A common saying amongst those in the soccer world is that a penalty kick shootout is a cruel way
to decide a match.
After Saturday night, the Chicago Fire knows that saying back to front.
120 minutes of action saw the Fire and Real Salt Lake knotted at 0-0 so it all came down to a
penalty shootout.
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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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In-stadium rivals Chivas USA and the L.A. Galaxy played to an exciting 2-2 draw Sunday night,
setting the stage for what will be the most important MLS "Super Clasico" to date next Sunday.
Chivas USA got off to a hot start in the match and they took the lead in just the 4th minute
when Maicon Santos drilled a right footed shot past L.
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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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Real Salt Lake got a late goal from striker Robbie Findley to defeat Columbus 1-0 in the opening
game of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series Saturday night.
The match looked to be headed to a scoreless draw, but that all changed in the 88th minute when
Findley slotted home a Yura Movsisyan cross to give RSL the win.
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The playoffs opened up last night in front of a raucous 30,000 + fans at Qwest Field in Seattle
last night, but the expansion Sounders went home disappointed as they failed to find the back of
the net in their 0-0 draw with the Houston Dynamo.
With the tie, Houston now only has to win at home when the series resumes on November 8th to
advance to the Western Conference Finals.
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The Fire finally clinched their spot in the playoffs tonight, earning the second seed in the
Eastern Conference with a 1-0 win at a rain-soaked Toyota Park over Western Conference leaders
Chivas USA.
The Fire, who took the lead in the 67th minute when Chivas forward Eduardo Lillingston put a
Cuauhtemoc Blanco corner kick in the back of the net for an own goal, snapped a six game winless
streak with the loss and now enters the postseason with a little bit of momentum.
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If someone would have told me midway through the season that the Fire's playoff fate would be in
the balance heading into their final match, I would've have called them crazy. But here we are.
After tonight's 0-0 draw at the Revolution, the Fire find themselves with one game left to play and
their future still uncertain.
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Heading into Friday night's game against the L.A. Galaxy, Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett knew to
watch out for the Los Angeles counterattack. "They're a very good counterattacking team," Hamlett
said of the Galaxy. "They have some good guys [that will] test out our back four." But knowledge
isn't always power, and the Galaxy proved that at the Home Depot Center tonight, scoring a
counterattacking goal to defeat the Fire 1-0.
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Playing without injured attackers Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Chris Rolfe, the Fire played to what
they called a "disappointing" 2-2 draw with Toronto FC at Toyota Park tonight. The second place
Fire, who has now tied three matches in a row, fall five points behind the league leading Columbus
with the result - effectively eliminating them from the race for the Supporter's Shield.
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The Fire had it all to fight for on Sunday afternoon against the Columbus Crew. First place in
the East, a shot at the Supporter's Shield, home field advantage in the playoffs, you name it and
the Fire had it in their grasp this afternoon at Toyota Park but in the end it all slipped away as
the two sides played to a very controversial 2-2 draw.
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After getting a well-deserved week off to rest their legs, the Fire came into tonight's match
against Real Salt Lake ready to start the final two months of the season with yet another road win.
And while at times it looked like the Fire would be able to pick up all three points at Rio Tinto
Stadium, in the end it wasn't to be, and the two teams played to a 1-1 tie.
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El Salvador gave the U.S. a whole lot to handle on Saturday night, but in the end the Americans
pulled through, winning the important World Cup Qualifier 2-1 in Salt Lake City. The U.S. - who now
has 12 points from seven games in the final qualification round - moves into second place with the
win, trailing Honduras only on goal differential.
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Coming off of last Sunday's thrilling, come from behind 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rapids,
the Fire put in a very disappointing performance tonight, falling to longtime rivals D.C. United
1-0 at Toyota Park. Bryan Namoff scored the lone goal of the match in the 11th minute, when he
flicked home a fantastic Christian Gomez free kick from the top of the 6 yard box.
