http://chicago.theoffside.com News from Chicago Fire MLS Soccer Club Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:48:42 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en First half thoughts: 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 ... http://chicago.theoffside.com/team-news/the-elusive-sublime.html 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 ... http://chicago.theoffside.com/team-news/now-where-were-we.html 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 ... http://chicago.theoffside.com/team-news/enter-the-contrarian.html I had this lovely dream yesterday. In it, the most successful US striker ever decided that captaining and leading the line for a Premiership team was all well and good, but what he (and his family) really needed was ready access to Old Style brau and real deep-dish pizza. In the ... http://chicago.theoffside.com/transfer-rumours/shoulder-high-we-bring-him-home.html So bigsoccer.com blogger Jeff Bull wants to know if yesterday’s Bulledamerung was as comprehensive and one-sided as the 1-5 scoreline indicates. Yes. Yes, it was. I’ll give New York [sic] credit: They brought it the last 15 minutes of the first half. I went into halftime worried that Red Bull were ascendant, ... http://chicago.theoffside.com/team-news/yes-jeff-it-was-that-bad.html I don't have a tremendous amount to add to the Fire's complete and unassailable domination of the hapless Toros Rojos. Here's how it looks from my end: http://chicago.theoffside.com/team-news/vengeance-is-best-served-on-the-road.html Thanking God briefly for rojadirecta.com ... - Chad Barrett finished his first chance with the calm and touch of a real, honest-to-goodness forward. Given his already outstanding work rate and strength on the ball, is this the sign that Barrett is here to stay? I'm shocked and delighted. - ... http://chicago.theoffside.com/team-news/halftime-thoughts-fire-v-toros-rojos.html So here it finally frickin’ is. A chance to snap a few (metaphorical and emotional! Ha! Haha! Heh. Eh…) tibias, a chance to show those febrile Dwellers in the Swamp that their man-parts are insufficient, etc. … and yet. And yet. I hear rumblings that Wilman Conde is playing very well, ... http://chicago.theoffside.com/team-news/fire-v-evil-the-emo-preview.html Here I was, plonking along, writing my preview for this year’s first meeting between the Forces of Truth and Light (a/k/a the Fire) and FC Rough Beast Slouching Toward Bethlehem (a/k/a the Red Bulls). And, lo, did a great light shine down, and a link did appear, and the words ... http://chicago.theoffside.com/about-your-blogger/i%e2%80%99m-working-on-it-damn.html So I'm working on a post about the down side of the Fire's first quarter of the season, trying to think how to handle the fact that I've repeatedly called Chicago d-mid Wilman Conde a catamite, and now he might be here a while ... well, what the hell. DC!! ... http://chicago.theoffside.com/team-news/nfr-it-sure-could-be-worse.html