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Remember this: Football is fickle. It turns this way and that. It has a way of humbling one.
Still, the anxieties of Fire fans had to be eased by the announced lineups for tonight's U.S. Open Cup fifth-round round tie at Toyota Park. Chicago's starters were familiar names: Johnson; Shipp; Magee. A double pivot of Big Red and Wolverine. The same loose 4-2-2-2 we saw (for 50 minutes) against Pittsburgh.
#cf97 @UIHealth Starters vs. #Crew96: Johnson; Watson, Ianni, Soumare, Cochrane; Shipp, Pause, Larentowicz, Ward; Amarikwa, Magee #USOC2014
— ChiFireMatch (@ChiFireMatch) June 25, 2014
Columbus' lineup was something a bit different - naturally, since they have only 15 senior players fit and available for the the game:
#Crew96 Starting XI vs. #cf97 Clark (C); Jimenez, Barson, Gehrig, Wahl, Sweat; Anor, George, Tchani; Speas, Meram #USOC2014
— ChiFireMatch (@ChiFireMatch) June 25, 2014
The bench was where the familiar Names In Yellow huddled, perhaps having a bit of a lie down on the copious bench space left by only naming four of seven possible substitutes:
#Crew96 Subs vs. #cf97: Withrow, Parkhurst, Trapp, Arrieta #USOC2014 #CHIvCLB
— ChiFireMatch (@ChiFireMatch) June 25, 2014
Of course football is fickle. Of course anything can happen on a sodden field in a single-game knockout. But as a Fire supporter, it's hard to look at these lineups and feel anything other than confident this evening.