Meet the Team night

We had a great event last night with a number of our season ticket holders at the Chicago Children's Museum on Navy Pier. It was our annual "Meet the Team" event and it seems like it was a huge success. I was assigned to be a liason for one of the players, Tony Sanneh. "The Big Cat" as he is referred to by teammates and fans was one of the stars for the United States in the 2002 World Cup over in South Korea. He was one of just three U.S. players to play every minute of every match in the tournament and earned Chevrolet "Man of the Match" honors for his effort in the quarterfinal loss to Germany. He also had the game-winning assist on a pin-point cross to Brian McBride during the opening match against Portugal.

I have attached some photos of the event below and at the bottom I have included a posting from one of our fans on a soccer message board this morning at bigsoccer.com. Enjoy!





Tony Sanneh doing some sculpting













Chris Armas mingling with the kids











Overhead view of the Checkers and Chess room









I'm in the background as Tony Sanneh begins to give the youngster Floyd Franks his first lesson in chess.











Diego Gutierrez getting schooled by a little girl












Chris Rolfe takes on a fan in checkers













Brian Plotkin taking on some kids in chess






I went with my wife and 2 children (ages 3 and 1 and half). I also had a co-worker and his son join me because Fanaddict was gracious enough to pass me his tickets as he could not make the event.

The Fire reserved the entire museum for those that attended the event. So we basically had the run of the place.

John Guppy (President/CEO) personally greeted everyone at the door.All coaches were in attendance and all players (well I saw everyone but Chad Barret but I do believe he was there and I just did not see him) were in attendance.

The entire Fire front office staff was on hand for the event. In fact, a front office staff member was assigned to each player to act as a sort of liaison between the player and the fans.

It was a nice touch and I thought it really helped open up communication between players and fans. Although I know most of the players there were one or two I have never met before but by having the front office staff along with a player it made for quick and polite introductions. It was very concentrated effort by the Fire to ensure the players got a chance to meet some of there fans and not just group in a corner while people thrust things at them to autograph. For instance Diana Lopez graciously introduced me to Ivan Guerrero as a season ticket holder all the way back to 1998 which lead to a nice short conversation between him and I.

Food and beverages were served and readily available throughout the entire evening.

Every Fire player was very approachable throughout the entire evening and graciously signed autographs and posed for pictures way past the scheduled 8:00 end time.

A lot of the players went out of there way to play with the kids in attendance. CJ , Chris and Ivan were playing oversized checkers with kids around tables. Jim Curtin was helping little kids up and down the slide in the outdoor exhibit. Chris Rolfe and Logan Pause were doing crafts with some young kids and Andy Herron really got into the spirit and was down on his knees building a fort with a bunch of kids he was really hamming it up and the kids were loving him for it.

I know some were not thrilled with the venue selected for this year's meet the team event but it really was an idea location for those of us with children.

I have to say the Fire put on a top notch event this time out.

The Mean Machine

I was finally told what the MM stood for in my club soccer team's name, MM Arsenal. Apparently in 2001 there was a British Football (soccer) movie made in the likeness of "The Longest Yard" called, "Mean Machine." It's about a former English footballer named Danny Meehan who was banned from the game after helping to fix a match between England and Germany. Later, he assaulted two police officers in a pub brawl and was thrown in prison. The warden offers him the job of coaching the prison guard team, but he declines in order to not upset his fellow inmates. He then begins training a group of prisoners to take on the guards.

Danny is played by Vinnie Jones, who is actually a former player that helped Wimbledon to the FA Cup title in 1988. You may remember Vinnie from such roles as Sphinx in "Gone in Sixty Seconds", Bullet Tooth Tony in "Snatch," Big Chris in "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," or Mad Maynard in "Eurotrip." He will also be Juggernaut in the upcoming "X-Men: The Last Stand."

