Benny Feilhaber and Kelyn Rowe each scored one goal and assisted on the other as the New England Revolution claimed a 2-0 win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night at rain-soaked Gillette Stadium.

Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis made three saves to guide New England to its second shutout of the season.

The New England Revolution will take the rainy Gillette Stadium pitch tonight looking for their first win of the 2012 season against an Eastern Conference opponent. The Fire come into this game with a record of 5-4-3 and a road record of 2-3-1. Both clubs are still feeling the burn of being eliminated from the US Open Cup tournament on Tuesday, both by lower division sides, and will surely be hungry for three points to help ease the pain.

Of the two games this weekend, KC couldn't win the bigger of the two, but at least the traveling fans didn't go home without seeing one win. The Swope Park Rangers took on the Chicago Fire this morning in Chicago, and came away with a 3-1 win over the Fire. Three first half goals were enough to see the Rangers to victory.

For a welcome change, the Fire Reserves played a home game in sunshine and under blue skies. Unfortunately, the result of Sunday morning's game was anything but as the Fire dropped a 3-1 decision to Sporting Kansas City. What started out as a promising and controlling first 20 minutes fell apart quickly as SKC hit the back of the net three times before the first half ended to all but seal the three points.

A blustery Monday morning in Bridgeview, Illinois brought fierce winds and a couple surprises to the MLS Reserve League game between the Fire and the Houston Dynamo. After a loss in the last Reserve League game against Sporting Kansas City, the Fire looked to get back to winning ways and retain the Central/Mountain Division title.

Coming Home

I'm coming home
Tell the World I'm coming home
Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home, I'm coming home

I don't want to say it was a mistake for Chris Rolfe to leave for Denmark but I like the other words here.

The 2011 MLS Reserve League Central/Mountain Division champions Chicago Fire opened the Reserves League season Tuesday morning against the Real Salt Lake reserves on a windy and overcast day. I went to the game to get a good look at some of the new faces on the team as well as see how some familiar faces have progressed.

Chicago Fire 1 - 1 Montreal Impact
Chicago Fire: Paolo Tornaghi; Dan Gargan, Jalil Anibaba, Cory Gibbs, Gonzalo Segares (Hunter Jumper, 68'); Marco Pappa (Federico Puppo, 62'), Pavel Pardo, Logan Pause ©; Sebastian Grazzini (Daniel Paladini, 79'); Dominic Oduro, Patrick Nyarko
Substitutes not used: Jay Nolly, Corben Bone, Rafael Robayo, Orr Barouch
Montreal Impact: Donovan Ricketts; Jeb Brovsky, Mateo Ferrari, Tyson Wahl, Josh Gardner; Davy Arnaud, Felipe Martins, Patrice Bernier (Lamar Neagle, 82'), Justin Mapp (Andrew Wenger, 68'); Sanna Nyassi, Justin Braun (Bernardo Corradi, 77')
Substitutes not used: Greg Sutton, Callum Mallace, Shavar Thomas, Collen Warner

Chicago Fire Head Coach Frank Klopas
On the game.

Here it is, the last leg of the positional preview. I finally manage to get around to talking about the forwards. There are several issues with trying to evaluate the forwards. The last road pre season game, the one I expected to have the closest thing to the starting eleven that we were going to get, never happened.

Chicago Fire take on D.C. United at 4:00 PM CST and yes, this game will be video streamed. The video link will be here during the match. This is the opener of the 2012 Carolina Challenge Cup. Games versus the Columbus Crew and Charleston Battery will follow on February 29 and March 3 respectively.

Tomorrow at 4pm local time, the Fire take on DC United at the Carolina Challenge Cup. This match is going to be streamed at chicago-fire.com.To most of us Fire fans this will be the first time that we will get to see them play this year. I imagine both teams will probably try and limit subs and get as many of the starting XI the full 90.

It's time yet again for another round of Hat Trick and QOTD info. With the Chicago Fire season drawing close (yet still seemingly an agonizingly long time away), Fire fans have the Carolina Challenge Cup (CCC) to look forward to this weekend. It will be a final tune-up of sorts for the Fire before they head into a fresh new MLS season.

