FIRE, FIRE…FIRE-FIRE-FIRE da-da-da–da, da-da-da –da, dada-da da da dada daaaa! Is the refrain that my two-year-old (almost two…age for little kids is always so specific) belts out from his baby bike seat as we cruise past a group of teenagers playing pickup soccer on a sunny summer day. Little does he know that later that evening the Fire would give up the fastest hattrick in MLS history on their way to a 5-1 defeat against Nashville, nor does he really care if the Fire win or lose…for now.
To him soccer is a sport where you kick the ball on a rectangular grass field in the direction of a goal, and if it goes in or even near the goal you can celebrate by spinning in circles and shouting GOAL!! He also knows that the Fire play this sport and that this song he learned when we took him to a game earlier this year is fun to sing. All things considered, I think that this is a pretty good start to his soccer education.
One of the reasons that I wanted to write this blog was to finally follow the local league, and local team more closely than I have ever done before, because I love soccer and I think that it would be really great if the MLS became a bigger deal in the US sporting landscape. So, I figure the more people writing and talking about the MLS the better. So far, I know that I have reached at least one two-year-old and made him into a fan, at least until he decides that he doesn’t want to cheer for a team that is in third-to-last place, and just lost 5-1.
Which means the Fire have about one year to figure things out and get back to becoming a competitive team, because next year he’ll be almost three, and much like a three-year-old, sports fans get really mad and throw tantrums when they don’t get what they want.
Finding positives
Instead of spending my time analyzing another disappointing performance by the Fire I’m going to cling onto the idea that Saturday was a bad game, started by a bad individual error that gifted Nashville a goal, and then the problems just snowballed from there. It was just a step back in what otherwise has been three steps forward in the past month. The tie against Philadelphia and wins over Atlanta and Orlando were really good results for the Fire, which is why the Nashville game was so surprising and disappointing.
The Fire aren’t a very good team, but they aren’t as bad as we saw on Saturday. Luckily for them they get to turn around and go again tonight against D.C. United at Soldier Field and I think that the way they respond in this game will tell us a lot about where this team is at, and if there is any hope left this season. I guess I’ll take a lesson from my son and just hope that the Fire can score some goals tonight that I can celebrate by spinning in circles shouting GOAL!!!
How to Watch the Chicago Fire
7:00 pm. Chicago Fire vs D.C. United
WGN, ChicagoFireFC.com livestream for local residents, ESPN+ nationally
