Big Story
Your editor is behind today, as I spent last night meeting with Chicago Fire owner and chairman Andrew Hauptman, discussing many of the issues I raised in my open letter to Fire ownership last month.

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STARTERS
Got this note yesterday from a great reader named Anthony who lives in Glasgow: Have you heard of any fans making the trip to Bratislava for the Nov 14 game? I haven't heard anything and US Soccer hasn't even released info about tickets, but I got a cheap flight from Edinburgh to Bratislava so I'm going for the weekend in hopes I can get a ticket there and looking to meet up w any other US fans before the game to march and sing to the stadium together. Click to continue reading...

Here are a few links to get your day started...
The 'Players Only' section of the Chicago Tribune did a fun little piece with Fire midfielders John Thorrington and Logan Pause the other day. Thorrington interviewed Pause for the entry, asking Logan all sorts of things in rapid-fire format. Click to continue reading...

My recent posts on ESPNChicago.com:
• Oct. 31: Game 1 preview - Chicago Fire at New England Revolution
• Oct. 30: Time is now for Fire - Chicago has dealt with distractions all season
• Oct. 30: This date in Fire history: Oct. 30, 1998 - Fire complete 'double' with U.S. Open Cup victory
Also noteworthy:
• Chicago Tribune: What Chicago Fire need to do in playoffs
• Pitch Invasion's The Sweeper: Beckham and Blanco move on -- can MLS? Click to continue reading...

The collapse of the newspaper industry comes at a terrible time for a growing league like MLS. Numerous MLS teams don't even have beat reporters dedicated to them in the first place. Or if they do, they're the first to go.

Take the case of the struggling Chicago Tribune, who decided a few months ago to drop their beat coverage of the Chicago Fire by moving reporter Luis Arroyave from covering the Fire to covering showbusiness (a fitting move for the former FHM writer).

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