On Sunday, Mean Machine Arsenal played our season opener on the road in Schaumburg against the Vikings. We took the lead 1-0 halfway through the first stanza, but allowed a fluke goal just before halftime to go in level at 1-1. A shot from the outside was muffed by our keeper due to the heavy winds as the ball took on the flight pattern of a Time Wakefield knuckleball. An attacking player followed it in and had an easy tap in for the equalizer.
Our second goal came just a few minutes into the second half, but for one reason or another we couldn't find the hammer to go two goals up and put them away. It may have been because of the wind, the small field (it was the smallest field I've played on since I was about 12) and the terrible playing surface, but we just couldn't put them away.

With about 2 minutes to play they equalized again, this time on an own goal. One of their players sent in a high arching cross that our defense tried to clear. A header glanced up toward our own net and our back-up goalie (who was in due to an injured hand by our starter) was caught off his line and the ball beat him just under the crossbar.

Tough breaks all around, but we managed to gain a point in the standings with the tie. Further, it was a point on the road. We are the only team in the league to have earned a point on the road in week one, so that's the good news. The bad news is that we should have earned three and could live to regret it later. We'll play our home opener at our facility in Vernon Hills this Sunday at 9:45 am against Real FC.

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After the MM Arsenal match, Amy and I headed over to the Glenview Community Park at the ABT complex for a game that I had to officiate. This game was between a Mexican team and a predominantly Eastern European/Middle Eastern team. The Mexican team prevailed 6-2, but I saw a few things in this match that I had never seen in over 12 years of officiating this sport.

First, I cautioned (yellow carded) a player for diving. I know many Americans have a problem with soccer because of the "fake" injuries and dives that take place. In all seriousness, with such little protection it is entirely possible to take a good crack on the leg and be in a bit of pain, but still be able to finish the game. One thing that referees are taught, but rarely do, is to punish those that "feign a foul." It's a difficult issue because you can't stop play unless a foul actually occurs. What you must do is wait for the next stoppage in play and then go back and caution the player for unsporting behavior. I definitely did this.

The next thing that happened, literally 5 minutes later, was an illegal substitution. It clearly states in the FIFA Laws of the Game that a player cannot enter or reenter the field of play without the referee's permission. After a goal kick, the Mexican team substituted two of it's players out. However, only one player came onto the field. Once the ball was put in play, that second player is not allowed to enter the field. A full 30 seconds or so after that kick was taken, the player wandered onto the field. At the next stoppage I cautioned him, sent him off the field, and then allowed him to reenter at the next opportunity. I felt like an ass, for doing it, but I had just cautioned a player for diving so I felt I had to keep order and be a tight ass.

Finally, the team that ended up losing was awarded a penalty kick in the second half after one of their players was fouled in the penalty area. However, one of their players encroached on the area before the kick was taken and the ball entered the goal. In this instance, you have to retake the kick. The kicker then missed the retake. Unreal. Their coach erupted (apparently he did, I have done well with tuning out coaches and fans over the years) and filed a formal complaint with the league. There is no doubt in my mind that their player encroached though, he was about 2 yards away from me when the kicker struck the ball. He must've run nearly 10 meters to get that far in.

Weird, weird game.

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Finally, I had to play a game for The Globe Pub, a co-ed team comprised of employees and friends of the bar as well as a handful of folks from the Chicago Fire front office. We played our first match to a 0-0 draw nearly a month ago and since then have managed two wins. We sat at 2-0-1 and in third position entering the match on Sunday against the league leaders.

4:00 rolled around (game time) and still there were hardly any Globe players there. In soccer you must have 7 players to start and in this particular co-ed league you can never have more than 7 males on the field at one time. There is no minimum number of females however, which is good since only one of ours showed up. We played the entire match 11 on 8 as a result.

After an early barrage of shots and services into box, we actually broke through with a goal and led 1-0 at the half. It seemed at times that one of the two officials was playing for them as well as every call imaginable was made against our side. After we took a 2-0 lead on a goal from Beth, the lone girl that showed up, all hell broke loose.

One of their players was whistled for a hand ball about 25-yards from goal and just outside the left post. After the defense got their wall set up, I hit a blistering shot into the upper 90 (soccer slang for the corner where the post meets the crossbar) on the far post. Our team celebrated and got ready for the kickoff. Except, there was no kickoff. Before we realized what happened, they had restarted with a kick at the exact spot I shot from.

