My son, when chaalenged to come up with a new Soctober slogan being that it's November now, thinks we should call it

Succember....kinda combining "Soccer/Suck" and November/ember(Fire)

Not really any worse than Soctober, I thought, and he tied a lot of things together. And it does suck that the Fire advanced.

It feels like it has been much longer than a week since DC played Chicago. It surprised me when they said it was a week.

I guess if I had to chose I would mind less a chicago/houston final. I can't believe dcu is out. Anybody go to "meet the team day". I was considering but would have ended up shaking someone and yelling "how did this happen"?

This bites, I should be snockered and yelling at Twellman from my seat at RFK right now.

Fire 2(Rolfe, Blanco) New England 1(Twellman)

Are the fans only on one side?

yup, now i see

hee hee, he said a bad word on tv to blanco

How did Twellman get away with a bicycle?

wow - that might top the one Ching has a couple of seasons ago; not sure if its better than Klein's in superliga

Because it was Twellman, it is by definition, NOT better....

Twellman has got to be one of the biggest stuck up cocky jerks ever. Fits in well with a majority of UMD students I guess.

Hey dude, that's enough with the Terp bashing.

I guess 32 credits at UMD were all Taylor needed. Wow.

why do all the teams have the same cheer, dc fans need to be more creative, tired of the ohh ohh ohh.......DC!

the chicago fans had the whole stadium cheering FIRE!

Is it me or is Wanchope the slowest and most unathletic player on the field tonight? I have yet to see him get off the ground for any corner kicks and any loose ball he looks 3 steps slow

wanchope has been a disappointment to me all year, he was awesome for his national team but is a big let down in mls.

I guess I'll be pulling for whoever plays New England.

The winner of the MLS Cup should play the winner of the Supporters Shield for the Grand Grand Champion

why Taylor's goal should not count---he gained an advantage, the defenders were scared to get their head taken off, wave the goal.

Yee Haw, Blanco is gone! The Fire are dead. We can stop watching the cry baby and have ESPN's producers linger while he whithers on the ground.

And now there are only 3 teams left and none of them have DP's!!

off topic but ---

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/soccer/11/07/bc.soc.mls.arenareactio.ap/index.html

Dema Kovalenko, who was a member of D.C. United when Arena led the team to two MLS titles, also refused to comment on the exit of the coach.

Uhhh NO

Final Score???

Thx,

Jay!

Where was Moreno tonight? :( I had the 2004 all star game at RFK shirt to sign and he was not there. :(

1 - 0 NE.

Goal by Twellmen

moreno in bolivia probably

Ouch I just saw the UMD comment.

one more, but quite funny.

http://www.goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=474203

Don Garber calling out SportsCenter/ESPN was certainly lame (but sadly kinda necessary).

10,000 at a semi-final match?

If KC wins will anyone show up at RFK for MLS Cup?

30 degrees, during the week, the crowd looked great

Wow, if I'm a Fire fan (thankfully, I'm not), I'm pissed about that Twellman goal (which you can see on the front page of MLSnet). First he pushes off the defender to gain advantage on the header, then his bicycle kick is way up high, inches from the face of the defender going up to head it!

Worst of all, it makes him appear to be a viable MNT player...

I feel ever more slimy than last weekend when I was rooting for the NY Red Bulls with the hopes of a a final full of contemptable underdogs...

Nevertheless, for the sake of the league, I am glad the Fire are gone and hope KC gets shuttered by Houston so that we don't have a repeat of LA's last title with a team in the final who couldn't muster more than .500 during the regular season. For the sake of the league children... for the sake of the league...

Now - I hate to say it - for the sake of DC United's coveted record of the only team with repeat titles, let's hope that Revolution and Houston bore the hell out of everyone with a 0-0 regulation tie and have to win the Cup after two or three rounds of PK's over Houston...

For the sake of DCU kids... for the sake of DCU...

Wow. Stunning goal, but I do question why it isn't a dangerous play.

Is it just me (soccer newbie that I am), or did half the Fire players flop to the ground imitating Blanco trying for a penalty when they got within 5 feet of the Revs' 18-yard line during a 10- or 15-minute stretch during the second half?

Atlanta-

Ironically, what you're saying about DC fans is almost universally said about Chicago fans. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you just haven't been to RFK before, or that you are actually deaf.

"why do all the teams have the same cheer, dc fans need to be more creative, tired of the ohh ohh ohh.......DC! "

Remind me again which chant goes like that?

I have great memories at RFK.... my top 2

1. DC United '97 championship

2. '94 world cup Saudi Arabia vs Belgium (best goal I have seen)

Look, I hate Twelllllllman as much as the next guy, but this isn't Girls U16. No way you call that goal back for dangerous play. The ref in this game was gold standard, totally consistent.

And the revs win again, seriously how long can they keep being successful with that style of play? I guess as long as MLS defenses allow them to. Lobbing balls into the box to Twellman won't work against Houston, man would I love to see NE lose in heart breaking fashion again.

I didn't get what I wanted. The ground didn't open up and swallow both teams. Oh well.

Twellman goal #1 top play on sportscenter

OF COURSE Twellman would be play #1. Anything that has to do with the New England Area always gets first dibs on ESPN. Didn't you get that memo. I'm just suprised Chris Berman hasn't professed his love for Tom Brady live on the air yet.

