What Did I Miss? The Fire Win MLS Cup 1998 

I have a confession to make. Before today (May 11th, 2020) I, a Chicago sports fan and media member who covers the Chicago Fire, had never watched the entirety of the team’s first and only MLS championship.

I had watched the highlights, I’m familiar with plenty of the players and the coaches, but never took the just under 2 hours to watch the entire game.

This felt like the right place to start this series, where I hope to go back and watch soccer matches that I’ve never seen in their entirety and write about them or discuss them with a guest.

*PLUG*

I have no idea what the ideal way to do this is. I think it works in writing, but would be better in video but am unsure if people would tune in for that? Anyway, if there is an old game (or group of games, like a World Cup) that you suspect I have not seen that you would like to revisit and watch/discuss over a stream of some sort (or for a podcast/blog/whatever) please let me know and let’s make it happen.

Ok, anyway, this idea started by discovering the soccer history goldmine that is footballia.net. I’m not sure how it’s all legal, but it’s amazing. Thousands of old soccer games going back decades. I started my search by looking up the Fire. They appear 9 times in the database:

  • MLS Cup 1998 (W vs DC)

  • MLS Cup 2000 (L vs KC Wizards)

  • MLS Cup 2003 (L vs SJ)

  • Schweinsteiger debut (D vs Montreal, in which Schweinsteiger scores)

  • 2017 Playoffs (L vs NYRB, I wish I could erase this game from my memory)

  • 2018 Reg Season (L vs NYCFC, NYC clinch playoff spot, AWFUL game)

  • 2019 Reg Season (W vs Montreal, Dax first goal and late Basti winner)

  • 2019 Reg Season (L vs NE, nail in coffin of last season’s playoff hopes)

  • Last Game at SeatGeek Stadium (D vs Toronto)

Only two wins in the bunch, one of which I attended, so in terms of strong candidates for this sort of thing I’m not spoiled for choice. But I had to start with the 98 Cup, which you could watch yourself here: https://footballia.net/matches/d-c-united-chicago-fire

First, here’s a bit of a live blog from the game plus some random thoughts I had along the way. Feel free to follow along if you decide to take the plunge into this Chicago sports classic as well.

GAME BLOG

Pregame

  • Imagine a world where the Fire are playing DC United at the Rose Bowl and more than like 5,000 people show up. Shoutout to the Galaxy fans who went anyway despite the Fire upsetting them the week before

  • That said, the number of empty seats indicates why this is not a thing anymore (it would probably be even worse now, tbh)

  • Football yard lines!

  • Bruce Arena is the Keanu Reeves of soccer. He probably looked exactly the same in 1970 and will still look the same in 2040

    • Speaking of which: I’ll get more into some of them individually as we go, but this game is absolutely stacked with American soccer coaching talent

      • Bob Bradley

      • Bruce Arena

      • Dave Sarachan

      • Jesse Marsch

      • Chris Armas

      • Ben Olsen

      • Frank Klopas

      • Josh Wolff (will have his first top job with Austin FC)

1st Half (number indicates minute)

1. KickTV, RIP

1. Moreno should 100% score 15 seconds in, holy crap what a missed sitter

2. Current DC United head coach Ben Olsen makes his first appearance of the broadcast by getting elbowed in the face

4. Etcheverry goes down and that is 1000000% a PK on the foul by Kubik (not the only enormous piece of luck the Fire get in this match)

5. Sanneh vs Nowak down the Fire’s left flank is an incredible 1-v-1 matchup

6. Armas’ shot cleared off the line by Agoos, I LOVE the Bradley-ball counter-attacking (early on this reminds me a lot of his recent LAFC teams)

7. Explaining soccer to the American public by comparing it to baseball! *drink*

9. Alright, I love Etcheverry’s outside-of-the-foot corner delivery; if only *any* of his teammates could head the ball (in hindsight, this was a sign of problems to come for DC)

10. Offside called on Razov despite the fact that the ball was never within 20 yards of him nor heading in his general direction #90sMLS

11. VAR!

15. The New York Red Bulls owe the Fire a big thank you note for their run of success in the last decade having established the Marsch-Armas connection

16. MEG! (insert DiCaprio pointing meme here)

17. Wait, Bruce Arena started a backup goalie in an MLS Cup Final? I’ve criticized Arena plenty, but I do kind of love the guy still for being such a great character in the history of American soccer.

18. Razov, ping!

20. I love Razov’s movement, especially his dropping deeper to pick up the ball to start attacks then hurrying back up top. Not sure I’d call him a false-9, but there’s definitely some of that there.

24. Ok so this is usually the time in the game where I feel like I try to take stock of tactics and what each team has been trying to do. I had trouble figuring out the Fire

  • Is Kosecki a winger or a striker?