There are two things wrong with this. One, the referee was saying that a hand ball is an indirect kick. On an indirect kick another player has to touch the ball before it enters the goal. Never, in the history of soccer, has this a handball been an indirect kick. Absurd.

Secondly, if, in fact, there WAS an indirect kick taken and the ball went directly into the goal, this would have been an improper restart. You don't take the kick from the original spot, if would be considered a goal kick. This is because the taking of the kick isn't the foul on an indirect kick, the entering of the goal without someone else touching it is. It would be treated as if the ball had crossed the goal line having been last touched by the attacking team, which results in a goal kick. I, of course, argued, and the second official agreed with me. Unfortunately since the ball had already been put into play there was nothing they could do.

I got my vengeance (sort of) on a goal from 16-yards a little later on and we finished with a 3-0 win despite being short handed. However, the end wasn't without controversy. This one old prick on the other team had been pissing me off and then he started fouling both myself and our lone girl pretty hard. Things like tripping me when I didn't even have the ball as I was trying to make a run on through. He also fouled me once well after the ball had been knocked out of bounds. Clearly he was trying to bait me into doing something stupid, which as angry as I can get sometimes, I know where the line is. It was getting obnoxious, but the African ref that didn't know the rules and didn't speak any English wasn't going to do anything about it so I did my best to steer clear of him.

Also, my IT band/LCL on my left knee have been bothering me big time lately and I couldn't really do much in the way of cutting and stopping quickly. I didn't want to chance getting cracked on my knee since it was obvious to everyone that I was in some pain. I'm sure the prick would have gone after it if he had the chance. I did my best to not get in situations with him like that and it became merely a war of words. I did, however, get one nice comment in that was within his hearing distance. When I was talking with the British ref about the handball thing, he said something about the prick and to just let it go. I said, "I will. But if the guy wasn't older than my dad I would have kicked his ass by now." I think I way have also called the guy some variation of douche-bag/hole/rag.

The actual article from the match can be read on The Globe Pub's website here under the date 4/25/06.

New Blog Name

Okay, so I realize that I've been absent from school a lot lately when it comes to this blog and haven't been posting much. As the season rolls along I've going to probably be limited to 1-2 posts per week once I finish settling in. Some weeks are better than others as I'm in and out of the office going to and from the stadium site and our satellite office.

Having said that, I stumbled onto our buddy Dave's blog today and noticed how I was listed in his blog roll. Now, everyone lists the blog roll differently. Some do it by their friend's names or nicknames and others (like me) like to list them by blog title. Then there are people like Dave, who just make stuff up.

The name of my blog (Cap's on Tap) came about because I've always wanted to open a sports bar and name it as such. However, Dave had me listed as "Full of Cap," which I found to be pretty funny, and, also quite accurate. So, in honor of the blog I visit most frequently (Karen's) we'll be having a name my blog contest.

Can beat the incumbent or the top candidate? If so, there will be a prize waiting. For those of you who are in the Chicago area, two tickets to the first game ever at the new Bridgeview Stadium on June 11th versus the New England Revolution. This is a public safety event and will not even be open to the public. We'll only be at about half capacity as just season ticket holders and VIPS will be allowed to enter the facility that day. For those of you who are out of town, we'll think of something. I have an autographed ball that I could pass along or possibly some other merchandise like jerseys, scarves, etc.

Let the renaming begin!

The Human Rain Delay

My regular columns will return soon, things have been hectic with the Easter holiday, getting some work done and watching Jack Bauer f*ck sh*t up on Monday night.

In the meantime, if you are in the Schaumburg area on Sunday at 10am (doesn't everyone hang out there on Sunday mornings?) feel free to stop by The Olympic Park to see MM Arsenal take on the Schaumburg Vikings in the season opener of the NSSL season. It's right near Woodfield Mall at the corner of Schaumburg Road and Martingale.

