There's only one game left in the 2009 MLS Schedule and it's the big one; the MLS Cup Final. This year's final, which will be played at Seattle's Qwest Field, pits Western Conference regular season champs the L.A. Galaxy against the streaking Real Salt Lake.

The matchup offers some good star power with the obvious L.

Click to continue reading...

It goes without saying that Saturday night's playoff elimination at the hands of Real Salt Lake was an incredibly gut-wrenching defeat for the Fire. It's tough any time a team bows out of a competition due to penalty kicks, but this one was especially painful for Chicago - who has now been eliminated from the Eastern Conference Final in three consecutive seasons.

Click to continue reading...

Former Galaxy player and goal hero Ned Grabavoy, left, and Real Salt Lake, which beat the Chicago Fire on penalty kicks to become Eastern Conference champions (let's get rid of these silly conferences based on irrelevant geography, MLS) will face the Galaxy Sunday in Seattle.

Grabavoy scored the winning goal just before the picture was taken above, although former Galaxy striker Robbie Findley almost scored in the dying moments of regulation time only to be denied by Palos Verdes Peninsula product John Thorrington.

Click to continue reading...

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.

Click to continue reading...

Three big saves by Rimando in the penalty shootout keeps the Fire out. Ned Grabavoy nails the winning penalty kick after Fabian Espindola misses his chance. The Fire fell victim to a peculiar directional bias that made them test Rimando low on his left as Thorrington, Pause, and Prideaux became predictable.

Click to continue reading...

A trip to the MLS Cup is on the line as the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake are almost set to face off in tonight's Eastern Conference Final at Toyota Park. Who will advance remains to be seen, but I'll be here to take you through the whole day with Fire Confidential's second All Day Blog.

Click to continue reading...

The Fire couldn't have asked for much more from last Saturday's 2-0 win over New England.

Advance in the Eastern Conference playoffs? Check.

Do it against a bitter rival? Check.

And do it all in style? Oh my, yes. Check.

That's what can happen when the Fire plays some of its most inspired soccer at the best time of year before a packed house at Toyota Park.

Click to continue reading...

Tickets for the Saturday night's Eastern Conference Final between the Fire and Real Salt Lake sold out today. The sellout is the second consecutive for the Fire - who will sell a very limited amount of standing room only tickets for the game.

If you're sitting on some cash, you can buy the so called "FieldSide West" tickets for $250 a pop.

Click to continue reading...

After up and down regular seasons that saw one team consistently dissatisfied with its results and one team barely scrape its way into the playoffs, it's only fitting that the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake take each other on. Both teams will enter the Eastern Conference Final feeling that they have something to prove - Chicago wanting to live up to the hype that built up prior to and during the season and Salt Lake wanting to prove they're first round win over Columbus was more than merely a fluke.

Click to continue reading...

With only three days remaining before they take on Real Salt Lake in the Eastern Conference Final, the Fire is looking for all of their injured players to return to the field to help Chicago advance to its first MLS Cup Final since 2003.

Unfortunately for the Fire though, it doesn't appear as if all of their banged-up players will be available on Saturday night at Toyota Park.

Click to continue reading...

RSL was down on the strength of two Schelotto goals by the 35th minute and it appeared as if Crew would be able to get over the one goal disadvantage and advance to the quarter finals. But RSL struck back from a Javier Morales goal two minutes later. Ten minutes later, RSL were awarded a penalty by referee Baldemero Toledo, a dubious call on Frankie Hejduk as Espindola went down a bit too easily.

Click to continue reading...

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.

Click to continue reading...

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.

Click to continue reading...

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.

Click to continue reading...

The MLS playoffs continue tonight with Columbus traveling to Sandy, Utah to take on Real Salt Lake in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series (6 p.m. Direct Kick). If Real Salt Lake is to have any chance against the regular season champion Crew they need a result tonight -- as they typically struggle mightily on the road. Click to continue reading...

I've already taken a brief look at the Fire-Revolution first round series, but haven't spent any time on the three other Conference Semifinals going on around the country in the next couple of weeks. That's about to change though. Click after the jump for a quick rundown of the 'other' first round series.

Click to continue reading...

Things took a wild turn in the MLS playoff race last night as the team with the least amount of points heading into the day, Real Salt Lake, was the only team to end the night with a playoff spot clinched.
Real Salt Lake got into the 2009 edition of the MLS Cup Playoffs in the same exact way they got into the 2008 postseason -- by defeating the Colorado Rapids in the last game. Click to continue reading...

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.

Click to continue reading...

The Fire and Real Salt Lake are set to clash tomorrow night for their second meeting of the season. The Fire was victorious in the first matchup between the two teams, getting a goal from Patrick Nyarko to defeat RSL 1-0 on August 1st at Toyota Park. What's the main difference between tomorrow's match and the teams' first meeting?

Click to continue reading...

Last evening I caught a bit of the RSL and Houston Dynamo game and I was reminded of the incessant verbiage of Max Bretos and Christopher Sullivan who have the attention spans of fruit flies. Their attention to the match waxes and wanes as they offer their diatribe on what the match should look like which bears little resemblance to how the match is actually playing out.

Click to continue reading...

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.

Click to continue reading...

With the Fire and Real Salt Lake set to kick off in a little less than two hours, it's high time I get the Matchday post up, so here it is. I'll be posting the starting lineups for each side (along with any other random thoughts/observations) in the comments section later on so get ready for those.

Click to continue reading...

The Fire and Real Salt Lake meet for the first time on the season on Saturday night at Toyota Park. The Fire, who fell to second place in the East with last week's 0-0 draw at Seattle, will be looking to return to their winning ways against Salt Lake who - with 23 points - sit in 6th in the West.

Click to continue reading...

Galaxy 0 RSL 2

Relive the game here (small children who play AYSO should not watch):

Not exactly a laugh a minute, but you wouldn't know it by listening to Eddie Lewis and Bruce Arena talk about the Galaxy midfielder's straight red card that occurred after he threw a ball at Javier Morales, who had just been fouled by sub Jovan Kirovski.

Click to continue reading...