THOUGHTS ON THE FIRE: On Saturday, the New York Red Bulls were in first gear and never really needed to go up another gear to defeat the Chicago Fire. The Fire got all of one shot on goal on Saturday night as the formation they put out was a puzzling one with Bastian Schweinsteiger as a centerback between Johan Kappelhof and Brandon Vincent. Aleksandar Katai and Nemanja Nikolic started on the bench as they were “mentally drained” from the US Open Cup semifinal according to Veljko Paunovic. The only highlight of the night for the Fire was Michael de Leeuw returning to action after a year out with a ruptured ACL injury.
ABOUT SECTION 101: The Fire decided to put a tarp covering Section 101 in order to prevent people from going over there in protest. On July 21st, fans from the Independent Supporters Association (ISA) came over to Section 101 during the last ten minutes of the match in support of Sector Latino and others who had their season tickets revoked after what the club said was multiple violations of the fan code of conduct. The club responded last Thursday by suspending all organized activity by the ISA and banning two dozen people from the stadium. That is not the best eye candy for a team that struggles to fill the stadium.
NOT HELPING: Fire president and general manager Nelson Rodriguez did himself and the club no favors by saying, “We have received commentary from fans in Section 102 and reaction from corporate partners that are, quite frankly, highly supportive of our actions.”
Section 102 is not home to any organized supporters group and is occupied by casual fans for the most part. That said, the last thing the Fire faithful want to hear from the club is corporate partners expressing support of this. It gives a message that corporations are more important to the club than its own fans. Like I said before, the Fire seem intent on learning the hard way that “football without fans is nothing.”
Yes, there was an announced crowd of over 18,000 on Saturday, but it was not the same without the supporters groups providing the atmosphere. Nelson Rodriguez would be wise to
heed the words of Alexi Lalas on Sunday night. Supporters groups can also police themselves better, but the reactions by the club over recent events has been disproportionate and contentious.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE RED STARS: Every point counts for the Red Stars and the one they got on Friday night against North Carolina could do wonders. Four of their last five matches are on the road where the Red Stars have lost just once (at North Carolina). They are just one point off the red line and go to Seattle on Wednesday night and then head to Portland on Saturday (9:30pm, ESPNEWS).
