Fire Look to Dominate the Galaxy

By Todd McClamroch in News on Sep 22, 2006 1:33PM

Tomorrow night, the Chicago Fire play host to the Los Angeles Galaxy for the first of two matches with them in just four days. On Saturday night, the Fire will try to clinch a playoff spot by defeating the Galaxy with just three more regular season games to go after this one. Then just four days later, they will rematch with Los Angeles in the U.S. Open Cup Championship match.

The Fire clearly have the advantage when it comes to playing the same team twice in a week. They arguably have the deepest roster in the league, and can show LA two different teams on each game day. An article on ESPN.com talks about the great success the Fire have had by rotating players through the roster on a regular basis. Over the past five weeks, Fire Coach Dave Sarachan has used 23 different players. The Fire's depth makes balancing the combination of the Major League Soccer schedule and the U.S. Open Cup schedule less of a burden.

Fans attending Saturday night's game have two reasons to get to Toyota Park early. Starting at 6:00pm through halftime fans can get a sneak peak of the hardware known as the Dewar Cup, the two teams will be battling for next Wednesday in the U.S. Open Cup final. It is the oldest trophy in United States team sports history dating back to 1912. On Saturday, the Fire also be kicking off the sixth annual Budweiser Hispanic Heritage Night. Musical acts comprising a variety of Latin American Cultures will be performing on the Budweiser Party Deck starting at 6:00pm. There will be live performances by Mariachi Monumental, Grupo Duranguense, Tierra Caliente and a Brazilian samba group.