Some serious thought was given by me to drive the eight hours to Ohio next week to catch the Fire’s next game - if it is to be against the Columbus Crew. If it’s not against/in Columbus, then the Fire will play K.C. here for the right to go to MLS Cup for the fourth time in the teams 11 season history. Either way, the important deal is that the fire advanced Thursday nite against the new England Revolution, winning the two game total goals series 3-0. The next opponent will be decided to-nite when K.C. plays the regular season best team Columbus*. The single game -OT and PK’s to decide it if it‘s tied in regulation- will be played Thusday nite (a rare non J & B Thursday nite game).The fact that I gotta work the next day means I will not be driving to Ohio - for many reasons I’m pulling for the upset for KC over Columbus. The MLS playoffs are sorta like the Stanley Cup playoffs (or how MLB playoffs have become) , where anyone in a given series can win it. The first leg of the KC Columbus series was 0-0, so whoever wins the second leg advances to play the Fire.
This series showed the Fire to be the superior team to New England. The first leg, a 0-0 slugfest last Thursday in Boston, was thrilling. I missed the first half due to coaching my soccer team, but the second half was tingling. From what I saw, playing on the road to a team that had eliminated the Fire something like five out of the last six years (think NHL early 80’s when it seemed the Hawks played the North Stars every year in the playoffs), the Fire were the better team. Now wait - New England had two of their best players injured - Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston- so the Fire had an easier goof it. Last year it was a a spectacular bycicle kick goal by Twellman to eliminate the Fire. But this year the Fire have outplayed the Revolution every time they met. The Fire won 3-0 and 4-0 this year @ home, and after the battle last week, I had every confidence in the team to advance.
So this weeks game was a really exciting thing to look forward to - and we were not disappointed. The game was great. Some soccer games suck, and I can lose interest quickly. Since this was a deciding game, there was a lot of interest in it- but it went far beyond that. Both teams are very good, in top fitness, and have been playing to-gether for seven months now. In other words, there were many beautiful passes, intricate passes, wonderful movement of the ball, on both sides - it was the beautiful game. But was obvious that one team was more beautiful - the Fire. Blanco was on his game, and the running, shouting, passing Blanco we all love was all apparent all over the field. Funny -a small back heel pass from him - even if it goes nowhere - sets the crowd alight. His lot loose @ the end of the firt half, and his parried shot was put in by Chris Rolphe. I felt @ that point that it mite be enough - but two more goals allowed Section 8 to start taunting.
And what a nite for Section 8. Fire playoff games - like playoff games in any sport - are a killer. From the first season of the fire in ‘98, the mood @ a playoff game is totally different that a regular season game. In the old days, when the fire would get maybe 5000 for a midweek playoff game, up to 20% of the crowd was crowded in Section 8, and they were always @ their loudest. Not only was Section 8 r evved up for those games, the sparse crowds w ere always dominated by Section 8. Last nites game drew 17,000 plus - a very nice crowd for an ESPN2 mandated Thurday nite game - and they were all loud. The knots in the stomachs mite have been lifted by Rolphes goal - but the shouting never stopped. And the surprise that Section 8 had promised for the game?? Turned out to be flares again - the endless battle betwixt Section 8 and security continues.
*The regular season winner is actually celebrated in MLS. They win something called The Supporters Shield - an acknowledgement of the many leagues in the world, like Englands Premiership, La Liga of Spain……… um, I guess every Euro league is set up like this - where there are no playoffs and the league is set up like a pennant race = the most points @ the end of the season wins the league. But the bigger deal w/ winning the Supporters Shield is that the team is qualified to the next season Champions League (along w/ the Open cup winner, and the two finlists in MLS Cup). The Fire may already have won a place in next years competition - since Columbus is already qualified, they do not have to win against the Fire to qualify for next years competiton. So even if the Fire lose this week, the tiebreakers for qualification could earn the Fire their first Champions league spot. I’d love that. Events will play out. But the exciting thought that next year the fire will actually be traveling to Belize to play Belize United (or whoever) is, embarrassingly, exciting to me.
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