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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The U.S.'s final World Cup qualifying match came down to the bitter end. But that end was sweet for the Americans -- who used Jonathan Bornstein's headed goal in the last minute of stoppage time to pull out a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica at RFK Stadium Wednesday night. Costa Rica, who fell out of the automatic qualification zone with the draw, took the upper hand in the first half -- with forward Bryan Ruiz scoring two goals in a four minute span to give the Ticos a sizable lead.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.