It's time to take over Columbus again, and turn it into Firehouse East. The Chicago Fire will take on the Columbus Crew at Crew Stadium on July 5th, and Section 8 Chicago are offering discounted bus & game ticket packages to the game for a limited time.

• $99 Overnight trip on the bus, hotel room and match ticket included
• $40 Quick return bus trip. $40 price for a limited time only. Match ticket included.

Be sure to snap up your tickets at the Section 8 store as soon as possible: these deals won't last. The Fire have been dominating on the road, and you'll regret missing out as several hundred Fire fans turn Crew Stadium into a home game for the Fire.

UPDATE:

The following itineraries are now available for S8OT Columbus. (all times local) 

$40 Quick return:

Saturday July 5th-

7:00am Depart Toyota Park

7:15am Arrive Orange Line Midway Stop

7:30am Depart Orange Line Midway Stop 

3:30pm Arrive Crew Stadium

7:30pm Kickoff

10:30pm Depart Crew Stadium

Sunday July 6th -

4:00am Arrive Toyota Park

$99 Overnight Trip:

Saturday July 5th-

7:00am Depart Globe Pub (1923 W Irving Park) 

7:30am Arrive Toyota Park

8:00am Depart Toyota Park

4:00pm Arrive Columbus Crew Stadium

10:30pm Depart Crew Stadium/Arrive Double Tree

Sunday July 6th-

11:00am Depart Double Tree

4:00pm Arrive Toyota Park

5:00pm Arrive Globe Pub

Itinerary current as of 7/3/2008.  Times subject to change, travelling supporters to be notified in advance of major revisions.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below, or contact communications[at]section8chicago.com. Don't miss out!

Five reasons why we don't miss Juan Carlos Osorio:

Section 8 Chicago.com has written up a brief profile of former Wisla star, and latest addition to the Chicago Fire, striker Tomasz Frankowski. In honor of tonight's friendly with Wisla Krakow, the profile has been translated into Polish. The English verison is located here .

Section 8 Chicago.com prezentuje bylego gwiazdora Wisly i jednego z najnowszych nabytkow Chicago Fire, napastnika Tomasza Frankowskiego. W zwiazku z dzisiejszym towarzyskim meczem z Wisla Krakow, artykul zostal przetlumaczony na jezyk polski.
Oryginal w jezyku angielskim znajduje sie tutaj.

W srode 21 maja Chicago Fire zagra z Wisla Krakow, jedna z najstarszych i najpopularniejszych polskich druzyn pilkarskich. Bedzie to pierwsze miedzynarodowe spotkanie towarzyskie Fire w 2008 r. W samym Chicago jest ponad 185,000 osob mowiacych po polsku, mozna wiec bezpiecznie zalozyc, ze jest wsrod nich sporo kibicow Wisly. Fire ma jednak jeszcze blizsze powiazania z Wisla – napastnika Tomasza Frankowskiego.

Tomasz rozpoczal swoja kariere pilkarska w Jagiellonii Bialystok w 1991r. Do Wisly Krakow dolaczyl w 1998r. M.in. odniesiony tam sukces pozwolil mu wystapic w reprezentacji Polski w meczach rundy kwalifikacyjnej do Mistrzostw Swiata w 2006r. Tomasz zdobyl wtedy najwiecej bramek dla polskiej reprezentacji, jednak trener Pawel Janas nie powolal go do kadry na Mistrzostwa. Grajac w Wisle, Tomasz pomogl zespolowi zdobyc mistrzostwo 5 razy. Pomiedzy 1998 i 2005, Frankowski wzial udzial w 173 spotkaniach i 3 razy zostal krolem strzelcow Orange Ekstraklasy - polskiej I Ligii (trzeci raz podczas swego ostatniego sezonu w Wisle w 2005r.). Grajac w Wisle 8 lat, Tomasz strzelil w sumie 115 bramek (srednio 2 bramki co 3 mecze).

There's been a lot of talk about this Fire squad being the deepest in the team's history. With that in mind, Backdraft ventured to Toyota Park this morning to watch the Reserve team in action against DePaul University.

The game featured the season debuts of two players, one who has been with the Fire for ten years, and another who had never before pulled on our red jersey.

We also saw the future of the Fire with a strong performance by Patrick Nyarko (right), and perhaps someone soon to belong to our past, thanks to another curious outing from Wilman Conde.

Read on for the full report and photos.

  
    After letting up only three goals in their first seven games, most fans would think the last thing to let them down would be the Fire's defense, but Saturday against the Houston Dynamo it was just that which led to a 2-1 final and the Fire's second loss of the season.  

"The second half I thought we just defended too much." Fire center back Bakary Soumare told Backdraft after the game. Bakary was upset after the Fire seemed to lose concentration in the final 10 minutes and let a quickly restarted free kick find Bobby Boswell's head and the back of the net as Houston won its second game in as many weeks, seeming to have finally found their rythmn.