The Chicago Fire concluded Phase 2 of their preseason with split squad games today. A primarily first team lineup fell to the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 thanks to goals from Steven Lenhart and Brad Ring. The second team defeated the Ventura County Fusion 2-1 on the backs of a penalty kick goal from Orr Barouch and a Pari Pantazopoulos header Barouch assisted on.

In case you missed it, the Chicago Fire defeated Real Espana 3-1 in Saturday night's international exhibition. Video highlights, goal scorers, and Fire starters are after the break. The team has a recap with some quotes from Klopas up on the website. The local paper, The Times-Picayune, had a good recap too.

The Chicago Fire had no trouble dispatching Florida Gulf Coast University 3-0 in their second game of the 2012 preseason. Marco Pappa scored a goal in the 7th minute and assisted on Dominic Oduro's goal in the 21st minute. Orr Barouch made it 3-0 in the 60th minute of the game on a Corben Bone corner kick.

The Chicago Fire announced that Mike Matkovich and Leo Percovich will return to the club as Frank Klopas' assistant coaches for the 2012 season. Matkovich rejoins the Fire as an assistant coach, having previously served in the role for the club from 2009-10. The fact that Klopas is bringing Matkovich back on suggests that there was some kind of rift between Matkovich and former Fire head coach Carlos de los Cobos.

3four3 camp pic (12/28/11)

There is nothing high-level available for this group of players during their off-seasons. That hurts, and it must be fixed!

During the holidays we held a 4 day camp for them.

It was a pilot program really, as we have never done such a thing, but I was pleased with the turnout.

I am a little late getting these posted but here they are, the complete protection/unprotected lists for each MLS club for tomorrow's Expansion Draft with the Montreal Impact.

Chicago Fire:

Protected

• Anibaba, Jalil
• Barouch, Orr
• Gibbs, Cory
• Grazzini, Sebastian
• Johnson, Sean (GK)
• Nyarko, Patrick
• Oduro, Dominic
• Pardo, Pavel
• Pause, Logan
• Pappa, Marco
• Segares, Gonzalo

Unprotected

• Banner, Mike
• Chaves, Diego
• Conway, Jon (GK)
• Cuesta, Yamith
• Dufty, Alec (GK)
• Ferrari, Gabriel
• Gargan, Dan
• Husidic, Baggio
• Kinney, Steven
• Mikulic, Josip
• Nazarit, Cristian
• Paladini, Daniel
• Pantazopoulos, Pari
• Videira, Michael
• Watson-Siriboe, Kwame

Chivas USA

Protected

• Angel, Juan Pablo
• Braun, Justin
• Flores, Jorge
• Kennedy, Dan (GK)
• LaBrocca, Nick
• Moreno, Alejandro
• Nagamura, Paulo
• Pearce, Heath
• Smith, Ryan
• Umana, Michael
• Zemanski, Ben

Unprotected

• Arias, Sergio (GK)
• Boyens, Andrew
• Chijindu, Chukwudi
• Cortez, Chris
• Courtois, Laurent
• Elliot, Simon
• Estupinan, Victor
• Gavin, Blair
• Jazic, Ante
• Junior Lopes, David
• Lahoud, Michael
• Mayen, Gerson
• Mondaini, Marcos
• Thornton, Zach (GK)
• Trujillo, Mariano
• Valentin, Zarek

Colorado Rapids

Protected

• Casey, Conor
• Cummings, Omar
• Larentowicz, Jeff
• Mastroeni, Pablo
• Moor, Drew
• Mullan, Brian
• Pickens, Matt (GK)
• Smith, Jamie
• Wynne, Marvell
• Earls, Danny
• Nane, Joseph

Unprotected

• Ababio, Eddie
• Akpan, Andre
• Ceus, Steward (GK)
• Amarikwa, Quincy
• Comminges, Miguel
• Emory, Stephen
• Folan, Caleb
• Holody, Mike
• Joyce, Ian (GK)
• Kandji, Macoumba
• Kimura, Kosuke
• LaBeaux, Ross
• Marshall, Tyrone
• Nyassi, Sanna
• Palguta, Scott
• Thompson, Wells
• Wallace, Anthony

