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An 11th minute goal from newcomer Cristian Nazirit and a 40th minute equalizer from Chance Myers provided the scoring in the Fire's Reserve League match against Sporting Kansas City this morning at the Toyota Park practice field.

The Fire's starting eleven included Alec Dufty in goal and Dasan Robinson, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Josip Mikulic, and Bratislav Ristic in defense.

The Fire did manage to win something this season after all. MLS announced today that Marco Pappa's week 3 bomb against San Jose was voted the AT&T Goal of the Year. Pappa managed to defy all adds and beat out the ballot stuffing, bot-voting fans in Seattle who only managed to get one goal named into the top five finalists.

At the midway point of the season the Fire sat in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with a 5-5-5 record. They had just completed a 3-2 win in Los Angeles, they held a 3 game in hand advantage over most playoff contenders and the arrival of Freddie Ljungberg, Nery Castillo , and Gonzalo Segares provided some hope that the second half of the season would result in a big run.

The Fire have released Assistant Coach Mike Matkovich and Fitness Specialist Alvaro "El Profe" Briones. Matkovich has been an assistant since January of 2009 after replacing Chris Armas on the staff. Briones joined the staff this past February, shortly after Carlos De Los Cobos was hired.

What does this all mean?

As if on cue, the Fire have announced the recipients of the 2010 Individual awards.

Most Valuable Player - Logan Pause

Defender of the Year - CJ Brown

Humanitarian of the Year - Dasan Robinson

Golden Boot - Marco Pappa

The Fire, in conjunction with Section 8 will honor CJ Brown and the other winners at a Supporter's Party at The Pitch on November 9.

The Fire usually announce their annual award winners during the pre game festivities of the first playoff match. There will be no such opportunity this year but the awards will be doled out anyway. Here's my take on the team's Rookie of the Year, Defender of the Year, and Most Valuable Player for the 2010 season.

The Fire saved their first four goal match of the season for the final day of the campaign. After a fairly even first half that saw the Fire grab a 1-0 lead on a fantastic back heel flick from Brian McBride, Chivas USA defenders allowed the Fire room to operate and the attack lead by Freddie Ljungberg made them pay.

Starting Line Ups

Fire

GK Johnson

D Kinney, Brown, Conde, Umanzor

M Ristic, Pause, Lowry, Pappa

F Ljungberg, McBride

Subs: Dykstra, Watson-Siriboe, Husidic, Bone, Nyarko, Carr, Castillo

Chivas USA

GK Thornton

D Trujillo, Borja, Jazic, Bornstein

M Espinoza, Nagamura, Zemanski, Flores

F Braun, Padilla

Subs: Guppy, de la Fuente, Lahoud, Romero, Zaragosa, Zizzo, Maldonado

A typical match preview is tough to put together when two teams that have nothing to play for are the combatants. Similar to the Fire, Chivas USA is suffering through a miserable season with a new coach after qualifying for the playoffs in 2009. They also played on Wednesday night and were victims of a Chris Wondolowski hat trick en route to a 3-0 defeat in San Jose.

When asked about his plans for next season after the Kansas City match on October 12 CJ Brown suggested that he had not arrived at a decision yet. It seems that Brian McBride's final match this past weekend struck a chord with the future Ring Of Fire inductee. According to this article Brown is retiring at the end of this season.

The Fire depart for California on Thursday to close out the season against Chivas USA on Saturday night. The game doesn't mean much to either side and the Fire could use the opportunity to get a look at some younger players.

• According to De Los Cobos he wants to give Corben Bone another shot against Chivas but hasn't decided whether or not he will start yet.

According to this Israeli report, Wilman Conde will travel to Israel next week to trial with Maccabi Haifa FC. Conde is likely to explore every option in search of the best deal possible since he is out of contract after the season. It's likely that his performance this season hasn't produced the offers he was looking to receive so I'd expect he'll continue to look as long as he can.

A recent article by SI.com's Steve Davis got me thinking about the Fire's current coaching situation and the dismissal of the previous coach. Some members of the national media have taken the opportunity to point out that Denis Hamlett was relieved of his duties after two consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference final and have painted his dismissal as some egregious miscarriage of justice.

A disappointing end to the home season and Brian McBride's final Chicago match featured a goal that was called back in the sixteenth minute as a result of an offsides call. McBride was also stopped on a late first half header by a diving Troy Perkins.

The match itself was played with all the energy of two teams playing out the string and the result showed it.

