In this week's Hot Cast In Old Town, the gang discusses the Fire's 1-0 loss at New England, look at the playoff picture with one weekend to go in the season, preview the season finale against D.C. United, and rundown the group stage finale of the CONCACAF Champions League. Also, Tweed takes the night off and Dan Martin makes his Hot Cast debut, Gregg continues to enjoy the rolling starts, Steve refrains from audio disturbances for once and makes logical and realistic predictions, Rudy encourages the listeners to get in the stadium to cheer during pre-game warmups, and the podcast accomplishes its goal of finishing under an hour for the first time. Host: Gregg Mixdorf Panelists: Rudy Gomez, Stephen Piggott, Dan Martin Producer: Nick Fedora

The gang returns after a week off to discuss the 2-0 win over New York, the fantastic October 8th Anniversary party, preview the rival match against New England, discuss the chances of taking first in the East, and take a look at the rest of the playoff picture while discussing who would not be an ideal match for the Fire in the MLS Cup final. Also, Tweed confuses his booms and claps, Stephen takes a liking for apples and Twitter, Tweed gives Nick a shoutout for getting an MLS Cup Playoffs pick correct, and Gregg spills a not-so-well-kept secret of Stephen's, and the gang shares more classic Mad Javier stories after the episode. Host: Gregg Mixdorf Panelists: Tweed Thornton, Rudy Gomez, Stephen Piggott Producer: Nick Fedora

Take a look at this recap by Jeff Crandall on last night's Fire Anniversary Celebration. By all accounts it was an incredible evening for all involved. The first 15 years have been incredible, here's to the next 15!

In a doozy of a Hot Cast In Old Town episode, the gang discusses the 2-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City, look ahead to the mid-week game against Philadelphia and the huge Saturday matinee against New York, then Mad Rudy steals the show and earns the "Mad" title for this week by throwing down an epic rant about a certain Fire 15 selection, for which producer Nick conveniently loses the bleep button leading to raw, uncensored goodness. Host: Gregg Mixdorf Panelists: Tweed Thornton, Rudy Gomez Producer: Nick Fedora

From the MLS Website: "For the first six games of his MLS career, Berry watched from the relative safety of the substitutes' bench. Then, with Corey Gibbs' absence casting a long shadow, Frank Klopas inserted his 24-year-old rookie into the starting lineup for good. Now, 23 straight starts later, Berry has put together a glowing rookie campaign and the Fire are a game in hand away from taking control of first place in the Eastern Conference."

MLSSoccer.com's Anthony Zilis reports that Chicago Fire midfielder Pavel Pardo continues to be questionable for game play. There's serious doubt that we'll see Pardo in the Gameday 18 on Friday vs. Sporting KC.

"It’s a driver of player compensation." Bob Foose, the Executive Director of the MLS Players’ Union for almost a decade, explains why the Union releases player salaries annually. Bob joins Tom Dunmore and Peter Wilt to give some unique insight into how MLS operates, and how he advocates for player rights – and explains the reality behind the salaries released each year by the Union."

In this episode of Hot Cast In Old Town, Gregg and Tweed banter about the merits of Sporting Kansas City before the show even started, the gang reviews the 3-1 home win against Montreal, discuss the playoff picture in the East, measure up the Fire's chances against SKC and New York, preview Saturday night's match against Columbus, and continue coverage about the CONCACAF Champions League, which always brings out the best in Mad Gregg. Also, Gregg sums up the origin story of Wilman Conde, Tweed invents a brilliant nickname for Roger Espinosa, Gregg's cat makes a cameo appearance, Stephen is away studying snakes in Turkmenistan, and in a "Bonus" portion of the episode, Rudy shares the Legend of Bruno Guarda. Host: Gregg Mixdorf Panelists: Tweed Thornton/Rudy Gomez Producer: Nick Fedora

To be honest I thought he should be in the top 2 but it's nice to see him doing so well right now and getting some good recognition for it. Sean has an incredibly bright future ahead of him, and hopefully that includes an MLS Cup run this season too.

The Chicago Fire website put up their first installment of the best 15 players in Fire history. This is part of a larger series that has been going on to commemorate the club's 15 year anniversary, which is coming up this October. This installment covers numbers 15, 14 and 13. Hit the link to check it out the video.