Columbus Crew

Protected

• Balchan, Rich
• Duka, Dilly
• Gaven, Eddie
• Hesmer, Will (GK)
• James, Julius
• Marshall, Chad
• Miranda, Sebastian
• Renteria, Emilio
• Rogers, Robbie
• Tchani, Tony
• Anor, Bernardo

Unprotected

• Burns, Kevin
• Cunningham, Jeff
• Ekpo, Emmanuel
• Francis, Shaun
• Gardner, Josh
• Gehrig,Eric
• Grossman, Cole
• Gruenebaum, Andy (GK)
• Heinemann, Tommy
• Meram, Justin
• Mendoza, Andres
• O'Rourke, Danny
• Owoeri, John
• Prim, Santiago
• Riggs, Alex (GK)
• Rusmir, Dejan
• Sippola, Ben
• Veeder, Corey
• Williams, Joshua

DC United

Protected

• Davies, Charlie
• DeRosario, Dwayne
• Jakovic, Dejan
• Kitchen, Perry
• McDonald, Brandon
• Pontius, Chris
• Simms, Clyde
• Willis, Joe (GK)
• Wolff, Josh
• Woolard, Daniel
• Korb, Christopher

Unprotected

• Barklage, Brandon
• Boskovic, Branko
• Brettschneider, Blake
• Burch, Marc
• Cronin, Steve (GK)
• Da Luz, Austin
• King, Stephen
• McTavish, Devon
• Morsink, Kurt
• Ngwenya, Joseph
• Quaranta, Santino
• Zayner, Jed

FC Dallas

Protected

• Benitez, Jair
• Castillo, Fabian
• Chavez, Marvin
• Ferreira, David
• Hartman, Kevin (GK)
• Ihemelu, Ugo
• Jackson
• Jacobson, Andrew
• John, George
• Loyd, Zach
• Shea, Brek

Unprotected

• Cruz, Daniel
• Edward, Edson
• Galindo, Maykel
• Guarda, Bruno
• Hall, Jeremy
• Hernandez, Daniel
• Lambo, Josh (GK)
• Maicon Santos
• Seitz, Chris (GK)
• Stewart, Jack
• Villar, Ricardo
• Warshaw, Bobby

Houston Dynamo

Protected

• Ashe, Corey
• Boswell, Bobby
• Camargo, Luis
• Cameron, Geoffrey
• Carr, Calen
• Clark, Colin
• Davis, Brad
• Hainault, Andrew
• Hall, Tally (GK)
• Moffat, Adam
• Taylor, Jermaine

Unprotected

• Ching, Brian
• Costly, Carlo
• Cruz, Daniel
• Freeman, Hunter
• Garey, Jason
• Newton, Evan (GK)
• Robinson, Eddie
• Watson, JeVaughn
• Weaver, Cam

LA Galaxy

Protected

• Beckham, David
• DeLaGarza, AJ
• Donovan, Landon
• Dunivant, Todd
• Franklin, Sean
• Gonzalez, Omar
• Keane, Robbie
• Magee, Mike
• Pereira, Vitor
• Ricketts, Donovan (GK)
• Saunders, Josh (GK)

Unprotected

• Alvarado, Sean
• Barrett, Chad
• Birchall, Chris
• Cardozo, Paolo
• Cristman, Adam
• Da Silva, Leonardo
• Hejduk, Frankie
• Jimenez, Hector
• Jordan, Bryan
• Keat, Daniel
• Lopez, Miguel
• McCarty, Dustin
• Perk, Brian (GK)
• Robinson, Dasan
• Stephens, Michael
• Thomas, Ryan

New England Revolution

Protected

• Alston, Kevin
• Feilhaber, Benny
• Joseph, Shalrie
• Lekic, Rajko
• Nyassi, Sainey
• Reis, Matt (GK)
• Shuttleworth, Robert (GK)
• Tierney, Chris
• Zerka, Moncef
• McCarthy, Stephen
• Soares, AJ

