What a night at Toyota Park.
After losing the first leg of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series with New England 2-1,
the Fire stormed back in dramatic fashion tonight, getting a 2-0 victory to advance to the Eastern
Conference Finals on a 3-2 aggregate score.
Cuauhtemoc Blanco and John Thorrington scored the goals for the Fire, who will take on fourth
seeded Real Salt Lake in the Conference Final next Saturday at Toyota Park.
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It all comes down to this for the Fire. They need to defeat the Revs tonight at Toyota Park to
have any hope of advancing to the Eastern Conference Final against Real Salt Lake. Will they do it?
We'll find that out later, but I'll be here to walk you through the whole process with Fire
Confidential's first all-day blog.
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The Fire came into last Sunday's Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series against the
New England Revolution with high hopes that they could leave Boston with a result.
And though the Fire got off to the right start in the series opener - scoring an early goal to
put the pressure on New England - the team was undone by a pair of defensive lapses and ultimately
fell to the Revolution 2-1.
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Real Salt Lake finished off a huge first round upset tonight, defeating the Columbus Crew 3-2 at
Crew Stadium to win their Eastern Conference Semifinal series 4-2 on aggregate.
Real Salt Lake got behind the 8-ball early in the game, surrendering two first half goals to
fall behind the Crew 3-2 on aggregate.
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The first Eastern Conference finalist will be determined tonight, when the first seeded Columbus
Crew play host Real Salt Lake in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series (7 p.m. CDT on
ESPN2).
The Crew fell to Real Salt Lake 1-0 in the series opener last Saturday and they'll need a win to
have hope of continuing their 2008 title defense.
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Hey everyone, I just got off the phone with Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett and I got quite a bit
of reaction to the 2-1 Game 1 loss to the New England Revolution.
A lot of the quotes are same old, same old from Denis (funny how that happens when the team
struggles with the same problems over and over again.
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Last week I took a look at five key questions that would play a role in determining the winner
of Game 1 of the Fire-Revolution Eastern Conference Semifinal Series. Now, with the 2-1 Revolution
win in the books, it's time to take a second look at those five questions and see how they played
out.
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The Fire headed into Sunday's Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals at the New England
Revolution knowing that they couldn't afford to give the Revs many set piece opportunities.
"We have to limit their set pieces," Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett said earlier this week. "[We
have to be careful on] throw-ins and corner kicks because they do well with those.
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We're finally here.
After 7 months of grueling regular season action, the Fire is just two hours away from kicking off
Game 1 of their two game Eastern Conference Semifinal against New England. Today's game should be a
hard-fought, physical battle (as it always is between the two long time rivals.
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MLS just announced that Game 1 of the Fire-Revolution Eastern Conference Semifinal series has been
moved from Saturday, October 31st at 3 p.m. to Sunday, November 1st at 1 p.m.
As of now, the league hasn't announced the reasoning behind the change (I'll try and get that for
you guys later on.
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We should have known all along that it would come down to this. The Fire and the Revolution,
facing off in the playoff's for the eighth team in the Fire's 12 year history. It's one of the
biggest rivalries in the league, sure to be full of nastiness and with no room spared for
niceties.
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