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The Fire pulled off a wild one tonight - getting three goals in the last 20 minutes to defeat
the Colorado Rapids 3-2. "This was a test for us, this was a test to see what kind of character we
have," said a very happy Jon Busch. "Everybody stepped up. We got behind the eight ball a little
bit but we didn't hang our heads.
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In an effort that can only be classified as pathetic, the Fire lost for the third time in four
games Wednesday night, this time falling to the L.A. Galaxy by a score of 2-0. "If you can't get up
for big games like this I don't know what the problem is," said Fire keeper Jon Busch. "This is a
big game.
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For a team playing without its entire starting backline, a starting midfielder, and two starting
forwards, the Fire did pretty well for themselves Sunday afternoon, ending their two-game losing
streak with a 2-0 win over the Kansas City Wizards at CommunityAmerica Ballpark. The Fire - who was
playing their first game after Bakary Soumare's and Denis Hamlett's "locker room incident" - took
the lead in the 13th minute through Chris Rolfe.
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In a match that lived up to all of its billing, all of the hype, the Mexico defeated the U.S.
2-1 in a World Cup Qualifying Match at the vaunted Estadio Azteca. Mexico dominated the possession
for the entire 90 minutes but it was the U.S. that struck first, scoring the opener through forward
Charlie Davies in the 9th minute.
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In a thrilling match full of injuries, controversy and goals, the Fire came out losers Sunday
night, falling to the MLS leading Houston Dynamo 3-2 at Robertson Stadium. The Fire - who saw their
five game MLS unbeaten streak come to a close - couldn't catch a break all night long and fell
victim to injuries and some questionable refereeing throughout the match.
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The Fire's SuperLiga dream came to a not so super close tonight, as the team lost a gutting
match to Tigres UANL 4-3 in penalty kicks at Toyota Park. The Fire came out on all cylinders to
start the match and they were able to take the early lead in the 10th minute when Patrick Nyarko
neatly flicked a Gonzalo Segares cross inside the near post of a diving Cirilo Saucedo from about 6
yards out.
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The Fire and Real Salt Lake squared off in the first of their two meetings on the year Saturday
night at Toyota Park and the Fire walked away winners, defeating the Utah squad 1-0. The match
looked to be heading towards a scoreless draw but Patrick Nyarko saved the day for the Fire in the
76th minute.
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Heading into Saturday's match at Seattle, the Fire knew that it would be a tough task to leave
the Pacific Northwest with a result. But after 90 minutes of supercharged soccer action, the Fire
was able escape Qwest Field with a point, tying the expansion Sounders 0-0....
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The U.S. blanked Honduras 2-0 tonight at Soldier Field and, in doing so, advanced to their third
straight Gold Cup final. The final, which will be played on Sunday at Giants Stadium in East
Rutherford N.J., will feature the U.S. against Mexico or Costa Rica, who are currently tied 0-0 in
the second half of a highly entertaining match.
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Again outwitted by VCR programming - this time, due to neglect to keep the time current; damn thing
started recording at 9:00 p.m. I'll spare you the full, profanity-laden story. The upshot,
though, is that I didn't see this whole match - only enough of it to know Atlante FC was a little
better than good [.
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Some quick thoughts on both of tonight's CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals come below. I'll
offer more detailed thoughts on the game tomorrow, but figured I'd get something up while the
memory is still fresh. I invite anyone who cares to to drop their thoughts in the comments below.
Harbour View FC 1-1 DC United This [.
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Group A Liverpool 4, Marseille 0 The Reds wasted no time in dismantling Djibril Cisse's squad. The
arrow was pointing in their direction and it wasn't any clearer than when Gerrard missed an early
penalty conversion only to follow it up and put Rafa's boys in the lead. The rest of the game was
symmetrical to say [.
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Saturday Arsenal 5, Derby County 0 The Gunners solidified their position as 'best in show' at the
top of the EPL. Emmanuel Adebayor has dramatically improved since last year and bagged a hat-trick
to prove it. It was young'un Vassiriki Diaby who grabbed his first EPL goal though and opened the
scoring clinic in the 10th minute. [...]
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