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Now We Stand Together

The past couple of weeks have dealt some pretty devastating blows to the Men in Red (are we sure that’s not blood?). The thrashing they took in the USOC in Seattle, the 1-0 loss to Montreal, a.k.a the worst team in the league, a draw against a tough, new Toronto, and most recently losing the Jermaine Jones sweepstakes in a bizarre form of Russian roulette. These are tough times we live in as Fire fans, but this year cannot tear us apart.

While the team has not been nearly where they should be,(that is me being generous) the fans/us have to be there to rally around this team in the good, the bad, and the really bad. There was a point in the Civil War, right after his March to the Sea, where Lincoln was looking to replace Grant with Sherman to bring this war to an end. Instead of letting Lincoln toss Grant out, Sherman wrote to his brother and told him "Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we both stand together." Even in the bleakest of times, they stood together. That is loyalty and trust at its finest. While I know for many of us, this year especially, this team makes some of us crazy and makes some of us drink, we need to show support.

There are still some signs of life out of this Fire team. Despite getting thrashed in the USOC semis by Seattle, they at least made it to the semis when they could have been kicked out much sooner. Despite only having 26 points on the year, the Fire have only lost 6 games out of 24. Hell, I’ll take the positive with the draws as well, they have had 14 draws and are close to setting the league record for the most draws in a single season, which may or may not be a good thing, but it is better than 14 losses on the year (I’m looking at you Montreal). Even losing out on Jermaine Jones in a bizarre blind draw situation (easily the worst draw of the weekend) has some upside, considering it means that Hauptman may actually spend some money this offseason and get a couple of good DPs. Plus, we cannot overlook the crop of good young players the Fire are beginning to groom. Shipp has had a good rookie season with the Fire becoming a gameday staple; Ritter has the potential to be a decent D-Mid; Joya and Pineda continue to rep the team on the U-23 National Team.

There are plenty of positives in this season, plenty of negatives as well, but when things are bad we tend to dwell more on what is going wrong instead of what is working well. This past weekend the team put up another draw, but there are some great things that came out of this game. Robert Earnshaw, the newest signing, actually came on and made an impact with his first goal for the Men in Red. It was exciting to see someone come on the field and inject a little life into this team. Plus, Quincy finally got back on the tally sheet for the first time in more than a month. On top of that, the team actually scored more than one goal and scored them from regular play and not penalty kicks.

It is difficult to see the silver lining sometimes, it is usually easier to look at what has been going wrong and what can be improved upon. Some have been calling for Yallop and Hauptman’s head (not the first time) but that will not change the team we have this year. There will be years of prosperity and years of misfortune; that is the world of all sports. Unlike most other sports, soccer/football supporters put their heart and passion into each and every game- win, lose, or draw. This is one of those years where we seemed to be plagued by misfortune and the playoffs are more of a fantasy than a reality this year. These are the times where supporters are needed and the club depends on them. Despite differences in opinions and where the club is going, we all love this club and we need to stand together.



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