Chicago Pregame + Some tidbits

By: Colman O'Meara | July 12th, 2008

Time to get in a quick pregame post before tonight’s 8:30 pm (ET) kickoff:

TFC is fresh off two draws, one respectable, one not so much. We all felt the frustration of the tie in beautiful British Columbia, where we were hoping to exact a measure of revenge following our first home defeat of the season against the Whitecaps on July 1st. On the other hand, we had just played a very strong game against Mexican power Pachuca in the Carlsberg Cup. I would be hard pressed to name a trophy that has more history tied to it (/sarcasm), but we should still be very proud of holding a strong team like Pachuca with our reserve squad.

Chicago on the other hand is coming in amongst a swirl of controversy surrounding their ~~resident asshole~~ midfield maestro Cuauhtemoc Blanco. As you may have seen on our main site (that’s if you managed to beat out the MLS copyright wankers), Blanco again could not control his temper and first punched DC United’s Clyde Simms in the stomach, and then headbutted a member of DC’s sideline staff after he had been ejected by the referee. This entire incident occurred during the second half of extra time, in a game which Chicago eventually lost 2-1. Good news: They might be tired. Bad: They tied DC in regulation - they’re a better team than Vancouver.

What really ticks me off about that incident is that MLS is too gutless to suspend Mr. White, simply because he puts lllinoisan (is that a word) asses in seats. The man had a similar bustup with a Kansas City player during a preseason match, and is clearly a headcase. I guarantee that if this was Kevin Harmse, he would not be seeing the field for quite some time. But then again the MLS has to keep attendance up. This is why they give lousy sports cities like LA three DPs.

Anyways, tonight TFC is missing Big Danny up front with what has been diagnosed as a concussion. This is tough on the Reds, as it means we will have to see Cunningham trying to score his 100th (and hopefully retire) again. Probably Smith as well (who at least works his buns off - he’s the new Lombardo, except he’s scored). I suppose our first option off the bench is 16-year old Abdus Ibrahim, who made a strong debut against Pachuca, and looks like he may have the talent to develop into an MLS starter in the next 2 years.

I expect John Carver to send out something close to:

Sutton - Brennan - Velez - Marshall - Wynne - Robert - Edu - Robinson - Ricketts - Cunningham - Smith

4-4-2 formation, with Edu ahead of Robinson.

An interesting aspect of this game should be the impending end of the Brian McBride saga. Reports are indicating that a deal sending McBride to Chicago may be completed by Monday or Tuesday. We will very likely see the player(s) coming north in return on the field tonight.

If you indeed clicked on the above link, you surely gaped in shock. McBride was only mentioned in the lower part of the article. The main story was that Mo Johnston’s offer to Portuguese star striker Nuno Gomes was rejected on Saturday after a month of negotiating. WHAT? Here we are, trying to convince ourselves that Paul Dickov will resolve our scoring woes, and MoJo is out there, almost managing to ink one of the big stars of EURO 2008. Though he eventually failed, this bit of news makes me very hopeful that Mo has something in his back pocket that we know nothing about. I said it in March, and I say it again now: We have the best GM in the league.

Back to tonight’s contest in the Windy City: We share a fair amount of history with Chicago. Our first ever goal was scored against them (see link for video or picture at the top of this post). That game brought us our first ever victory. Dichio did not only score that historic goal on May 12th, 2007, he also assured himself of a place in history by actually biting Chicago’s Diego Gutierrez (both players were sent off). Our away fixture in Chicago brought us a great goal by Mo Edu (5:02 mark), as we secured a point with a 1-1 draw at Toyota Park. Sadly, we lost to the Fire 3-0 at BMO later in the season, but hey, we’re unbeaten at Toyota Park. Go get ‘em, boys! Follow up posts tomorrow.