We're throwing this postseason away right? So if we're throwing it away, no better place for it to be thrown away and forgotten than Kansas City. Adds another exclamation point for a change in the playoffs too, with a 4 seed winning twice in three years.

Go Wizards!!

I'm not a ref but Twellman had the ball shielded away from those two guys. If there is a dangerous play it is from them trying to go over his shoulder and get their heads in there.

I'm all for letting them play, but that had to be a dangerous play. If you look at the one angle (they only showed that view once), you can see his foot actually struck the defender in the shoulder. I'm a ref and that's a dangerous play. I also thought it funny that Wyno and crew commended the ref last week for calling back Gomezs' goal, but commended the ref this week for not calling back Twellmans'.

Speaking of refs, when are they going to start handing out yellow cards to Blanco, Carlos Ruiz, and others for dives? You want to stop the craziness, then start handing out cards. As my 12-year old son said last night, for a big guy, it doesn't take much to put Blanco on the ground!

Change of topic, but...

England's chances for Euro 08 are slim. Given its talented roster, why does this team struggle so? Is it the style of play? Is it the coaching? I'm truly at a loss on this, and would be interested in everyone's thoughts.

That was kind of a dull game; but Im glad the bike wasn't called back. It may, or may not, have been dangerous, but is sure was a nice piece of skill by an American player (whether you happen to like him or not).

Have to say I didn't realize that was going to be Chris Armas' final game. While he happens to play for a crap team, he sure was a great contributor to US soccer, and had it not been for a couple really unfortunate injuries, he'd probably have gone to Europe after a world cup and done really well. Maybe DC can convince him to play one more season for us. It'd be nice to have a defensive midfielder who isnt a whimp.

Wanchope just wasn't ready for the level of play in MLS. Way faster and more skillful players than the dreck he was facing in Germany '06.

Hacksaw- Wow. Did you really just call Clyde Simms a whimp? Try saying that to his face.

Juan-John "...the Fire players flop to the ground imitating Blanco trying for a penalty...?"

YES! Why all the hate on NE? At least they play watchable soccer compared to Chicago. It's like the Fire is made up of the Portuguese and Italian national teams, being shot by snipers when an opposing player is withing 10 yards of them. I think that style of play makes Americans who don't follow soccer ridicule it as a sport. And I don't blame them. Blanco should have been sent off in either DCU game for his abuse of the ref, let alone the diving. DISGUSTING. At least Houston vs. NE might be somewhat watchable. I'm keeping my MLS Cup tickets.

P.S. - I am disturbed to agree with anything Juan-John rights.

Also, Wynalda just needs to shag Blanco and end this love affair he's been having in the booth during games. Makes me want to retch.

make that "writes". :)

Clearly a dangerous play with the foot up that high and that close to 2 guys' heads. But at the same time, I didn't care who won, and it precluded OT--so fine with me.

" NE? At least they play watchable soccer compared to Chicago"

wiether of you play watchable soccer.

I agree that the ref was very consistent, an odd occurrence for the MLS. On the other hand, I'm not sure Twellman's goal wasn't a dangerous play. Would that not have been called if had been near midfield? His foot seems to pass right between the two defenders heads. Fortunately his foot did not hit one of the Fire players because it could have created serious facial cuts or broken bones. I'd have to call it dangerous even though it was spectacular.
One other thing, someone should tell Dave O'brien that all of the goal of the year candidates are already being voted on. He made some comment about Twellman's goal being a clear candidate.

Fuel to the fire that lousy regular season teams in the play-offs undermine the credibility of the play-offs:

"The beauty of MLS is that you just have to be playing your best at the right time," Kansas City captain Jimmy Conrad said."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/luis_bueno/11/09/mls/index.html

Can the league really be proud of a play-off format that highly-touted players mock?

Top 4 make the playoffs, Home and away series, including away goals. That ends it. You have to be good all year, not just 'not as bad as the galaxy' to play in the playoffs.

After reading the comments on the board so far and being a Chicago Fire fan I wanted to say a couple of things.

Twellman's goal was a good goal, if Robinson would have just gone to ground whether or not he got kicked maybe the ref would have called it a dangerous play.

Wanchope played better but is still not good enough to be in the starting 11 - as you could see when Carr came on at the end the Fire had scoring chances. OSORIO - why did Wanchope start????

Blanco - I thought he stayed on his feet a lot more in this match then he did all season, now granted he did try to get a PK on that shoulder to shoulder romp but I thought he really tried to not dive everytime someone was close.

My main criticism of the match is why didn't Chicago shoot the ball? There were so many chances for shots on goal and it seemed like no one wanted to take the shot. At least Rolfe let one fly finally and it did challenge Reis, but NE did a good job of beating Rolfe up all night and that was really his only chance.

I thought the Fire dominated the match and just couldn't get the result. I really hopr Armas decides to come back as his play over the second half of the season has been fantastic. He almost looked like a young buck again out there.

I was surprised at Osorio's starting L/u. Wanchope? Really? And Rolfe back at R Mid? I knew that at 735pm that NE would advance. One goal was all they would need. Poor end to their "run."
NE was lucky to get Fire as their opponent. They played a poor game overall, little creativity, Ralston and Noonan were terrible all game, K smith was mostly useless, also.
I wish DC had not run into the injury bug at the end there. They should have dominated Chicago and with Revs's showing, that would have been a quick one also.