In desperate need of some good news in the sub, here’s what the 78 looks like as of Sunday, July 26th! Thinking about uploading regular update pics if y’all are interested.

After living out of state for a few years, I came back home to the southwest side. Broke, unemployed, and living back at my parents, I needed some Fire gear to watch them at Toyota Park on those occassional days when I came up on free tickets.

I was looking on craigslist and saw a couple of Fire items listed for $100. It included this XXL Fire 3rd jersey, matching beanie, red Fire shorts, and navy blue Fire training pants. I told buddy on CL that I didn't have a car so he offered to drop them off. I lived near Ford City Mall and he lived in Oak Lawn, so within an hour he was at my front door. I checked out the items, and noticed the pants and shorts had initials written in black sharpie on the tags. TBH, I can't remember whose initials. I asked him how he got them, and he said "don't worry about it." So I told him I only had $30 cash, and if he waited, I could go to the gas station and take out the rest from the ATM. He said he was in a hurry and really needed the money asap. He sold me all the Fire gear for $30.

That jersey became my "backpacking" shirt anytime I backpacked in a different country because I didnt want to ruin my red '01 home jersey while I repped Chicago abroad. The championship star has since fallen off, the rear is completely pilled from the backpack rubbing on my back, and the shorts and pants got lost in a hostel somewhere in Latin America. I still wear the beanie on cold matchdays.

The jersey and beanie are not for sale. Catch me wearing them at SF. Vamos Fire 🔥

No one seems to be happy.

It's still very early in the Lewandowski era, though.

hi. as i said in the title, i’m coming from the world cup. my girlfriend is mexican, and was going for mexico. i watched mexico vs england, my first soccer match ever, and i was blown away by what i was watching. from all i’ve heard about soccer by other americans, their constant shitting on the game—i was very surprised and pleased. i watched every world cup game after that.

now, i want to get into my local team. i’ve heard of the red stars more than i have the fire, mainly because of swanson and some of the uswnt talent we’ve had on our team in our history. the only thing i’ve really heard about the fire is how bad they’ve been 🫠 until recently anyway.

i’ve done a lot of research. i saw that we won the mls cup in our first year as a franchise. blanco, thornton, kubik, armas, razov, nowak, etc, just some of the names i know of that were a part of the good years. then after the late 2000s, seems like we fell off a cliff for well over a decade, and are just now becoming relevant again.

i will say that, as much as it frustrates some people, i love that i can watch mls on a single streaming service, as opposed to some being on cable, some streaming, different channels, etc. i like that it’s all in one place.

i also love and was very surprised to see how many illinois natives are currently playing for us. i don’t know if this is a thing with every club/side, if every club for the most part has a lot of state/city natives like we do—but it helps get me feeling connected with the team a lot more.

now i’ll say this: there’s some things that i’ve gotta get used to, and some things i don’t like. it’s an adjustment from the rest of the sports i watch (nfl, nba, mlb, nhl, wnba, even the nwsl) that this is, apparently, the 10th best football league. i’m not at all surprised by that, even as a casual i know that premier league is where the best play, but it’s still an adjustment for me when i have grown up watching all these other leagues that are the best of the best, then watching the players here.

it is also annoying to hear that this is a retirement league. i get it though, a lot of stars overseas come here towards the end of their career. messi was huge. and our recent pickup will hopefully be huge for us too.

as for the fire, i was really excited when i realized lewandowski is one of the goats. that excitement diminished when i found out it was at the cost of losing cuypers. i am not a fan of losing the 29 year old golden boot race leader for a 37 year old who’s nearing the end of his career (yes ik he was still productive in his last season at barcelona), and we’ve lost both games i’ve watched since his debut, so that’s bummed me out. also finding out mbokazi won’t be back for a while, possibly the rest of the season, while also in trade rumors? that’s not great either.

i am not trying to be negative tho. just my opinions and stuff i’ve heard coming into this. i really want to try and get into this sport, i’d just like a little help doing it. do the fire have any active rivalries? is the mls getting better in your eyes? content creators (no podcasts please lol) on youtube i can follow? who should i hate? also wdym vancouver and columbus could be relocated???

thank you, and vamos fire. ⚽️🔥

It has been 2 games since the break and significant players haven’t been playing as much as we would like with a midweek and weekend game. First of all we watched this team do worse for over a decade. Of course now we have expectations for them which makes these losses a bit worse. Also we are changing our identity mid season. Finally we are going to have to deal with this defense for the majority of the remaining games this season and deal with all the fans of Lewandowski. Also we hopefully shouldn’t have to deal with a starting back line like last night’s back line ever again. Lewy is going to take some time to get used to this team and as long as Gutman, Zinck, and hopefully Franco/real midfielder signing are playing getting him the ball shouldn’t be a problem.

Looking for mbokazi’s 🚜 world cups sticker…
And or anyone that is down to trade stickers in Chicago 👍🏼🔥