Afterburners

Saturday's Chivas USA-Chicago match lived up to the billing. One of the first things I did when I heard Cuauhtemoc Blanco officially signed Chicago was to see if he'd play at HDC against Chivas USA, and sure enough he had Saturday's game scheduled.

It was a sell out, and that's a first for the club. Well, sorta. Not counting Chivas USA-Galaxy games at HDC, Chivas had drawn more than 20,000 just once in its history, and that game was not too much over 20,000.

There were a lot of Chicago Fire jerseys out there but also quite a few Chivas shirts. I thought it would be like 75-25 in favor of the Blanco shirts but it was pretty even. I did see one poor sap in a Cruz Azul jersey, though. His buddy was wearing America colors though.

Anyway, the match was very entertaining. Between the atmosphere and the controversial plays and clutch goals and overall drama, the game was the kind we hope to see when we show up at the stadium. Like Landon Donovan is so fond of saying, that was a "real" game.

Here are some reaction stories, one with Chicago player quotes and the other with Chivas USA player quotes.

I wrote the latter and I compared it to a playoff game because I heard four players say that the game resembled a postseason match. Plus, the logical choice to finish in fourth in the east right now is Chicago, and if they can finish ahead of Colorado, the Fire will play Chivas USA in the playoffs.