Unprotected

• Barnes, Darrius
• Boggs, Zak
• Caraglio, Milton Joel
• Cochrane, Ryan
• Coria, Franco
• Dube, Mkhokheli
• Guy, Ryan
• Kinne, Ryan
• Koger, Alan
• Loewy, Otto
• Mansally, Abdoulie "Kenny"
• Murray, Tim (GK)
• Phelan, Pat
• Schilawski, Zack
• Sousa, Andrew

New York Red Bulls

Protected

• Henry, Thierry
• Lindpere, Joel
• Marquez, Rafael
• McCarty, Dax
• Miller, Roy
• Ream, Tim
• Richards, Dane
• Rodgers, Luke
• Solli, Jan Gunnar
• Tainio, Teemu
• Keel, Stephen

Unprotected

• Albright, Chris
• Auvray, Stephane
• Ballouchy, Mehdi
• Coundoul, Bouna (GK)
• Horwath, Alex (GK)
• Jones, Mychel
• Lassiter, Tyler
• Mendes, Carlos
• Nielsen, Brian
• Paullo, Marcos
• Robinson, Carl
• Rooney, John
• Rost, Frank (GK)
• Schneider, Teddy
• Sutton, Greg (GK)

Philadelphia Union

Protected

• Califf, Daniel
• Carroll, Brian
• Daniel, Keon
• Farfan, Gabriel
• Farfan, Michael
• LeToux, Sebastien
• Mwanga, Danny
• Mondragon, Faryd (GK)
• Torres, Roger
• Valdes, Carlos
• Williams, Sheanon

Unprotected

• Adu, Freddy
• Gonzalez, Juan Diego
• Harrison, Chase (GK)
• Holder, Hasley Thorne
• Houapeu, Levi
• Langley, Morgan
• Mapp, Justin
• Miglioranzi, Stefani
• Nakazawa, Kyle
• Paunovic, Veljko
• Richter, Ryan
• Tait, Joe

Portland Timbers

Protected

• Alhassan, Kalif
• Brunner, Eric
• Chara, Diego
• Cooper, Kenny
• Danso, Mamadou "Futty"
• Jewsbury, Jack
• Palmer, Lovel
• Perkins, Troy (GK)
• Perlaza, Jorge
• Wallace, Rodney
• Horst, David

Unprotected

• Alexander, Eric
• Braun, Freddie
• Brown, Adin (GK)
• Chabala, Michael
• Dike, Bright
• Gleeson, Jake (GK)
• Goldthwaite, Kevin
• Johnson, Eddie William
• Lopez, Rodrigo
• Lowry, Peter
• Marcelin, James
• Pore, Ryan
• Purdy, Steve
• Taylor, Chris
• Thompson, Spencer
• Umony, Brian
• Zizzo, Sal

Real Salt Lake

Protected

• Beckerman, Kyle
• Beltran, Tony
• Borchers, Nat
• Espindola, Fabian
• Johnson, Will
• Morales, Javier
• Olave, Jamison
• Rimando, Nick (GK)
• Saborio, Alvaro
• Wingert, Chris
• Schuler, Chris

Unprotected

• Agorsor, Chris
• Alexandre, Jean
• Alvarez, Arturo
• Alvarez, Yordany
• Araujo, Paulo Jr.

Dan Gargan -- Getty ImagesBy Charlie Corr
ESPNChicago.com
The Chicago Fire and other Major League Soccer teams submitted their 11-player protected lists Monday in preparation for Wednesday's MLS Expansion Draft for the Montreal Impact.
Among some of the Fire's noteworthy players left unprotected are forward Diego Chaves, midfielder Daniel Paladini, and defenders Dan Gargan, Josip Mikulic and Yamith Cuesta.

