ halftime, and MLS leading scorer Luciano Emilio entered in the 78th m. The Fire, on the other hand, have been on a roll: new players Blanco and William Conde have been much better than expected, new coach Osario has played players in new positions, and the team has been much better offensively. Coming into the series, either team had a chance not only to advance but to win the MLS Cup 2007.
The MLS quarterfinals are a two game, total goals setup. If the two teams are tied at the end of the second leg, then a half hour of overtime is played. Penalty kicks decide games tied after that. In many ways, the Fires one goal victory is akin to a half time lead in a giant 180 minute game. So, in a normal game, a team up a goal in the closing minutes would hold back for the win, but the Fire wanted to pad the goal total = they kept attacking late in the game and were dangerous even past the 90th minute. John Thorrington, goal scoring hero of Sunday's playoff clincher against L.A. , was put in in the 83d minute. He may have entered the game to apply pressure to D.C. and deny them the chance to mount any comeback, but the thought of that late goal hung in the air - could he score another to give the Fire a two goal cushion? Although they had many chances on goal, a miss in the 77m led me to think “I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt us”. So, although the Fire won the first game 1-0, nothing is won yet; and there's long tough road to go.

And there are problems. Osario used the same formation that he had Sunday v. L.A.= four back defenders and Conde and Chris Armas handling the defensive midfielder position. Again, Conde was great and dangerous on the attack. He is picking up roles as the season goes on, and has been an almost important acquisition for the D as Blanco has for the O. It was also fun watching C.J. Brown run the defense. An ‘Original Fire’ who is now in his tenth year on the team, it was he yelling to the defense to ‘walk it up’ and put United forwards offside or to pick up this or that player (I sat in the nice seats for this game).

However, the defense looked terribly shaky at times. There were a few miss communications that resulted in Fire defenders having to race to cover up a free ball or a weak back pass that almost turned into disaster. With only a one goal lead in the series, a similar mess-up next Thursday could sink the Fire. Although I was hoping for a few more Fire goals , I also had the thought in the 70th m “Shit, there’s a lot of time left”. But- their would be no more goals.
Although Conde won the ‘Man of the Match”, I was most happy with the play of Chad Barret. Id come down heavy on him last week for the many lost chances he screwed up on, but Thursday he played his role in the offense to a T. He is a forward, but his job is to act as a ‘runner’- he is to be @ the head of the offense and use his speed and verve to chase the ball and put pressure on whoever has it. The idea is to force the other team to make mistakes and keep up the pressure - then let Blanco and the midfield catch up and convert the other teams mistakes. His aggressiveness constantly had D.C. back peddling trying to contain him. Although his greatest contribution came in the first 20m of the game, well into the second half his ‘in yr face’ attacking led to chances on goal. After his shitty play last week, it was great to see him contributing in a real way.

And the lone goal could be contributed to this sorta pressure; develop from the back, then push the ball forward @ speed to overwhelm D.C.‘s defenders. Although the Fire D could be scary @ times, they had some very nice passing amongst the defenders and midfielders to get the ball forward. The Fire played a lot of long balls forward, especially in the first half. In the 17th m, such a long ball played forward found midfielder Rolfe in position to rocket a shot into the net.
The Fire will have to play tough in the return match, but they now only need a tie to advance. In the Fire’s stretch run to the playoffs, they missed winning many games because of missed chances and late goals from the other team ld to ties instead of wins. Luckily, they can sustain a tie next week and be happy about it.

Finally, what would a Hilts report on a soccer game without my noting the crowd? I remember the old football coach George Allen talking about his days in the NFL working with Bears founder George Halas. Allen made the statement (when he became head coach of the old U.S.F.L. football Chicago Blitz) that he hated seeing Halas- Bears owner- always counting the home crowd @ Wrigley during home games. In terms of soccer, I have always dealt with the issue the same as Halas- I constantly count crowds and love when a great crowd shows up for a game. Excepting 1998's game against L.A. @ old Soldiers Field (33k+), the 17,800+ was the Fire's best playoff crowd ever, and it was during the week.

The way MLS is set up, the regular season games to which season tickets have been sold usually have nice crowds- most tickets have been sold for months in different packages. However, playoff games and midweek Open Cup games- games which are not scheduled months in advance- have been harder to sell for the team. The near 18k crowd was astounding for this long-term attendance watcher. Seems the natural progression slowly @ work; the new stadium and Blanco working wonders.

And Section 8 led the way- but they now have a new rival. The new rival? It wasn’t the 100 or so Barra Brava D.C. supporters who came in from the East Coast to catch the game. The crowd outside Section 8 has started to assert itself. There were organic chants of “Let’s go Fire” across the Harlem Stand, and it was Section 8 that had to quickchange their cheer to match what the others were doing. The chant of “polero” (“asshole” in Spanish) rose after a questionable call against Blanco. And again, like every time Blanco takes a corner kick, the whole Harlem Stand rises with the attempt.

And then there is Section 8. Unique in American pro sports. The loudest - and acknowledged silliest- thing around, they were loud and leading the whole 90m. Section 8 has really come into its own this year- the entire Section 118 (section 8’s official home) is always packed and standing for every game. As it was with other games, Section 8 has spilled into the near sections= it’s not too hard to envision a future where the entire Harlem Stand is on its feet singing. It’s not the Kop….…yet.

Section 8’s innovations were double for this game. It seems it’s been decided that there will be two leaders directing the songs (the first 10 years of Section 8 featured one guy on a small stand with his back to the game who would lead the Section). Notice how I said “It seems it’s been decided”- though I have been to every home game this year, I have stood in Section 8 very few times. Neice.1 and Nephew.2 are old enough and befriended enough to be in Section 8 by their selves while the old man uncle sits in the good seats. I’ve been a regular in Section 8 since the first game in ‘98, but time has taken its toll. Seats and a 50yd line view are very alluring.

The other innovation was the Pink Floyd lite show put up in the waning minutes of the game. Section 8 has long had an “anti authority” stance from the first season- the Polish hard cores who made the first base of Section 8 were constantly battling security, and there were often arrests-- ME INCLUDED ONCE-- of fans. The Section 8 base is now gringos in their teens and early 20’s- seems more like a high school or university game because of the crowd these days- and is much less confrontational. It used to be illegal to bring smoke bombs and flares into the games; when the flares were brought out, there was always the “Comisky Park in the 70’s” feel of chaos in the stands- security jumping in, the fans fighting back, smoke, yelling, etc…. However, this year Section 8 has had lots of smoke bombs going off- and finally they added light to the sectacle.

At a certain point in the 80’s (minute) a whole bunch of bombs went off. Then, in th center of the crowd, a great red light went off. It was great visuals- there were 3 or four bombs smoking @ once, and then suddenly that massive fog turned red from the light. I’m not sure they used flares From my nice seats - it may have been just a light- but it was great theatre framing.
So- an encouraging game. It could have been a two or three goal lead going into Thursdays game, but we will have to settle for one. Although last year the Fire were leading New England 1-0 after the first game and ended up losing the series, this is a better team. Says here they will win 1-0 next week and have a rematch w/ New England I the fires attempt to reach MLS Cup for the first time since 2003.