Chicago Fire defeats Supporter's Shield Winner DC United in first leg of two game series

Hot tempers, one goal, a lost contact lens, and a halftime report filled with World Series Baseball news (rather than soccer or extensive hightlights of the game) is what defined ESPN2's coverage of the 2007 MLS Cup Playoff opener between the Chicago Fire and DC United last Thursday night.

I didn't come home early enough to see the entire first half and therefore I missed the only goal of the match (which I had to rely on youtube to see due to ESPN2's lack of adequate highlight's during halftime), but according to the official match report from Major League Soccer, Chicago Fire player Chris Rolfe's goal in the 14th minute held up as the game winner to continue Chicago Fire's historical dominance over DC United in the playoffs giving them a 1-0 advantage that will carry over into the second leg this Thursday. Chicago Fire is not off the hook yet. They will only advance to the Eastern Conference Final if they can hold off DC United to atleast a tie (or a win) on the road. A scoreless tie will be enough for Chicago to advance.

Here is a youtube video covering the game's highlights:



The player of the match was defintely Chicago's Chris Rolfe, who was the one to score the only goal of the match as seen in the youtube video above.

The second half was not very memorable, in my opinion, with a few chances from DC United, but the Supporter's Shield winners could not take any kind of advantage. In addition, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who is Chicago's team MVP and teh one responsible for much of the Fire's successes this year, played a horrible game in the second half with corner kick oppurtinities that hardly convert into goals.

It is sad that the only memorable part of this match was ESPN2's unqiue camera work to actually show Chris Rolfe's contact fly out of his eye in slow motion at the 80th minute (I wish that was on youtube!)

The second leg will take place this Thursday November 1st and will also be aired on ESPN 2 (now with the World Series over, there will be some proper highlights at halftime).

My prediction for the second leg is a scoreless tie (which will give Chicago a 1-0 advantage on aggragate and therefore qualification for the conference final) or DC United will finally get their act together and win it 1-0 to bring the aggregate to a 1-1 tie forcing two 30 minute extra time period and eventually penalty kicks. Either way, it will be a tough match for both teams and it will be an extremely tight game as Chicago Fire must step up their defense to keep their one goal advantage over DC while DC United will desperately attempt to score their first goal of the two game series.