They Call It Peace: Chicago Fire 1, New England Revolution 1, MLS Game Recap

Chicago Fire 1 Schweinsteiger 63’

New England Revolution 1 Bunbury 82’

There’s a famous quote attributed to the Roman orator and historian Tacitus:

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

Translated into English:

“To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”

I wanted to write an actual game recap for tonight. I wanted to write about how awful the refs were all game. I wanted to write about Niko’s head injury. I wanted to write about how ineffective the Fire were through the first half and how they turned it around in the second— until the very end. I wanted to write about how different we look with Dax McCarty back in the team. I wanted to talk about Jorge Corrales coming good and making a good case for keeping his starting spot for a little while. I wanted to write about Bastian Schweinsteiger’s amazing knuckleball goal to give the Fire some hope that maybe tonight could be redeemed.

I wanted to write about the stupid, stupid mistake by Richard Sanchez that let Teal Bunbury inside and cost us the win. I wanted to write about how the Fire can’t seem to do the things they need to do and how it’s tanking their season. I wanted to write about what Pride Night means for queer Fire fans.

But I can’t talk about any of this. Because some of this team’s most passionate fans were told to stay away, and the rest boycotted in solidarity. The result was something resembling a White Sox game— too few butts in seats, too few voices in the air, too little to get excited about.

We did not have a Chicago Fire home game tonight. We had a desert.

What’s galling is that there will be some who say that tonight wasn’t that bad. That some will say tonight’s atmosphere was improved without Section 8 and Sector Latino. I’m not sure how anyone could say that the lack of organized support in Toyota Park tonight was even a net win. But people can rationalize all sorts of things, I suppose.

But anyone who was there who didn’t otherwise have some inscrutable bootlicking agenda will tell you that tonight was bad. I imagine it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

This is a weird and fucked up time to be a fan of the Chicago Fire. I wish I had something better to say about all this.

Welcome to the desert.