When FC Dallas and the Chicago Fire meet on Thursday evening at Toyota Park, not only will it mark the first meeting of 2007 for the Brimstone Cup rivals, but it will also feature a pair of clubs going in different directions.
FCD come off a 2-1 win at Kansas City on Saturday, their first win at Arrowhead Stadium since 1999, while the Fire dropped a 3-1 decision at Toronto FC, a second successive defeat by that score line which also made them the first team to lose to the league's newest squad.
Thursday's match will mark the Fire's first appearance on ESPN2's MLS Primetime Thursday this season. FCD, on the other hand, will be making their third appearance. On April 12, they defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1 at The Home Depot Center, then two weeks later, the Hoops dropped a 1-0 verdict to the New York Red Bulls at Pizza Hut Park.
"I think they're a team that was solid defensively at the start of the season," said FCD head coach Steve Morrow of the Fire. "They've been playing the same shape for a while now and everybody knows their role. (Justin) Mapp has looked dangerous off and on and Chris Rolfe is one we need to watch off and on. He's dangerous around the box. It's a game that we're going into with a lot of confidence. It's a place where we have done well."
The Hoops are 8-2-0 in their last 10 matches against the Fire, including a sweep of them in 2006. Ironically enough, FCD have never won back-to-back road matches against them in the Windy City.
"We know them fairly well," said second-year midfielder Dax McCarty. "We played them in preseason and got a good result. They have a very stable lineup. They have a bunch of veteran guys in the midfield who really know how to play the game."
Chicago could be without several key performers for Thursday's affair. Midfielder Diego Gutierrez will be out, sent off just before halftime of Saturday's loss in Toronto. Fire leading scorer Chris Rolfe, who has netted four of his team's seven goals so far this year and assisted on the other three, is listed as questionable with a left ankle sprain.
"They might be missing some players for the game on Thursday night," said Hoops right back Drew Moor. "I don't want to say that's good for us but Gutierrez is a very good player for them. I don't know about (Chris) Rolfe's condition. It's not going to change our game plan at all. We're going in looking for three points."
Last weekend, FCD got first-half scores from Kenny Cooper, his third of the year, and from Colombian midfielder Juan Toja, his first career MLS tally to build a 2-0 edge heading into the break. The Hoops surrendered a stoppage-time goal to the Wizards off a set piece but held on for a 2-1 result.
Captain and last year's leading scorer Carlos Ruiz did not start that match after missing two training sessions earlier in the week. He did come on as a second-half substitute and performed well.
In training this week, Ruiz injured his wrist and will wear a light cast on Thursday. During drills on Wednesday morning, he did not see time with the first team, leading to speculation that Morrow could start Cooper and Abe Thompson up top for the second game in a row.
The FCD boss did say that Ruiz's injury wasn't serious enough for him not to play but didn't say whether or not the Guatemalan international would start against the Fire.
Thompson got his first assist of the year on Cooper's 19th-minute tally. It came in his first start of 2007. Last year, the University of Maryland product finished the year with two goals and eight assists, with all but one of those helpers coming down the stretch.
If Ruiz does not start, Morrow will likely employ the same starting 11 from last week's win. That means a midfield of Toja, attacker Ramon Nunez, who has two goals this year, and defending midfielder Pablo Ricchetti, who played well in his MLS debut last Saturday.
In the back, look for Moor on the right, Clarence Goodson and Alex Yi in the middle with Chris Gbandi on the left. Dario Sala will make his second start of the year in goal.
With the Fire coming off a disappointing loss to Toronto over the weekend, Morrow and his players know that they will get Chicago's best effort on Thursday.
"I think it depends on how they react to it," Morrow said. "Mentally, I want us to take advantage of that. They had a good start to season and don't think they've been in good form in their last couple games. We will look to take advantage of that."
Added McCarty: "They're coming off a bad result against Toronto. They're probably going to try to right that, especially against us since we have a little rivalry going. It's going to be a very tough game for us. I think that we're going to go there and go for the win. It should be a fierce game because they're not going to want to lose two in a row, especially at home."
Besides the chance to get three points, Morrow also likes the fact that Thursday's match represents their first rivalry game of the year.
"I think it is (motivation for the guys)," he said. "It's another cup for us to win and it's important. The rivalry has been intense over the last few years. It's an extra little bit of motivation in my eyes and I think the players see it that way as well. They like having an extra bit of spice to the game."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
