Chicago Fire
After a scoreless 120 minutes, the Fire’s Team for the World alliance partner Internacional (Brazil) needed a shoot-out to edge Juventude 4-3 on Sunday, May 5 to clinch the Rio Grande do Sul state championship.
Inter played the same starting 11 for the third straight match in the final as former Brazilian international and national team coach Dunga clinched his first title with the club.
As the winner of the first stage, the Piratini Cup, another tourney title in the Farroupilha Cup meant that they clinched the State championship. In the standard format the two winners face each other.
Internacional now moves on to open up the national Campeanato Brasileiro Saturday, May 25 against Vitoria.
The top four finishers from that competitoin qualify for the Copa Libertadores, the top club competition in South America.
Congratulations to Sport Club Internacional from the Chicago Fire!
UPDATE! The Chicago City Council voted unanimously to pass the the below resolution Tuesday morning.
The Chicago Fire today took part in hearings regarding a historic resolution regarding LGBT athletes to be introduced for passage by the Chicago City Council on Wednesday.
The Fire were represented at Tuesday’s hearings by Senior Director of Communications Dan Lobring who brought to light the club’s support for Robbie Rogers, participation with Equality Illinois in the 2012 Chicago LGBT Pride Parade and Section 8 Chicago’s “Our Diversity, Our Strength” tifo displayed prior to a game against the Houston Dynamo on April 15, 2012.
Sponsored in tandem by Alderman Joe Moore, the City Council’s Human Rights Committee and The Last Closet, should Wednesday’s resolution pass, Chicago would become the second city after San Francisco to declare its backing for LGBT athletes.
The end goal of the resolution is to ultimately get commissioners of all major North American sports leagues to state publicly their support for LGBT athletes, invite them to come out and pledge to make them safe and accepted.
For more information on Wednesday's resolution, please click here.
You could imagine my surprise when I saw the above headline on Grindtv.com...
I thought back to late February when I shot a viral video of an alligator watching the first team train at Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, S.C. The video has over 40,000 views so of course I wondered what I did wrong...
As much as I like it when Section 8 Chicago sings "There's only one Jeff Crandall" at Fire reserve matches, I've come to terms with the fact that its probably not true.
I've also come to terms with the fact that I'm not the bravest Jeff Crandall in the world either...
From the article:
"A sheriff’s deputy didn’t bother to wait for a trained alligator trapper to deal with an unruly alligator that was snapping at cars near a dentist’s office in Oldsmar, Florida. Nope, Pinellas County Deputy Jeff Crandall decided to take action himself, since the animal was heading toward the roadway.
According to numerous reports, Crandall grabbed a rope from his trunk, lassoed the gator’s neck, jumped on its back and taped its huge mouth shut—exactly what wildlife officials tell you not to do."
I'd never have done that... In case you've forgotten, this is my closest encounter with a gator...
Select shots from the Fire's reserve league win over FC Dallas
Select shots from the Fire's international friendly vs. Club America on April 29, 2009
The month of May is one day away which means the U.S. Open Cup begins just a week from today.
The 68-team field for the 100th edition of the historic tournament is set, with the play-in round commencing next Tuesday with two matches.
Then every Tuesday throughout the month of May will be a U.S. Open Cup date, with the Fire and Major League Soccer sides entering in the tournament's third round on May 28.
Coming off a difficult extra time loss to the Michigan Bucks at the first hurdle last season, there's no doubt that the four-time tournament champions Chicago Fire are chomping at the bit to get back to Open Cup play.
Be sure to keep up with this year's tournament via the excellent coverage provided by Josh Hakala and his team at TheCup.us
A quick look back on the Fire's four U.S. Open Cup titles:
Select shots from the Fire's match vs. the Montreal Impact
CREDIT: USA Today Sports Images
Our MLSsoccer.com friends Dan Haiek and Matt Doyle give their view on how Saturday's game vs. Montreal will play out...
Big props go to Austin Berry this week after a sterling performance versus Columbus.
Austin did a great job containing the crew's offensive strength, and he just missed bagging his first goal of the season by about a half an inch.
For his efforts Austin has earned a spot on the MLS Team of the Week. This is his first on the year, and the third of his career. Congrats Austin!
Today we look back on one of the most impressive come back wins in club history which came almost 10 years ago when the Fire visited the Kansas City Wizards at Arrowhead Stadium on April 26, 2003.
While the team was destined for their first and still only MLS Supporter’s Shield that season, they hit early bumps in the road under new head coach Dave Sarachan (photo right), drawing their first two matches of the season (1-1 vs. New England and 0-0 at D.C. United).
PERUSE: TrueCar Player Registry
Early in this one, things didn’t seem to get any better as Preki’s free kick found Igor Simutenkov in the 25th minute before the naturalized U.S. international’s corner was headed home at the back post by Jimmy Conrad in the 38th to give KC a 2-0 halftime lead.
"The only [halftime] adjustment we made was to challenge them," Sarachan told the Chicago Tribune. "We asked them if they were going to hang their heads or do something about it."
The challenge was met just after halftime when Orlando Perez sent a blistering left-footed effort from just inside 30 yards out past Tony Meola in the 53rd minute.
Twelve minutes later Andy Williams would bring things level, receiving a pass from Perez on the left before right-footing his effort past Meola from just outside the box.
FUN FACTS
* Ralph’s match-winner was the first of his Fire career and one of 11 he would go on to score in his MLS Rookie of the Year campaign.
"I'm glad I gave the team the lift it needed and it gave me the confidence I needed too," he said post-game.
* The win was also the first of Dave Sarachan’s tenure as head coach and pushed the side on to that year’s Supporters Shield, still the only time the club has taken the honor.
* This marked just the second time in club history the Fire came back from a two-goal deficit to win in regulation. The club has achieved that feat just three times in a total of 470 regular season matches.
The Others: Chicago Fire 4, Dallas Burn 3 (May 24, 2000), Chicago Fire 3, Colorado Rapids 2 (August 23, 2009)
* The game was just the second of current Fire captain Logan Pause's career. Pause, DaMarcus Beasley and Carlos Bocanegra are the only three active players left out of the 23 that played on the day...
BOX SCORE
CHI – Zach Thornton; C.J. Brown, Jim Curtin, Carlos Bocanegra, Orlando Perez; Evan Whitfield, Logan Pause, Chris Armas ©, DaMarcus Beasley; Andy Williams (Kelly Gray 87’), Rodrigo Faria (Damani Ralph 65’)
KC – Tony Meola ©; Diego Gutierrez (Dario Fabbro 71’), Nick Garcia, Jimmy Conrad, Jose Burciaga Jr.; Chris Klein, Preki, Carey Talley; Eric Quill (Kerry Zavagnin 67’), Igor Simutenkov (Chris Brown 62’), Josh Wolff (Bo Oshonyi 82’)
Scoring Summary
KC – Igor Simutenkov (Jimmy Conrad, Preki) 25’
KC - Jimmy Conrad (Preki) 38’
CHI – Orlando Perez (unassisted) 53’
CHI – Andy Williams (unassisted) 65’
CHI – Damani Ralph (Andy Williams) 70’
CHI - Evan Whitfield (caution) 43'
KC - Carey Talley (caution) 44'
CHI - Carlos Bocanegra (caution) 50'