  • Neither Marsch nor Podbrozny seem to have any interest in helping the defense

  • Kubik is absolutely everywhere; he starts in the middle of a back-3, but shows up in right-back, left-back, and central midfield positions occasionally 

  • Armas is everywhere, what position is he even supposed to be? This seems to be caused by him man-marking Etcheverry

  • The Fire are playing incredibly narrow, except for a couple instances of basketball-style isolation for Nowak down the left

    • It took me until later in the game to really have it sketched out, but this is as close as I can get to depicting what the Fire were doing

    • I recently read Johan Cruyff’s biography, and there is a lot of Total Football in this with Nowak in the Cruyff role. At least in possession that is, because they don’t really counter-press much at all and are content to sit back then counter. But Bob Bradley took an MLS expansion team in 1998 and won a title playing an adaptation of Total Football. I love Bob. 

26. Bob Bradley interview, which sounds about the same then as it does now

28. This ref does not care about almost anything

29. GOAL, Podbrozni with the tap in!

  • Razov dropping in, great through-ball, great pass by Nowak

  • That’s a goal LAFC score all the time

  • Also, shoutout to Kubik for being in on the build-up 60 yards from the penalty area he’s supposed to be defending

IMG_0576.jpg

31. Striker’s tackle there by Razov

33. And now the ref suddenly cares about all these fouls

36. The Fire are playing right-wing-back by committee (Marsch is technically playing there, but more than any other position this one seemed to change hands, where as Gutierrez largely stayed in position on the left outside of a few dribbling forays)

38. “Ante Razov throws a package into his game”

38. Culturally relevant Chicago Bulls reference!

40. The modern MLS needs more necklaces, and maybe mullets

45. GOAL: NOWAK ISO BALL

  • Deflection off Gutierrez

  • Is that offside? In the modern MLS, probably, but there’s no VAR so too bad.

  • Great initial ball by Armas

45. The Fire get compared to the New york Jets…

45. The PA announcer announces the half is over before the half is actually over



2nd Half (minutes based off score bug, which for some reason is going too fast and ends up several minutes off by the end)

46. Wait, as they’re coming back from break is Ty Keough talking about needing to use the bathroom at the next break? What was he doing during halftime?

48. HUGE save by Thronton on Lassiter (this is by far his best header of the game)

49. What a run by Eddie Pope, I really need to watch more of him

52. Yeah, today that’s probably a red for Gutierrez on that tackle…

58. Fire very happy to sit deep and let DC pass it around, also where the hell did Etcheverry go?

59. Han ball on Okaroh? No? OK then

60. Frank!

70. Puerto Rico having its own national team full of American citizens who then can’t play for the US is weird. Chris Armas was born in the Bronx (he does end up making the switch, as many of you probably already know)

73. The idea of counter-attacking being “European” lol

82. Good pressure by DC, but they’ve been pretty tame this half. Etcheverry all but disappearing and Lassiter’s inability to accurately head the ball have not helped

89. How the hell does Chris Armas have any gas left in the tank? Etcheverry’s movement being much more limited this half has allowed Armas to stay more central, which has helped

90. Jurgen Klinsmann reference!

90. Bob and Bruce just having a nice conversation trashing the ref together, this is amazing

90. Wait, a clock countdown? DID MLS NOT HAVE STOPPAGE TIME BECAUSE IT WASN’T ‘AMERICAN’??? What an absurd discovery to end this game

Alright, so a few more thoughts. First, let me reiterate how awesome Bob Bradley is. Yes, his tenure at Swansea City was a joke and a bad situation that made everyone involved, including him, look terrible. But if it were up to me, in hindsight I don’t think I ever would have fired him from the USMNT job. He gave the team an identity, and while I admired Klinsmann’s ambition to make the US play “prettier” soccer, it’s not who we are and never has been. Bob is great at taking what you give him and figuring out how to maximize it. 

I haven’t seen much of a lot of these guys play, but I would love it if I could find more extended footage of guys like Ante Razov and Piotr Nowak. Razov has a bit of Roberto Firmino about him, and Nowak is just lighting quick and is a guy you pay attention to immediately every time he touches the ball. Chris Armas’ work rate is incredible. Speaking of which, watching the combination of him and Jesse Marsch covering the right-wing-back and defensive midfield roles makes the development of Tyler Adams as proficient in those two positions while under their coaching make so much sense. I also gotta see more Lubos Kubik; for better or worse, I get the feeling watching him that he’s a bit of a Czech David Luiz. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s chaos, but it’s always entertaining. 

Although some were past their peak by this point, this is really an incredible roster Bob Bradley and Peter Wilt put together in the club’s first season. It was clearly a solid foundation, as the team went on to reach MLS Cup twice more in the next five seasons. 

At the time, I was a baseball-obsessed 4-year-old who didn’t know soccer as a sport existed, but it’s a shame it’s taken me working in this sport professionally to take the time to go back and appreciate what the Fire had from the get-go.

Here’s to learning and here’s to a hell of a soccer team, the 1998 Chicago Fire.