I will update the list as I get the protected lists and any other news related to the Expansion draft here:

The lists are after the jump:

PROTECTED UNPROTECTED

• Anibaba, Jalil
• Barouch, Orr
• Gibbs, Cory
• Grazzini, Sebastian
• Johnson, Sean (GK)
• Nyarko, Patrick
• Oduro, Dominic
• Pardo, Pavel
• Pause, Logan
• Pappa, Marco
• Segares, Gonzalo

• Banner, Mike
• Chaves, Diego
• Conway, Jon (GK)
• Cuesta, Yamith
• Dufty, Alec (GK)
• Ferrari, Gabriel
• Gargan, Dan
• Husidic, Baggio
• Kinney, Steven
• Mikulic, Josip
• Nazarit, Cristian
• Paladini, Daniel
• Pantazopoulos, Pari
• Videira, Michael
• Watson-Siriboe, Kwame

• Angel, Juan Pablo
• Braun, Justin
• Flores, Jorge
• Kennedy, Dan (GK)
• LaBrocca, Nick
• Moreno, Alejandro
• Nagamura, Paulo
• Pearce, Heath
• Smith, Ryan
• Umana, Michael
• Zemanski, Ben

• Arias, Sergio (GK)
• Boyens, Andrew
• Chijindu, Chukwudi
• Cortez, Chris
• Courtois, Laurent
• Elliot, Simon
• Estupinan, Victor
• Gavin, Blair
• Jazic, Ante
• Junior Lopes, David
• Lahoud, Michael
• Mayen, Gerson
• Mondaini, Marcos
• Thornton, Zach (GK)
• Trujillo, Mariano
• Valentin, Zarek

• Casey, Conor
• Cummings, Omar
• Larentowicz, Jeff
• Mastroeni, Pablo
• Moor, Drew
• Mullan, Brian
• Pickens, Matt (GK)
• Smith, Jamie
• Wynne, Marvell
• Earls, Danny
• Nane, Joseph

• Ababio, Eddie
• Akpan, Andre
• Ceus, Steward (GK)
• Amarikwa, Quincy
• Comminges, Miguel
• Emory, Stephen
• Folan, Caleb
• Holody, Mike
• Joyce, Ian (GK)
• Kandji, Macoumba
• Kimura, Kosuke
• LaBeaux, Ross
• Marshall, Tyrone
• Nyassi, Sanna
• Palguta, Scott
• Thompson, Wells
• Wallace, Anthony

• Balchan, Rich
• Duka, Dilly
• Gaven, Eddie
• Hesmer, Will (GK)
• James, Julius
• Marshall, Chad
• Miranda, Sebastian
• Renteria, Emilio
• Rogers, Robbie
• Tchani, Tony
• Anor, Bernardo

• Burns, Kevin
• Cunningham, Jeff
• Ekpo, Emmanuel
• Francis, Shaun
• Gardner, Josh
• Gehrig,Eric
• Grossman, Cole
• Gruenebaum, Andy (GK)
• Heinemann, Tommy
• Meram, Justin
• Mendoza, Andres
• O'Rourke, Danny
• Owoeri, John
• Prim, Santiago
• Riggs, Alex (GK)
• Rusmir, Dejan
• Sippola, Ben
• Veeder, Corey
• Williams, Joshua

• Davies, Charlie
• DeRosario, Dwayne
• Jakovic, Dejan
• Kitchen, Perry
• McDonald, Brandon
• Pontius, Chris
• Simms, Clyde
• Willis, Joe (GK)
• Wolff, Josh
• Woolard, Daniel
• Korb, Christopher

• Barklage, Brandon
• Boskovic, Branko
• Brettschneider, Blake
• Burch, Marc
• Cronin, Steve (GK)
• Da Luz, Austin
• King, Stephen
• McTavish, Devon
• Morsink, Kurt
• Ngwenya, Joseph
• Quaranta, Santino
• Zayner, Jed

• Benitez, Jair
• Castillo, Fabian
• Chavez, Marvin
• Ferreira, David
• Hartman, Kevin (GK)
• Ihemelu, Ugo
• Jackson
• Jacobson, Andrew
• John, George
• Loyd, Zach
• Shea, Brek

