We’ve been playing up all week how Sunday afternoon’s game vs. Houston is a playoff six-pointer. A look around the league’s results the past two days further indicate that.
On Friday night, New England drew 1-1 with Toronto FC while keeping them in fifth place on 37 points. Saturday night, Montreal and Philadelphia also drew 0-0, while Sporting KC beat Colorado and New York beat D.C.
What’s it all mean? There is a three-way tie at the top of the Eastern Conference between Montreal, Sporting and New York (42 points). Philadelphia stays holding on to fourth place in the East with 39 points while New England sits fifth.
Currently sitting seventh in the East, a Fire win today would see the team leapfrog Houston and move into a tie with New England for the fifth and final playoff spot. It would also see the Fire sit just five points out of first place, still with a game each against Montreal and New York.
Its also worth mentioning that Columbus played a man up at home vs. Seattle for 83 minutes after Leo Gonzalez was sent off and still lost 1-0 to the Sounders. It seems only mathematics will be keeping eighth-place Crew in the playoff picture this week.
No Injuries to Report
Perhaps for the first time in a long while, the Fire had no injuries to report this week.
Asked about it on Thursday, Fire head coach Frank Klopas jokingly looked around and asked, “Is there wood anywhere to knock on?”
Anthony Zilis details the clean bill of health the team has going into Sunday’s game.
Chris Rolfe Milestone
Last week it was Gonzalo Segares (200 MLS games) and Patrick Nyarko (150 MLS games) that celebrated milestones. It could have been a trifecta had Rolfe not missed the loss at New England two weeks ago.
Alas, Chris Rolfe is set to play in his 200th game across all competitions for the Men in Red today. In that time, Rolfe has tallied 55 goals and 24 assists in 14,676 minutes.
On this weekend one year ago…
The Chicago Fire downed this same Dynamo team 3-1 at Toyota Park. Patrick Nyarko got things started early, tallying 47 seconds into the match before Daniel Paladini made it 2-0 inside 19 minutes. Brian Ching pulled one back in the 90th only to see Alex tally his first goal in a Fire shirt, smacking a highlight real shot off both posts and in to give the Fire the 3-1 win.
FOOD DRIVE TODAY
The club is holding a food drive for partners the Greater Chicago Food Depository at Sunday’s game. Please bring shelf-stable food items to any gate at Toyota Park to help feed our neighbors in need.
A list of suggested items can be found here.
