It was May 25 and I sat at Section 8 Chicago’s watch party at A.J. Hudsons, slightly distraught.
Despite seeing the Fire put in a fantastic effort in the always difficult climes of Rio Tinto Stadium I sat there in disbelief, surrounded by Fire supporters far more vocal in their dismay after witnessing Real Salt Lake’s Alvaro Saborio put the home side ahead 1-0 in the 78th minute.
The feeling was one I remembered -- the same aching pit in the stomach I’d felt nearly the entire game a week earlier in Philadelphia and then a week before that when the Fire had dominated but still found a way to lose at home to the Union.
I sat there for six minutes telling myself “Hey, we just pulled of a trade coup in acquiring Mike Magee” and “Bakary Soumare is going to help improve our back line immensely.”
Thankfully it took just six minutes before I felt good again and it was all down to an unlikely hero and an even less likely play as Quincy Amarikwa came flying through to volley home an improbable equalizer in the 84th minute.
Hudson’s erupted and though the game would only finish as a draw, it certainly felt like a win.
Fast forward five weeks and the Fire find themselves in the semifinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, just five points out of a playoff spot with two games in hand and on an eight-game unbeaten run that began that night on the Wasatch Front.
Four days after escaping Rio Tinto with a point, Magee would tally his first goal in a Fire shirt just 11 minutes into his club debut. All but about 1,500 people in Rock Hill, S.C. nearly missed it as my laptop carrying the YouTube stream crashed right at kickoff of the match.
As I sweat buckets there was something about the way my computer rebooted itself that told me things were going to be okay. Yes it took 11 minutes to get the feed back up but it returned just in time for anyone that held out hope to see Magee nod home his first Fire goal.
Every night since first suiting up that night in front of a small crowd in South Carolina, Magee has tallied for the Fire. Soumare has brought stability to a back line that has given up less than a goal a game in its last eight outings.
No doubt their acquisitions have helped the turnaround but it’d be wrong to say that the team didn’t already have a decent setup in place.
Along with their play, offseason acquisitions Jeff Larentowicz, Joel Lindpere and Dilly Duka have all contributed in a big way over the last month, complimenting the consistent performances of Patrick Nyarko, Gonzalo Segares, Logan Pause and Daniel Paladini.
Having never previously tallied in the U.S. Open Cup before 2013, Chris Rolfe has found a bit of a goal-scoring touch in the tournament, scoring three goals in as many games so far in this year’s competition.
This isn’t to say the eight-game unbeaten run has all been pretty. There have certainly been moments (see the first half against Portland) where we’d like to see more from the Fire and many times where goalkeeper Sean Johnson has had to come up huge to ensure the positive run.
But just as it seemed the Fire couldn’t get any bounces to go their way at the start of 2013, the karma, minutia, or maybe just the soccer gods seem to be smiling down on a team that wasn’t quite punching their weight at the beginning.
Now that I've suffiently set a jinx, yes the Fire are still 5-7-3 and yes, whether in the league or the Open Cup, plenty of work remains to be done to dig out of the hole from which they started the season. Depth needs to be built in the back and up front but it's still worth saying again, what a difference five weeks can make.