• Cruz, Daniel
• Edward, Edson
• Galindo, Maykel
• Guarda, Bruno
• Hall, Jeremy
• Hernandez, Daniel
• Lambo, Josh (GK)
• Maicon Santos
• Seitz, Chris (GK)
• Stewart, Jack
• Villar, Ricardo
• Warshaw, Bobby

• Ashe, Corey
• Boswell, Bobby
• Camargo, Luis
• Cameron, Geoffrey
• Carr, Calen
• Clark, Colin
• Davis, Brad
• Hainault, Andrew
• Hall, Tally (GK)
• Moffat, Adam
• Taylor, Jermaine

• Ching, Brian
• Costly, Carlo
• Cruz, Daniel
• Freeman, Hunter
• Garey, Jason
• Newton, Evan (GK)
• Robinson, Eddie
• Watson, JeVaughn
• Weaver, Cam

• Beckham, David
• DeLaGarza, AJ
• Donovan, Landon
• Dunivant, Todd
• Franklin, Sean
• Gonzalez, Omar
• Keane, Robbie
• Magee, Mike
• Pereira, Vitor
• Ricketts, Donovan (GK)
• Saunders, Josh (GK)

• Alvarado, Sean
• Barrett, Chad
• Birchall, Chris
• Cardozo, Paolo
• Cristman, Adam
• Da Silva, Leonardo
• Hejduk, Frankie
• Jimenez, Hector
• Jordan, Bryan
• Keat, Daniel
• Lopez, Miguel
• McCarty, Dustin
• Perk, Brian (GK)
• Robinson, Dasan
• Stephens, Michael
• Thomas, Ryan

• Alston, Kevin
• Feilhaber, Benny
• Joseph, Shalrie
• Lekic, Rajko
• Nyassi, Sainey
• Reis, Matt (GK)
• Shuttleworth, Robert (GK)
• Tierney, Chris
• Zerka, Moncef
• McCarthy, Stephen
• Soares, AJ

• Barnes, Darrius
• Boggs, Zak
• Caraglio, Milton Joel
• Cochrane, Ryan
• Coria, Franco
• Dube, Mkhokheli
• Guy, Ryan
• Kinne, Ryan
• Koger, Alan
• Loewy, Otto
• Mansally, Abdoulie "Kenny"
• Murray, Tim (GK)
• Phelan, Pat
• Schilawski, Zack
• Sousa, Andrew

• Henry, Thierry
• Lindpere, Joel
• Marquez, Rafael
• McCarty, Dax
• Miller, Roy
• Ream, Tim
• Richards, Dane
• Rodgers, Luke
• Solli, Jan Gunnar
• Tainio, Teemu
• Keel, Stephen

• Albright, Chris
• Auvray, Stephane
• Ballouchy, Mehdi
• Coundoul, Bouna (GK)
• Horwath, Alex (GK)
• Jones, Mychel
• Lassiter, Tyler
• Mendes, Carlos
• Nielsen, Brian
• Paullo, Marcos
• Robinson, Carl
• Rooney, John
• Rost, Frank (GK)
• Schneider, Teddy
• Sutton, Greg (GK)

• Califf, Daniel
• Carroll, Brian
• Daniel, Keon
• Farfan, Gabriel
• Farfan, Michael
• LeToux, Sebastien
• Mwanga, Danny
• Mondragon, Faryd (GK)
• Torres, Roger
• Valdes, Carlos
• Williams, Sheanon

• Adu, Freddy
• Gonzalez, Juan Diego
• Harrison, Chase (GK)
• Holder, Hasley Thorne
• Houapeu, Levi
• Langley, Morgan
• Mapp, Justin
• Miglioranzi, Stefani
• Nakazawa, Kyle
• Paunovic, Veljko
• Richter, Ryan
• Tait, Joe

• Alhassan, Kalif
• Brunner, Eric
• Chara, Diego
• Cooper, Kenny
• Danso, Mamadou "Futty"
• Jewsbury, Jack
• Palmer, Lovel
• Perkins, Troy (GK)
• Perlaza, Jorge
• Wallace, Rodney
• Horst, David

