Friday, September 21, 2007

The streak continues

The Fire drew 1-1 at FC Dallas last night on ESPN2's MLS Primetime. Going into the match, I feel as though I'd have been happy with that result given our desperate need for a point on the road and the fact that we were 0-8 all time at Dallas.

However, Chris Rolfe's strike about 10 minutes into the second half gave us hope. Despite constant pressure, it appeared that Matt "Slim" Pickens was going to keep bailing us out. CJ Brown even got into the act with a huge block right on the post about halfway through the second half.

Then, in the 93rd minute, with one minute remaining in stoppage time, Carlos Ruiz knocked in the equalizer and we lost 2 points in the standings in the blink of an eye. Deflated. That's the feeling that would describe the mood at our corporate party at Jbar when it happened.

The Chicago Fire now sit in the 8th and final position in the MLS playoff standings. We're three points clear of Columbus and Colorado and we're even on games played. We have the toughest schedule in the league to finish the season. At Chivas and DC, home for DC, New England and the Galaxy in what will likely be Beckham's first MLS game back. I hope we can hang on...and offseason with no playoffs is one that I don't want to experience.