Sunday, October 21, 2007

Fire Clinch Playoff Birth

John Thorrington was once one of the great hopes for American Soccer. As a youngster he was scouted by and signed by Manchester United. There he played on the reserves while David Beckham led United to its famous treble. After being released in 1999 by United, Thorrington bounced around Europe until returning stateside last season to play in MLS. This season he has been injured much of the year and made only his second appearance of the season, but he scored the goal that eliminated Beckham's Galaxy from the playoffs. The Fire dominated the match and should have had a goal in the first half when Cuahatomac Blanco perfectly set up Chad Barrett for a routine finish but Barrett flew the shot over the crossbar.

The Fire's 1-0 victory sets up a matchup with DC United in the playoffs.

Here are the playoff match ups:

E1 DC United vs. E4 Chicago
E2 New England vs E 3 Red Bull NY
W1 Chivas USA vs W4/E5 Kansas City
W2 Houston vs W 3 FC Dallas

Our special Playoff Preview edition of the Major League Soccer Talk podcast will be released early Tuesday AM Pacific time.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well certainly good news for me. Another sign of MLS gaining respect, the Fire victory was the second story of the day in local sports. Remember that the lead story was the Chicago Bears outstanding come from behind victory.

My pick for the first round is the Fire over DC. Ok, I am a homer!

Anonymous said...

Who gives a rats ass. MLS proves what a substandard minor league it is with these stupid playoffs. Go to a single table, have every team play each other a set number of times, schedule some midweek games since you have no international competitions, sign some real English players in their prime not a washed up wanna be actor with a overweight loser of a wife, and then come back and talk about your league. Until then shove it. The Premier League and the English game is where it is at. That's why more people in your country are interested in our league and our national team than your stinking league and your even more pitiful national team.

Anonymous said...

The Supporters Shield winner gets drawn with the hottest team in MLS right now while the Western conference winner gets the lower seeded team.

Typical MLS bullsh*t

Anonymous said...

To anonymous at 1:40 pm...

Who gives a...obviously you do or you wouldn't have taken your time to comment. Do yourself a favor and ask yourself this question, why did I come to this site? Was it to look like the fifth word of your post (if your too stupid to remember it was ass if I'm not mistaken). The English game isn't where it's all at. Just the English claim to think it is.

Do yourself a favor and fall off the face of the earth. Typical English jackass who has no clue. It's obvious you have never heard of things such as the Champions Cup or Superliga. Congrats on showing you have zero credibility. You make our lives so much easier knowing you know squat.