Fire feel buzz heading into East final against RSL
Chicago hopes to make use of home-field advantage in Conference Championship
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Thanks to the surprise elimination of the Columbus Crew, the Fire get to play host to the Eastern Conference Championship on Saturday against Real Salt Lake, the team that sent the Crew home early in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The Fire finished second in the Eastern Conference and would have had to return to Columbus for this game if RSL had not pulled the upset.
While it seems incongruous for a team from Salt Lake City to be playing for the Eastern Conference title, what matters to the Fire is that they get to play host to the game. Location of the Eastern Conference final is what the team points to as one of the key factors to keeping them out of the MLS Cup last season when they lost to Columbus 2-1 in the conference conclusion.
The Fire said from the first day of training camp that their goal was to get to the conference final and host it so they would have an advantageous situation to help them get back to the Cup. It took a circuitous route but they got what they wanted, and now they have to take advantage of it.
"We are under no illusion," Fire coach Denis Hamlett said. "It is going to be a tough game and we are going to have to play well to advance. But we are excited to host the game, and our guys are going to be pumped for a great atmosphere."
The expectation for hosting the conference final grew when the Fire hosted their first playoff sellout crowd last Saturday against New England, and the crowd's enthusiastic support was credited often by the players for sparking their performance in a 2-0 win that propelled the team into the conference final.
"We are excited to play in front of our home fans again," Fire midfielder John Thorrington said. "There is a good buzz right now."
The Fire and RSL played two close games during the regular season. The Fire won at home 1-0 in early August, then played to a 1-1 draw at RSL in September. But drawing significant expectations from those results is difficult because the Fire played both games without Designated Player Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who missed the first after playing in the MLS All-Star Game and the second as he returned from Mexican national team duties.
For the record, the Fire had a home record of 5-4-6 during the regular season, the worst of any of the eight playoff teams. They obviously hope their enthusiastic and successful performance against New England erases that stigma.
RSL had a road record of 2-11-2, also the worst of the eight playoff teams, but they handled their road assignment in the second game of the conference semifinal series with Columbus, so that record might be a thing of the past as well.
Maybe in this case the old cliché is true, that you do throw out all the records in a game that is all or nothing, with the MLS Cup date as the reward.
"We have to show the same passion we had defensively Saturday, and then take our chances and go at them," Fire forward Brian McBride said.
"We have worked hard to get where we are at and we look forward to taking advantage of this opportunity," Thorrington said.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