For those that don't remember or don't know, we are playing in the "1st division" (which is a weird soccer way of saying that we play in the 2nd highest division in the league.) While I was galavanting around Cleveland over the holiday, our squad battled to a nil-nil (0-0) draw with a team from the "Open Division", which is considered the top division, in an exhibition match. Confused? The match report showed that we had the better of the scoring chances, but we were missing a couple of our top attacking players. Things should be more exciting this weekend with our full line-up and a battle with a team in our own division.

I'll be back tomorrow night with more updates from the weekend and some thoughts on the sports world...

The Sixth Cents - XI

Welcome to the regular return of Six Cents. In this week's edition we will dig further into the soccer world as I continue to wrap my entire life around the sport. Nash is probably glad he's moving out soon, in a few months I think it might be a little out of control. We will also discuss the opening of baseball season as the Indians begin their quest for their first World Series title since 1948. However, we will not discuss 24. I have updated my 24 thoughts entry from last week, so hopefully I won't get called out for not having 24 ACTUAL thoughts anymore. Also, Karen has her weekly report, which should do. I especially liked her line, "Guns don't kill people, Jack Bauer kills people." Classic. On with the post...
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1. Time to update the NCAA list

After one of the most exciting first four rounds in NCAA Tournament history, the Final Four and Championship games were complete duds. So boring. I suppose to a Gators fan, this is probably not the case. As I found out from one of my lurkers that spoke up this afternoon, people actually TIVOed this thing and watched it again the same night!

Now, I did this when Ohio State won the Fiesta Bowl over Miami back in January of 2003, but that was also the first championship any team I support has ever won in my lifetime. Plus, by all accounts, it was one of the most exciting National Championship games ever played.

Last night? I was busy watching 24 and then flipped over to watch Law & Order. I only came back during the commercials to see the score and from what I saw it was pretty much the least exciting game of the tournament.

However, the Florida Gators have officially become the 9th school to win a championship in both football and basketball, joining Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, UCLA, Stanford, Arkansas, Maryland and Syracuse. They came just short of completing the holy trinity of college sports too, losing the College World Series to Texas last spring. Congrats Gators, but MAN is that Noah kid UGLY!
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2. The Tribe, Indians, This is My Team!

After getting railroaded by the thunderstorms that shook Chicago, and those pesky White Sox, in Sunday's Opening Night game, the wig-wamers put the screws to Freddy Garcia this afternoon at U.S. Comiskullar Field, 8-2. Jake Westbrook looked good and the bullpen was much better than they were in Sunday's loss. Rafael Betancourt was solid over 1.2 IP and the big question mark from the off season moves, Guillermo Mota, put the Sox away quietly in the ninth.

Offensively, it's nice to see that two of the boys that really struggled all of last season are getting off to better starts in 2006. Aaron Bleeping Boone went 4-5 with a 2B, HR, 2 runs scored and 4 RBI. Casey Blake went 2-2 with 3 walks, a run scored and an RBI. He is currently on pace to league the entire major leagues with 324 walks. Of course, it's still early.

On the flip side, it looks like Jim Thome is healthy and still at the top of his game. Too bad we weren't able to bring him back to Cleveland this winter. He has gone deep off of Tribe pitching for the second straight game.
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3. Newest of the New

The New Jersey Devils signed Miami University Redhawks senior defenseman Andy Greene to a free agent contract today. He was able to avoid the draft because in the NHL you have to be drafted by the age of 19. If you aren't, then you are free to sign on with any team that will negotiate with you when you are good and ready.
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4. The Globe Pub FC

Before we get into the weekend of the actual Chicago Fire soccer team, our office/The Globe Pub played our second match in our co-ed league on Sunday afternoon. Of course, for me this was following two hours of practice with my club team, Arsenal, so I was pretty drained. I didn't feel it in my lungs, which is a nice change of pace, but my legs were pretty heavy after some conditioning drills with the boys.

Plus, I was forced to play out of position again, although this time I slid into the center midfield roll and did fairly well. Of course, the team we played against, "Meanies," were actually a bunch of punkers complete with piercings, tattoos and all black uniforms including long cargo shorts. They weren't highly skilled, save for the one "normal looking" Mexican playing defense for them. They were very scary and we were short on girls so we had to play the entire game down one player.

