FIRE!,FIRE!,FIRE!,FIRE!,FIRE!! CHICAGO FIRE!!!

No Folks, I am not talking about the Great Chicago Fire!!!

• I am talking about the Chicago Fire soccer team. I know that they get lost in the shuffle of pro teams in Chicago, but lets take a glance at what this team has done in terms of Championships:

• MLS Cup Champions: 1998


• Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Champions: 1998, 2000, 2003


• MLS Eastern Conference Champions: 2003


• MLS Supporters Shield Winners: 2003


• MLS Central Division Champions: 2000, 2001

This is pretty impressive, considering some of our Chicago teams have not won anything to speak of for numerous years, and in a particular case almost a Century!!!

I know a lot of you out there are saying, who cares about soccer? Who is even on this team, but to those people I say: WAKE UP!!!!! Soccer is the most played sport around the world, and why can't we as Americans, not just Chicagoans, Open our eyes? I don't want to rant and rave about how people in this country know jack Sh*t about the biggest sport in the world.

I do want to say congratulations to this years Chicago Fire soccer team for pulling off an improbable upset of the No. 1 seed D.C. United last night. This was a hard fought Home and Away match up. The Fire showed great determination and tenacity through the two games to come out on top. This team is as hot as the Colorado Rockies going into the playoffs and lets just hope they don't have the same result as those Rockies!!!

Congratulations to the Chicago Fire and all its supporters. Let's bring another Championship back to this Great city, even if only a quarter of the city knows about it.

Rob Infelise