If you're anything like me, you're still riding a wave of pure dopamine pleasure-bomb after last evening's fourth quadrennial installment of Dos a cero. It's in that spirit we should approach this evening's contest for our club, as the Fire have every chance to corral a feel-good three points - any prediction based upon form, or quality, or the interaction of shapes should have Chicago as heavy favorites.
Nothing is ever simple, of course. The Fire have, for years now, the maddening tendency to play to the level of their competition. The result can be stirring when the competition is strong, but that's not where one notices - it's during games like this, games where a good old Chicago stomping is called for.
No Cacha, no Lindpere tonight. No word on Magee yet - check back here an hour before kick for lineups! I'll be watching and tweeting from the Hot Time fortress high atop a mountain fastness near Flint, Michigan. Expect, also, for a few sentence fragments from our increasingly-inebriated staff spread throughout the lower 48.
Prediction: ARGH RYAN WHY U START PREDICTION TRADITION?
I'm having a hard time writing this, as I'm a deeply superstitious person. I cannot help but feel that, by predicting good things for the Fire, I'm responsible for drawing ill luck when it comes, say (to think of an example at random), in the form of a late own-goal losing goal off the shin of one of my favorite players. Clearly, in that example, the Lidless Eye has turned its baleful gaze upon the team I support, and they can only shrivel.
Despite all that, I think Chicago wins this easily. Say 3-1, and add the phrase "but it didn't look that close." Toronto is young, tactically staid and yet naïve. The Fire should be superior in every phase, should use the space better, and should find joy with group movement in attack. They should. Oh please, oh please.