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.
Fire Head Coach Denis Hamlett entered this year's SuperLiga tournament with one clear goal: Win. It. All.
Tonight Hamlett and his charges finally get the chance to do just that, as they take on Mexican club Tigres UANL (some links on Tigres and more are at the post's end...) at Toyota Park tonight (7 p.m. on TeleFutura) for the 3rd annual SuperLiga championship.
Fire midfielder Cuauhtemoc Blanco has been named to the Mexican National team roster ahead of their all important World Cup Qualifier against the United States.
Fire defender Gonzalo Segares was also named to his country's roster; he'll play with Costa Rica when they take on Honduras on the same day.
The early word is that Mexican Head Coach Javier Aguirre will call his players into camp a full week ahead of the match, which takes place on August 12th.
Edit: Both Blanco and Segares will report to their teams on August 7th. They'll both miss the August 9th match at Houston but both will be available for the SuperLiga final.
But where does this news leave the Fire?
The Fire advanced to the SuperLiga finals last night after defeating the defending SuperLiga champion New England Revolution 2-1 at Gillette Stadium. The Fire, which is now 6-2-3 on the road in all competitions this year, had several players turn in good performances on Wednesday night and hopefully the team can continue their momentum into the weekend.
Here are my full player evaluations for the match...
To put it lightly, Cuauhtemoc Blanco has been struggling as of late. The Mexican forward hadn't played a good match in weeks but when the Fire needed 'Temo to step up in tonight's SuperLiga semifinal match at New England he did, and in a big way.
Blanco notched an assist and scored the game winning goal for the Fire in their 2-1 victory over the Revolution that propels the club into the August 5th SuperLiga tournament final. The Fire gets back into action on Saturday when they host San Jose in MLS action but for now they have to be savoring tonight's win.
The Fire were able to score the first goal of the match in the 34th minute when Blanco was able to evade several Revolution defenders to hit a perfect cross to the feet of a waiting Brian McBride who made no mistake in slotting the ball past keeper Matt Reis from the penalty spot.
The Fire gets back into SuperLiga play tonight when they take on the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium (6 p.m. TeleFutura) in the tournament's semifinals.
"Its huge you know," said Fire forward Chris Rolfe on the match. "It's the semifinal of a tournament and... it's something that all of us are striving to win to prove that we're the best."
The Fire last played the Revs on May 9th, playing New England to a 1-1 tie at Toyota Park. The Fire will be looking to take all three points from New England this time around and the team knows that if they want to advance they will need to improve upon Saturday's play in the final third of the field.
As I'm sure all of you now know, the Fire's modest two-game winning streak came to an end Saturday night when they fell to Mexican team Tigres UANL by a score of 2-1.
The Fire were still able to advance to SuperLiga's semifinals (courtesy of Chivas USA, who tied with San Luis on Saturday) where they will take on the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium on July 15th.
But enough about all of that stuff, here are my Fire player evaluations from Saturday's match (and as always, here is the scale...)
The Fire fell 2-1 to Mexican club Tigres UANL on Saturday night, but despite the result the Fire was able to advance to the semifinals of SuperLiga.
The Fire barely scratched through to the semis, getting through on a Cuauhtemoc Blanco 84th minute penalty kick conversion.
The Fire really didn't play too well throughout the match and their displeasure was pretty clear in the locker room after the match.
Here are some thoughts I had on the Fire's defeat:
As most of you know, the Fire was able to continue their winning ways in SuperLiga on Tuesday night, defeating Chivas USA 1-0. The Fire's lineup was chock full of normal reserves and youngsters and for the most part, they impressed.
So without any further ado, here is the latest installment of the Fire player evaluations. If you are interested, click here for the scale.
A Fire squad full of reserves was able to hold off fellow MLS club Chivas USA in SuperLiga action Tuesday night, defeating 'The Goats' 1-0.
Click here for my match recap and read below for some more thoughts I had on the match...
The Fire will be looking to continue their SuperLiga success Tuesday night, when MLS rival Chivas USA comes to Toyota Park. Here is a short preview of the match I wrote up, but I'll dive into some areas I didn't touch upon in that piece here (namely, a prediction...)
So I'll get right to it...
The Fire finally ended their three game losing streak Saturday night, defeating Mexican side San Luis 1-0 in SuperLiga action at Toyota Park.
Brian McBride scored the match's lone goal in the 69th minute of play, when he was able to smash a Cuauhtemoc Blanco back-pass into the upper 90 from the top of the 18.
Here are a few thoughts I had about the match...
The Fire kick off their SuperLiga play Saturday night when they take on Mexican first division side San Luis FC. San Luis, who play in Central Mexican city San Luis Potosi, qualified for SuperLiga play by virtue of finishing the regular season of Apertura 2008 in first place.
Despite their first place finish in the Apertura, San Luis struggled in their most recent campaign (Clausura 2009). They finished in 15th place out of 18 teams and were not able to qualify for the liguilla (the Mexican first division playoffs). San Luis's poor showing in Clausura 2009 lead to the firing of manager Americo Scotolaro, who was replaced by Juan Antonio Luna on May 26th of this year.
San Luis's upcoming SuperLiga matches are Luna's first as manager so I fully expect him to field a solid lineup and take the competition seriously.
Here are a few quick notes from the Fire's practice on Wednesday...
Chris Rolfe is NOT boltin' to Bolton
The rumors that English Premier League club Bolton FC was interested in Chris Rolfe seem to be unfounded. Rolfe was unaware of the rumors and it looks like the striker will be sticking around Chicago (at least through the summer anyway).