After falling behind 1-0 we managed to claw back for a 2-1 victory. Our record stands at 1-0-1 after a nil-nil draw with an Irish bar the week before. Our team is comprised of mostly old drunk Brits, so I'll be surprised if we can run the table without the help of the folks in our office. Only two of us showed up this week, Kristen and myself. This week's game is also after a practice with Arsenal, so we'll see how I fare. I recovered much better this week, which means I'm getting back into proper fitness.

You know what that means...Hutch's stronghold on the Triathlon Poll might be coming apart.
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5. The club formerly known as the Burn

FC Dallas took down our boys on Saturday in the first game since I joined the club. We actually led 1-0 and 2-1 before the defense completely caved in and blew the game. So, as it stands, we now trail in the annual Brimstone Cup race, which is awarded to the team that wins the season series between FC Dallas and Chicago Fire Soccer. It's called the Brimstone Cup because originally Dallas was designated as our "rival" and they were called the Dallas Burn. Now we are in different divisions and they dropped the "Burn" so it doesn't make any damn sense. Traditions never die though. Our fans still hate Dallas more than anyone, it's quite amusing. Below is the new logo, along with a scarf that our supporters, Section 8, have for sale on their website. Good stuff.













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6. We had ourselves a nice little Saturday...

Amy and I headed to The Globe Pub for the game on Saturday after I got back from refereeing High School Girls Soccer in Buffalo Grove. (We get older, they stay the same age...) We walked in and the place was a mad house. The front room looked to be all off-duty cab drivers watching the Barcelona-Real Madrid match. The back room was packed with Chicago Fire supporters. Insane. After a couple of beers, some tasty burgers, and a near brawl between one of our staff members and an asshole "fan," we headed out of there.

BUT, after making her sit through her first soccer hooligan ordeal, and the first of two final four games, I agreed to go see a movie with her instead of watching the LSU-UCLA game with the guys up at Gongolapad. We went downtown to see "Failure to Launch" at the River East AMC 21. We also drove. Two monumental mistakes as we would later discover. First of all, it was $19 for tickets...ridiculous! Plus, we figured since they validate that it would be cheaper than us both taking the train or a cab. Wrong. It was $10 for parking AFTER validating. Absurd.

When the movie was over, Amy just looked at me and said, "I'm sorry." Just so I'm on record here, do NOT go see this movie. Terrible. At least it was over and we could go home now. Not so much.

We went down the huge escalator and stood in line for the machine to pay for parking, only it wouldn't read our ticket. Neither would the next one. Aww hell, none of them would read our ticket. Annoyed, I went back upstairs to the box office to ask what I should do. They sent me up two floors to guest services. Guest services was not the place to go, as they quickly said to go in the elevator all the way down to L1 and talk to the people in the parking office. When we stepped out onto L1, there was no parking office. We had to search for it. Finally, after being sent all over creation and wandering aimlessly through a parking garage for over a half hour, we were "allowed" to pay our $10 so we could leave. No apologies, no discount for their absurdity and our inconvenience, nothing.

Needless to say, Amy was getting her first real experience dealing with "Completely Annoyed Cap," which is a close relative to "Angry Cap." She tried to call me down by being all cute while we were waiting for the elevator so we could go back up to the floor that our car was on. Anyone who really knows me could tell you that these things don't really work with me. I just need to walk away, be pissed for 10 minutes, and then I'm fine. I would have been fine, but then the little intercom in the elevator lobby started making noises and I jokingly said something to the effect of, "suck it."

Within nanoseconds, the intercom spoke up, "Excuse me, sir?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Can I help you with something?"

"Nope. You people have helped me out enough tonight, thanks."

At this point, Amy got annoyed with me and we had our first real disagreement. All is well now though, she came over last night to watch Jack Bauer kill people.

24 thoughts about 24 - UPDATED

I think I might have 24 actual thoughts this time...some are the same, some are adjusted.


