CHICAGO - The Chicago Fire has announced that, for the second straight year, the "Men in Red" will travel to Texas to take on FC Dallas in a season-starting showdown, this time on Saturday, Apr. 1, 2006 at 3:00 p.m. CT at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX. In addition to the opening day tilt at FC Dallas, the Fire has announced that it will serve as the opponent for the home opener of Eastern Conference rival Columbus Crew on Saturday, Apr. 15 at Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH (time TBD). The two announced games are part of a series of road contests for the Fire that will lead up to the club's highly anticipated debut at its new permanent home of Bridgeview Stadium later in the spring of 2006. The complete 2006 MLS regular season schedule, including television broadcast information, will be released in the near future.
"The Fire is excited to begin what will prove to be a historic 2006 season with the renewal of one of Major League Soccer's best rivalries," said Fire President/CEO John Guppy. "Our series with FC Dallas has produced some of the most hard-fought regular season games in MLS history, and we expect nothing to be different when we come out of the gates in Frisco on Apr. 1."
The fierce rivalry that has developed between the Fire and FC Dallas over the previous eight seasons has been personified by the two squads' hard-nosed play on the field and the passionate support from their fans in the stands. It should be no surprise that since the 2001 season, when supporters from both sides awarded the series victor with the Brimstone Cup, the series has become one of the most fiercely competitive rivalries in all of MLS. The Brimstone Cup is awarded annually to the squad that takes the most points (three for a win, one for a draw) in the season series between the two rivals, which includes MLS regular season, Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and MLS Cup Playoff matches. FC Dallas currently holds the coveted prize after taking the third and final meeting between the rivals during the 2005 season, a 1-0 victory in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals last Sept. 14 at Pizza Hut Park that produced a 6-3 overall points lead for Dallas and possession of the Brimstone Cup for a third consecutive year.
The Fire holds a 3-2-3 record in regular season openers, but will be looking to exact some revenge this year as both of its previous season-opening losses came on the road at the hands of FC Dallas in 2000 and 2005. Chicago currently trails the all-time regular season series with Dallas by a 10-12-1 margin, but the advantage for the "Hoops" shrinks to 14-15-2 when U.S. Open Cup and MLS Cup Playoff games are included.
Two weeks after the opener against FC Dallas, the Fire will turn its attention to the Eastern Conference when it travels to the heart of Ohio to renew its rivalry with the Columbus Crew. The Fire will hope to do as well in Columbus this year as it did in 2005, when the "Men in Red" took home a pair of victories from Crew Stadium - a 2-0 triumph early in the season on Apr. 30 and a dramatic 2-1 win on Sept. 17 that proved pivotal in seeing the Fire clinch its return to the MLS postseason. After taking last year's series with a 2-1-1 record, Chicago is now 14-9-5 in MLS regular season match-ups against Columbus, including a 6-5-3 mark in road contests.
The Chicago Fire was founded on October 8, 1997 as an MLS expansion team. In 2003 the Fire was crowned the MLS Supporters Shield Winner and Eastern Conference Champion and captured its third Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The Fire won the MLS Cup in its inaugural season in 1998 and has won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in 1998, 2000 and 2003. In the spring of 2006, the Fire will begin play at the 20,000-seat Bridgeview Stadium, a soccer and entertainment facility at the corner of 71st Street and Harlem Avenue in the Chicago Southland community of Bridgeview that will be the fourth soccer-specific stadium to open across Major League Soccer.
Headquartered in New York City, Major League Soccer features many top stars from the United States and around the world and is America's Division I men's outdoor professional soccer league. MLS consists of teams in 12 markets: CD Chivas USA, Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, FC Dallas, Kansas City Wizards, Los Angeles Galaxy, MetroStars, New England Revolution, Real Salt Lake and the San Jose Earthquakes. MLS will kick off its eleventh season in April 2006. For more information about MLS, log on to the League's official Web site at www.MLSnet.com.