• Alexander, Eric
• Braun, Freddie
• Brown, Adin (GK)
• Chabala, Michael
• Dike, Bright
• Gleeson, Jake (GK)
• Goldthwaite, Kevin
• Johnson, Eddie William
• Lopez, Rodrigo
• Lowry, Peter
• Marcelin, James
• Pore, Ryan
• Purdy, Steve
• Taylor, Chris
• Thompson, Spencer
• Umony, Brian
• Zizzo, Sal

• Beckerman, Kyle
• Beltran, Tony
• Borchers, Nat
• Espindola, Fabian
• Johnson, Will
• Morales, Javier
• Olave, Jamison
• Rimando, Nick (GK)
• Saborio, Alvaro
• Wingert, Chris
• Schuler, Chris

• Agorsor, Chris
• Alexandre, Jean
• Alvarez, Arturo
• Alvarez, Yordany
• Araujo, Paulo Jr.

On October 4, 2011, head coach Frank Klopas will lead the Chicago Fire to their 6th ever appearance in a U.S. Open Cup Final. This 2011 U.S. Open Cup journey started over 6 months ago in Peoria. Since then, a total of 25 players have been used in 4 different stadiums in 3 different time zones for a total of 5 advancing results.

You remember the Chicago Fire, right? Lots of ties. No offense to speak of. Mired in another lost season. Well, put all of that out of your mind, because the team standing in the Seattle Sounders' way of a third-straight U.S. Open Cup title is a lot different from that one.

Unless you follow the blow-by-blow of the Major League Soccer season, you could be excused for not realizing just how good the Fire have been playing over the course of the last couple months.

The two MLS sides with the strongest historical connections to the US Open Cup meet Tuesday night. Both Chicago and Seattle played non-ideal XIs in their weekend matches to prepare for their opportunity to lift the Cup. For the Chicago Fire this is their chance to reawaken the team, to renew their history and claw back into the discussion as a solid team with a bright future.

Chicago Fire Reserves (6-2-1) vs. Houston Dynamo Reserves (5-4-0) October 01, 2011 -- Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX MLS Reserve League -- Central/Mountain Division

Scoring Summary:
HOU -- Will Bruin 1 (Calen Carr 1) 12
HOU -- Will Bruin 2 (Jason Garey 2) 25
HOU -- Calen Carr 1 (unassisted) 42

Chicago Fire – Alec Dufty, Pari Pantazopoulos, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Yamith Cuesta, Francisco Mendoza, A.

Chicago Fire (7-8-16) vs. Houston Dynamo (10-9-13) October 1, 2011 -- Robertson Stadium Attendance: 17,544

Scoring Summary:

HOU -- Colin Clark 4 (unassisted) 33
CHI -- Dominic Oduro 12 (Baggio Husidic 2) 43

Chicago Fire -- Sean Johnson, Michael Videira, Jalil Anibaba, Cory Gibbs, Gonzalo Segares, Logan Pause, Daniel Paladini, Baggio Husidic (Pavel Pardo 67), Corben Bone (Marco Pappa 73), Dominic Oduro (Patrick Nyarko 51), Diego Chaves.

Chicago tied 1-1 with Houston in a fairly ho-hum game of soccer this afternoon. Colin Clark opened the scoring for Houston on some corner kick madness in the 33rd minute. Ten minutes later, Dominic Oduro burned Bobby Boswell on defense and got the ball past goaltender Tally Hall on a shot that required a lot of skill.

Today, the Chicago Fire sent out the shortest press release I've ever seen from the club. Outside from the standard information, here are the contents:

The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced today that the club has waived midfielder Marko Maric

The Croatian midfielder appeared in one match for the Fire before suffering an injury against the Portland Timbers April 14.

The Major League Soccer Players Union has released their end of summer update on players' salaries. If you have wondered how much Sebastian Grazzini and Pavel Pardo are making, we have the answer and a full update to the Chicago Fire salary picture below. At least, we kind of/probably do. Let me explain after the break.

