Recent history could indicate the New England Revolution would have no problems dispatching the Chicago Fire in Thursday night's Eastern Conference Championship at Gillette Stadium.
Consider the facts:
The Revs have never lost a home playoff game (8-0-4 -- they lost once in a shootout, though not including the overtime loss to Los Angeles in MLS Cup 2002) and boast a perfect record against the Fire at home in the playoffs (5-0-0; New England even went through on penalties last season). New England has eliminated Chicago from the MLS Cup Playoffs each of the past two seasons en route to MLS Cup.
But history only goes so far and the Fire have changed dramatically from the side New England faced in the past few years in the playoffs.
Fire head coach Juan Carlos Osorio has instituted a system centered on the mercurial talents of Cuauhtemoc Blanco and predicated on defensive solidity.
While battles between the two teams have always been fierce, the additions of Osorio and Blanco have added a new dimension to the rivalry and reinvigorated a Chicago side destined to miss the playoffs earlier in the season.
"Chicago is playing well," Revolution striker Taylor Twellman said. "They believe in their system."
Playing well enough includes defeating New England two times out of three this season, including a 2-1 victory at Toyota Park on Oct. 6 with Osorio in charge.
Thursday's contest represents another chapter in a long history of Revolution-Fire playoff tilts, with each team having won five previous meetings in 10 playoff encounters.
Ralston said the rivalry has remained physical on the field and cordial off of it.
"I remember some pretty chippy affairs when [Ante] Razov and [Hristo] Stoichkov were on the team," Revs captain Steve Ralston said. "We've moved on from that. There's a healthy respect there. But when you play each other as much as we do, there's a rivalry."
With rivalry comes the incentive to avenge losing the season series.
"We want to prove we can beat those guys," Revolution midfielder Wells Thompson said. "But we want to focus on ourselves and do what we do best."
Fire strikers Chad Barrett and Chris Rolfe attempted to stoke the rivalry by telling reporters they wanted to see New England beat New York so the Fire could exorcise the demons of losing on penalties to the Revolution in last year's Eastern Conference final.
But Nicol said his side wouldn't rise to the bait and preferred to keep its focus on the internal matters at hand.
"Anything that comes out of there is really of no interest to us," Nicol said. "We're more concerned with what we're doing. We're interested in looking after what we do best. If we're on top of our game and firing on all cylinders, we'll be happy."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
