Blog Entries for Marty Groark

Section 8 On Tour: Kansas City week 28

martygroark@gmail.com — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:00:00 +0100

Walking over to Toyota Park early Saturday morning, I couldn't help but think I was forgetting something – camera . . . check . . . Fire jersey . . . check…Fire flag …check. What was it I'm missing? Oh yeah, pants. I had the bright idea to wear shorts, and at 8:00 A.M. on an October day in Chicago it was freezing. Why didn't I wear the pants? But there was no time to worry about it. The bus was minutes away and I was about to head to Kansas City for my [...]

Organized Pyro in Chicago?

martygroark@gmail.com — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:00:00 +0100

The game is about to start. Flares are lit in front of the Harlem End and the stadium begins to look like a smoldering volcano awakening from a long nap. Smoke bellows of out Section 8 and surrounds Toyota Park in an almost dream like haze. The lineups are announced and more flares are lit while huge flags begin waving from all corners of the [...]

Kings of the Cup Roll On

martygroark@gmail.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:52:48 +0100

The Chicago Fire successfully continued their run towards a record 5th Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday after a 4-1 pasting over the visiting Cleveland City Stars of the USL-2 league.

After failing to score in the last 333 minutes of their regular season, a few lesser used Fire players were able to earn some time Tuesday night and showed the starters how scoring is done. Sec ond year player Mike Banner was able to find net early in the game when in the 13th minute he had time t [...]

Another Frustrating Night

martygroark@gmail.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:41:14 +0100

After failing to score in their previous two games, the Chicago Fire looked to the match against San Jose to regain the form that quickly made them an MLS Cup favorite and instill some confindence in the Fire fowards. After regulation however, it is difficult to see what it was that made Chicago an early season powerhouse, as once again the Chicago Fire frontline remained anonymous Saturday night.

Rookie Head Coach Denis Hameltt opted for a new lineup as he started Andy Herron and To [...]

Fire Edge Columbus in Cup Thriller

martygroark@gmail.com — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:00:00 +0100

On Tuesday June 10th, the Fire traveled 3 hours south of Chicago to Bradley University in Peoria, IL where they met the Columbus Crew in a play-in game to the 2008 U.S. Open Cup. With a record crowd arriving on a warm, early evening at Bradley's Shea Stadium, the Fire took to the field looking like a team with something to prove after an embarrassing first round knockout in last year's Open Cup to the USL-1's Carolina Railhawks. Fielding a team with many underused players, D [...]

Tomasz Frankowski

martygroark@gmail.com — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:00:00 +0100

On Wednsday May 21st , the Chicago Fire will face one of Poland's oldest and most popular teams when they face Wisla Krakow in their first international friendly of 2008. With over 185,000 Polish speakers in the city of Chicago, it's not too far fetched to believe that there are many Krakow fans within its limits, but Chicago has an even closer connection with [...]

Tomasz Frankowski

martygroark@gmail.com — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:00:00 +0100

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 C [...]

Houston 2 - Chicago 1 :: Fire Streak Snapped

martygroark@gmail.com — Sun, 18 May 2008 02:00:00 +0100

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 j [...]

Fire 2 - United 0 :: Our House, in the Middle of DC

martygroark@gmail.com — Sun, 11 May 2008 02:00:00 +0100

Many people thought that Thursday's match between the Fire and D.C. United would be a physical, even sided match that would be played hard until the final minute, and only then would a victor emerge. Those people would have been right in only one aspect, it was a physical night. It was at times more reminiscent of a martial arts cage match than a soccer game, but the entire night belonged to Chicago. From the first minute, Chicago's entire team came to play, and despite a few lucky [...]

Postgame Interviews: Rapids @ Fire

martygroark@gmail.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:00:00 +0100

Denis Hamlet had a lot to talk about after the Fire's impressive 2-1 win against the visiting Colorado Rapids. Hamlett mentioned how pleased he was with the play of John Thorrington, who scored both of Chicago's goals. "Last week he [Thorrington] played well too, he defended well, got himself into some good spots last weekend; and tonight, the same thing, from the 1st minute to 90th minute he was defending, got forward, got 2 good chances and finished them."

Coach Ham [...]

Postgame Interviews: Wizards 1-0 Fire

martygroark@gmail.com — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:00:00 +0100

After a 1-0 loss to the visiting Kansas City Wizards, the mood in the Fire locker room was glum to say the least. The players walked around with their heads low, and there was none of the usual joking around. It was obvious that this was a game the players felt they should have come away with at least a point from.

Kansas City's lone goal came in the 4th minute, a goal for which Chicago's backline blamed themselves. Fire defender Gonzalo Segares explained that "We just kep [...]

Fire 4-0 Revolution: Postgame Interviews

martygroark@gmail.com — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:50:38 +0100

After Chicago's 4-nil annihilation of the New England Revolution at the Fire's home opener in Bridgeview, none of the 15,553 present in the stadium had a bigger smile than rookie Head Coach Denis Hamlett once the game ended. In fact, the entire locker room was happy and smiling: it was hard not to feel like this year was going to be a little special.

D [...]