MLS: Colorado Rapids at Chicago Fire - Photos

by Ethan Johnson
July 10, 2007

OK, I'm well over a week late with these, but I was away from my computer until a few short days ago, and worse, my brother's camera takes non-standard JPG photos. Yes, JPG is supposedly a standard file format, but his are weird somehow. It took me until tonight to re-do them using all of my Linux imaging software. By now, nobody gives a rip about the game, as if they did on July 1.

So here's the scoop: Whilst in town on vacation, I decided to take my Dad and brother to see the Fire. That's probably actionable in civil claims court, but what the hell, I called it "bonus bonding time". Marlena had the camera I normally use, and Brian's camera was fresh out of the packaging with a tenuous battery. I did what I could photo-wise but I'm not going to win any awards... you know, just like the Fire.

Oh, and I absolutely despise Colorado. Kyle Beckerman wasn't there, but neither was Air Blanco for the Fire. I should have brought a good book to read. Or brought one for the Fire: Scoring 101! Ba-dum-bum.

Anyway, here are my general observations, and the photos will run without overt comment from me. Mouse over (Internet Explorer) for photo captions, or select "properties" or something to read the ALT tags (Firefox).

  • Toyota Park is remarkably similar to Pepperoni Park here in Frisco, except the expensive seats are blue instead of red. The supporters' section is still in the endline area behind the goal, and I dare say it was more populous than the one back home. (See photos) We've gotta work on that.
  • Toyota Park requires people in the endline seating area to scale a wall of steps to then descend another set in the actual stands. My Dad wanted to know if we were at "Aztec Stadium". I told him that when we reached the top I would shout, "I come seeking truth and knowledge! What's the score?" And undoubtedly get socked in the chops by an errant ball.
  • Chicago and Colorado really phoned it in. Seriously - maybe Colorado had a hangover from the FCD game, what with all of that Dirty Bastard play of theirs. Much cleaner game against Chicago, except for the red card in the 2nd half (see photos).
  • My Dad, despite his eye-rolling and bluster at home about boring old soccer got immediately into what the crowd was doing, and started booing without knowing why. I assured him that any booing of Colorado was just and encouraged, but also explained that Chicago got rooked out of a corner kick due to poor officiating. We arrived to the game about 7 minutes before the end of the first half, but rather than complain I figure it's like being late to the movie, missing the 30 minutes of previews, and arriving in time to see the opening credits. 0-0 when we arrived. At halftime Dad clamored for a free t-shirt that people were lobbing into the crowd. No sale, and I told him that he didn't know what the durn thing said on it anyway. He wants the full fan experience, and would have done the same thing if we were at a Dallas game.
  • Brian said that he's used to hockey so the hapless play of both sides wasn't unusual for him to see. Oh wow - ironically, when I begged him to get me tickets to see the Blackhawks years ago (what was I thinking?!), we went to see them play the Colorado Avalanche. Haaaa! I can't call it even-Steven because there was actual scoring in the Hawks game, if mostly (only?) by Colorado.
  • Carr on the Chicago side (pictured below before he was subbed in) showed the most promise. He had some near misses, and he was the player of the game in my book.
  • I really, really, really missed FC Dallas. Hell, I would have settled for Juan Toja out there. Somebody show some f'n spark!!! OK, besides Carr.
  • Sing it with me for 45 straight minutes: Lo, lo lo, lo lo - lo lo - lo lo, lo lo, lo lo lo, lo lo lo, lo lo lo! FII-RE!! Zzzzzz
  • Note to you Section 8 buttheads (you heard me): I made the effort to come over there and meet you during halftime, and absolutely nobody would say hi or return my greeting. I even said, "really? You can't say hello?" Nope. FYI, that crap would never fly in Frisco. Yes, they'll give you grief about your team choice, but they'll be nice and talk to you. I was extremely disappointed in the Chicago support section. The guy who appears to be their "Travis" (the president of the Inferno here in Frisco who wears horns through his hat) was no Travis. The upshot was, I wanted Chicago to beat Colorado. Sheesh.

With that, here are the photos. Enjoy!

Exterior of Toyota Park

Interior of Toyota Park leading to the endline stairs

Section 8

Closeup of Section 8

1st half in-game action

TP jumbo-tron

Midline seats

Ball kids waiting for 2nd half to start

Someone with a huge flag

Fire coming back on the field

Chicago's goalie

Carr warming up

2nd half in-game action

More in-game action

Colorado player gets jjacked

Red card

Saintsh... yesh!

More in-game action

Annnnnnd - 0-0

That's that for that

Anyway, that was the game that was: Lots of near misses, a lot of back-and-forth "between the 20s" ball movement, and eh, 0-0 at the end of it all. I'm not hurrying back. And God forbid the Fire has to play FCD at home. I'll be looking for you traveling members of Section 8. <EM>

(Much, much more virtual ink has been spilled by me about Major League Soccer. The fledgling but growing MLS article archive may be found here.)

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your Chicago experience
Submitted by giaco (not verified) on Wed, 2007-08-08 11:56.

rather than placing some random remarks on your obscure webpage (and pretending that anyone from S8 reads it), come to our board to discuss your bone of contention with our big bad and mean spirited supporters section. Besides the razzing you'd take (especially if you've made the mistake of wearing your teams gear into the section [especially if your team isn't even playing]), most of the folks in S8 are nice enough to give you the time. What praytell did you say to these people...or did you just give them the puppydog look and expect conversation?

Y'all come back now
Submitted by ethan on Thu, 2007-08-09 12:29.

Hi. You found my obscure remarks, so there's something. If I wanted to really make a federal case out of it, I would have come over to the Fire section of Big Soccer and unloaded.

And my horrible, turn off greeting was "Hello from Dallas." I did indeed try to make conversation attempts rather than do the sad dog thing, and got nothing. Again, that would never fly down here. I expected grief, and was fully prepared to take it. Considering the sheer volume of hatred between FCD and Houston, even Houston was downright sociable when we visited their stadium.

If S8 is all up their own heads and can't possible say hi back to anyone from the outside, well, have fun with that. Thanks for visiting! Try the veal!

Frankly my fanaticism for
Submitted by giaco (not verified) on Tue, 2007-09-11 13:19.

Frankly my fanaticism for anything related to The Fire and S8 is the only reason I re-stumbled upon your corner of the internet. Based on your response, I can definetly say that "hello from Dallas" is not an intro of choice, and probably you were either chatting at a casual, or someone who knew enough of the rivalry that didn't want to talk. I won't make an exception of excuse for that though. I suggest that rather than going on BS about it, you go to our forum and let us know--hell, maybe someone on there might even remember that. It's not a matter of making a case out of it, but before you go deriding an entire group for the action (or inaction, in this case) of a few, you may want to take it up in the appropriate place. Who knows, maybe there even could be an apology and/or a beer waiting for you next time your in town--but what do I know?

Veal is good, but I can't bear the sadism that is involved in making it.