The Chicago Fire tasted their first defeat in Reserves League play yesterday. Colorado pulled out a 2-0 victory in a reversal of Saturday night's senior squad game final score. Guillermo Rivera has a recap on the game play over at Chicago Fire Confidential along with an interesting bit on Eric Wynalda being in attendance and sitting next to Frank Klopas during the match.

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - He's only 19 years old, but Chicago Fire striker Orr Barouch has already been around the world and back again.

Born in Israel, Barouch - who was last week called up to the Israeli U-21 national team for a September friendly at England - moved to Southern California at age five, nearly joined Belgian team Club Brugge after spending a few months there in the summer of 2009, and eventually signed with Mexican club Tigres UANL later that year.

The Portland Timbers struck twice in stoppage time for a dramatic, come-from-behind, 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps in front of an announced crowd of more than 10,000 at JELD-WEN Field in Sunday's MLS Reserve League match.

Peter Lowry scored the game-winning goal in the waning seconds, finishing off a header from Steve Purdy to snatch the victory.

Eric Hassli gave Vancouver a quick start at Empire Field on Sunday night, scoring two minutes in against Chicago. The Fire equalized through Dominic Oduro in the 23rd minute, but Gershon Koffie had Vancouver back in front a minute later. Camilo made it 3-1 Vancouver in the 48th, with Hassli scoring his second goal in the 72nd minute.

For the third consecutive game it took a strong second half performance for United to beat an MLS team. And once again it was Wayne Rooney who inspired the second-half performance, just as he did in Seattle last weekend.

Fergie gave debuts to summer signings David de Gea and Phil Jones making their debuts, United conceded a shock goal after only 12 minutes when Jalil Anibaba launched a deep free-kick into the penalty area.

The Swope Park Rangers fell in a reserve league game today out at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park to the Chicago Fire. With Sporting KC set to take on Newcastle tomorrow, and a game against Toronto this weekend, KC's lineup saw them field only six players that are actually on KC's roster. The other 5 starters, and all 5 substitutions were either trialists or Juniors players.

Another chance for the Portland Timbers to redeem themselves tomorrow. More importantly is that it's also a chance to finally win a game on the road. As much as we would all love for the Timbers to be able to coast through the season with home wins (which are getting rarer each week) it's simply not possible to rely on them all the time.

Things don't always go as planned and sometimes that's beautiful. The Chicago Fire had to bump up their U.S. Open Cup match on Tuesday versus the New York Red Bulls from 7:30 PM CST to 5:00 PM CST due to storms that knocked out power for almost a million people in the Chicagoland area. Traffic surrounding Toyota Park was not pretty due to stop lights being out and you could see local businesses were closed on the way to the stadium.

Photo by Tracy Allen/ISIphotos.com

By ANTHONY ZILIS

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- New York Red Bulls manager Hans Backe just didn't seem to care about the U.S. Open Cup – at least not on Tuesday, when his team played the Chicago Fire in its fourth of nine games in July.

When you have a club like the New York Red Bulls who has a full slate of world class players and some talented youth players on their roster from the MLS Super Draft and their Academy, you would think that winning the US Open Cup is a serious thing. When you are traveling to Chicago and taking on the Fire for a spot into the Semi-Finals, you would think Backe wanted to exact some revenge in the league tie a couple of weeks ago.

By FRANCO PANIZO

The Seattle Sounders are putting together a string of solid results in more than just the MLS regular season.

The Sounders' reserve team remained undefeated after a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy reserves on Tuesday.

Lamar Neagle was largely responsible for improving Seattle to 7-0-0, as he assisted on Nate Jaqua's opener before scoring off a penalty kick at the 30-minute mark.

It was a dry day in Chicago for once but it was raining goals at Toyota Park in yesterday's Reserves League game. The previously undefeated FC Dallas Reserves fell 5-0. Orr Barouch got a pair of goals while Cristian Nazarit pulled down a hat trick. The Chicago Fire Reserves took first place in the Central/Mountain Division with the convincing victory.