1. After all of this plot with Bierko and the Sentox, the crippling of CTU, and all that jazz with the Russian President, don't you think that Jack saved the day a little too easily? Seriously, they came in with a team of four guys on a chopper and ruined the entire operation?

2. Then again, same thing happened last season when they spent an entire season on those nukes only to have them find the missile in flight and blow it up in a matter of minutes.

3. Is it just me, or is there some sexual tension between Bill Buchanan and Karen Hayes from Homeland Security?

4. What the hell is going to happen with Kim Bauer? You can't tell me that they brought her back for just 2-3 episodes...

*5. Speaking of which, Kim and her therapist/boyfriend Barry left CTU at about the same time Chris Henderson killed Tony and escaped. What are the odds that Henderson goes after Kim now that Jack screwed up his little plan with Evelyn?

6. What happened to the dude Chloe was banging? Spencer was it? I haven't seen him since they took him into custody? Is he alive?

*7. Is that all we get of crazy Shari? She's not going to stay on be Chloe's new half-wit side-kick?

8. And how about this Homeland Security douche-bag? What's his story? Did he actually sexually harass her? After that little scene with Chloe, I think not.

*9. Dude is still an asshole. Clearly this guy is in on something otherwise they would have just pinned the whole mess on Rudy the Hobbit. Seeing as though it WAS his fault to begin with.

*10. The Wayne Palmer - assault rifle thing makes sense now, apparently he snuck up on a dude and took him out. So why did they make it seem like killing that sentry was so hard for him? As though he'd never killed before? Maybe he didn't actually kill the first dude, but still, doesn't the Marines train you for this sort of thing?

*11. The plot has definitely slowed down a bit now that the immediate threat of death for innocent Americans is gone. I'm curious to see where this goes.

*12. Speaking of which, I'm having an incredibly hard time believe that someone who is President of the United States would get in bed with terrorists.

*13. However, I was having an even harder time believing that the President was so indecisive and incompetent. Could it be that his acting like a complete buffoon is all a ruse? Did I just use the word ruse?

14. Does anyone else feel that Aaron Pierce is one of the coolest guys ever? He seems just as good at his job as Jack is at his. I hope we see more of him soon. For this, I feel that (since he is in fact NOT Jack) he will probably die soon. So sad.

15. If you were the First Lady, how could you live with your husband after he let terrorists attack you? Even knowing that he "had to."

*16. I like how they don't build up Curtis Manning's role too much. This means they probably won't kill him anytime soon. I don't know how Jack could function with out him. I'm kinda surprised that Jack didn't take him to the Henderson showdown. Did he not have time to get him there? Did he not want to alert the rest of CTU as to what he is doing? Frankly, he could've used a guy that is a sure shot, and Curtis seems to be that guy.

*17. How the F*#& did Jack not take Henderson down? Seriously, kids, this doesn't make sense. He can take out a sentry with a silenced pistol from 20 yards with the help of a PDA, but he can't make one clean shot with a sniper rifle? I'm getting more and more disappointed with his marksmanship. However, the knife attack was quite impressive.

18. I'm also having a little trouble with Audrey here this season. She is "so in love" with Jack, yet, didn't she choose her husband, Paul, over Jack at the end of last season?

19. So in the five hours after Paul died, and before Jack "died," she got over her husband and the fact that Jack put him in a position to get killed, and fell in love with Jack all over again?

20. Actually, I have no problem with #21 because this is what women do.

*21. Going further, Audrey certainly recovered from the chemical interrogation fast, huh? Anyone else think there might be some nausea or something after that?

22. Going back a few episodes, I'm still have trouble with the"false wall" thing where Jack was able to crawl around outside of the room that was "sealed off."

*23. Where the hell has Mike Novak been and why can't he help figure this thing out? Is he involved? That wouldn't make sense. He and Aaron Pierce seem like the only two guys with brains in the White House.

*24. Just thought of something, doesn't Homeland Security fall UNDER the Department of Defense? Or are they completely separate? I honestly don't know this. However, if they do fall under DOD, couldn't Audrey make one phone call to her father and get this whole thing fixed?