After strong start in April, Fire faces difficult schedule
Denis Hamlett has to be happy.
The new Fire coach has his team off to a good start, with two wins and a tie in its first three games, two of the games on the road. It's sitting pretty in first place in the Eastern Conference, tied with Kansas City, after Saturday's 1-0 win at San Jose.
The reality check might be on its way, however.
The Fire needs a good April, because May and June might not be so enjoyable.
Check the schedule. May starts with road games against New England and D.C. United, predicted by many observers to be the top two teams in the East, though the order varies. Each is struggling for now, but you have to wonder how long that can continue.
Defending league champion Houston comes to Toyota Park for a visit, then the Fire reunites with blink-and-you-missed-him former coach Juan Carlos Osorio and the New York Red Bulls to end the month.
June brings United to town, followed by road games at Brimstone Cup rival FC Dallas and against a good Chivas USA club.
Only in the last game of June does the Fire appear to get a breather, when expansion San Jose visits.
The May and June schedules mean it is important to finish April well, with home games against Kansas City and Colorado. If Hamlett's crew can get the maximum 6 points in the standings from these next two games, they'll have 13 of a possible 15 points to start the season and have more momentum going into May than Lindsay Lohan headed for a big Hollywood bash.
It might be more realistic for the Fire to get 10 points in the standings for its first five games than to expect another 10 points from its next seven games.
Anything more than that and the Fire can feel as fortunate as Liverpool in the Champions League quarterfinals.
Of course you never know with MLS. This is the league that saw a certain 1998 expansion team win the title.
The Guppy era: The Fire's announcement that it and GM/president John Guppy "agreed to part ways" shouldn't come as a shock considering the team's rocky off-season and owner Andrew Hauptman's recent comments.
Guppy deserves credit for bringing midfielder Cuauhtémoc Blanco, defender Wilman Conde and coach Juan Carlos Osorio to Chicago. They combined to bring the Fire back from the dead during the second half of last season.
But Guppy also should get some blame for Osorio leaving before the ink could dry on his contract. And the Fire never actually won anything in his three years here.
Hauptman didn't seem impressed with the Fire's performance off the field, either.
Will Peter Wilt get his old job back? Hauptman seemed interested to learn about Wilt and had planned to meet with Wilt in Los Angeles this week. And Wilt, who would have had every reason to be bitter about the way he was dismissed from his job in 2005, never burned any bridges. Wilt happily attended the Fire's preseason luncheon last month, he was at the San Jose game Saturday, and still considers the Fire his team, just as any Chicago fan does.
Wilt also is focused on the new women's soccer league to debut in 2009 and seems to think he accomplished all he could with the Fire. Are there still enough challenges for him with the team?
Fire to challenge two Polish clubs
Ticket packages will go on sale this week for two international exhibitions when the Chicago Fire hosts Polish Orange Ekstraklasa (First Division) clubs Wisla Krakow on May 21 and Jagiellonia Bialystok on May 31. Both games are set to kick-off at 7:30 p.m. at Toyota Park.
Fire forward Tomasz Frankowski played for both Wisla Krakow and Jagiellonia Bialystok.
Tickets for both games go on sale to the public on Friday, ranging from $25 to $90. Season ticket holders can purchase pre-sale tickets already. For more information, call 888-MLS-FIRE or visit www.chicago-fire.com.
Kudos to U.S. women
The U.S. women's national soccer team joined the men's U-23 team in qualifying last week for this summer's Olympics in China. The women's team topped things off by beating Canada 6-5 in a penalty kick shootout to win the 2008 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying tournament. The women are on a roll, having also won the prestigious Algarve Cup in Portugal this spring.
The U.S. team, which has been on the road for 25 days, will now take a break before regrouping to prepare for its two matches against Australia on April 27 at WakeMed Park in Cary, N.C., and on May 3 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.
Rumor of the week
According to several soccer rumor mills, Barcelona's Thierry Henry will be joining MLS and 2009 expansion team Seattle Sounders FC. As with all rumors about the game's greats coming to America, believe it only when you see it.
Looking for a champion
Because absolutely nobody asked, I'll predict Manchester United and Liverpool to advance out the UEFA Champions League semifinals.
-- Orrin Schwarz