Starting Line Ups

Fire

GK Dykstra

D Kinney, Watson-Siriboe, Conde, Umanzor

M Ristic, Lowry, Pause, Pappa

F Nyarko, McBride

Subs: Duffy, Brown, Bone, Husidic, Ljungberg, Carr, Castillo

DC United

GK Perkins

D McTavish, James, Jakovic, Zayner

M Najar, Morsink, King, Quaranta

F Allsopp, Hernandez

Subs: Harrison, Graye, Boskovic, Carreiro, Simms, Varela, Cristman

Calling this effort lackluster would be very gracious. After a 2-0 win against Columbus the Fire came out and played like a team that has been eliminated from playoff contention. Certainly the revolving door of personnel changes due to injury and call ups played a part in the overall performance but an apparent lack of desire seemed to be the pervasive feeling in the locker room afterwards.

Starting Line Ups

Fire

GK Dykstra

D Ristic, Brown, Watson-Siriboe, Krol

M Bone, Lowry, Pause, Carr

F Ljungberg, John

Subs: Duffy, Umanzor, Conde, Husidic, Nyarko, Castillo, McBride

Wizards

GK Nielsen

D Harrington, Besler, Conrad, Espinoza

M Auvray, Arnaud, Rocastle, Kamara

F Wolff, Bunbury

Subs: Kronberg, Leathers, Myers, Thomas, Diop, Jewsbury, Zusi

The Fire are now mathematically eliminated from playoff contention and they can officially eliminate the Kansas City Wizards with a win or tie at Toyota Park. Although Kei Kamara has managed to find the net 10 times this season, the Wizards have struggled to score for most of the season. They've actually scored three less goals on the year than the Fire have.

San Jose defeated DC United 2-1 and Colorado earned a draw in Dallas. That combination of results officially eliminated the Fire from any chance of qualifying for the 2010 MLS playoffs. The most realistic chance of getting in involved the Fire winning their remaining three matches and Colorado losing their last three while making up a goal differential tie breaker.

The Fire capped off the thirteenth anniversary celebration with one of their better performances of the year and a 2-0 victory over Columbus. Goals from Peter Lowry and Brian McBride were enough to send a seemingly tired Columbus side home with the possibility of falling four points behind New York in the Eastern Conference table.

Starting Line Ups

Fire

GK Dykstra

D Ristic, Brown, Robinson, Kinney

M Nyarko, Pause, Lowry, Pappa

F Ljungberg, Nyarko

Subs: Duffy, Carr, Watson-Siriboe, Bone, Husidic, Castillo, John

Crew

GK Hesmer

D Hejduk, Marshall, Brunner, Padula

M Moffat, Carroll, Gaven, Rogers

F Mendoza, Barros-Schelloto

Subs: Gruenebaum, Iro, Burns, Ekpo, Oughton, Garey, Lenhart

In a match that could become an annual tradition, the Fire is set to take on Columbus on the anniversary of the club's inclusion to Major League Soccer. October 8 not only signifies the official "birthday" of the Chicago Fire and the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 it also serves as a reminder of how far the team and the league have come in a relatively short period of time.

The biggest news coming out of practice today is that Sean Johnson will miss Friday's game against Columbus with an eye injury suffered in training yesterday. Johnson is suffering through a condition called hyphema which occurs with internal bleeding in the eye causing blurred vision. The injury occured on Tuesday when Johnson was hit by a shot at close range.

Freddie Ljungberg's goal against San Jose was the tenth score by a Fire forward this season. An incredibly low total considering that several forwards throughout the league have easily eclipsed that total by themselves. A look at the league leaders shows that some of the top finishers aren't exclusively just forwards.

Playing their third match in a week the Fire were outclassed in Dallas surrendering the Brimstone Cup for the ninth consecutive season. A defensive lapse in the 20th minute from Kwame Watson-Siriboe resulting in the first goal was all Dallas really needed to earn the three points and continue the Fire's miserable season.

Starting Line Ups

Fire

GK Johnson

D Kinney, Watson-Siriboe, Robinson, Krol

M Pause, Lowry, Ristic, Nyarko

F Ljungberg, Carr

Subs: Dykstra, Brown, Conde, Pappa, Bone, McBride, John

FC Dallas

GK Sala

D Pearce, Goncalves, Loyd, Benitez

M Harris, McCarty, Alexander, Chavez

F Ferreira, Rodriguez

Subs: Sharpe, Avila, Cunningham, Davies, Edward, Luna, Shea

In order to keep their slim playoffs hopes alive the Fire have an opportunity to reclaim some hardware from an old nemesis. FC Dallas (or the team from Dallas previously known as the Burn) has held onto the Brimstone Cup since 2002 and are currently riding a 17 game unbeaten streak. The MLS all time best is 19 set by the Crew in 2004/2005.

Krzysztof Krol is finding a way to stay on a soccer field before looking for greener pastures in Europe during the January transfer window. During the month of September, Krol will head indoors and play for the Chicago Riot during the month of December.

Although he won't be available for the home opener on Sunday night at the Odeum in Villa Park he will be available for four other matches including a December 12 home match against Missouri.