Following last Saturday's Fire-Chivas game, the leadership of Sector Latino -- a supporters' group affiliated to Section 8 Chicago -- approached Ben Burton, ISA Chairman, and told him Sector Latino had received racial abuse from the security at Toyota Park. After a public meeting was held with Sector Latino and Fire fans on Wednesday, August 6th, about the issue, meetings were scheduled this week with the Chicago Fire.

On Monday, Ben Burton, Walter Arredondo of Sector Latino and myself met with several members of the Fire staff, Toyota Park staff, and a Village of Bridgeview official to detail the events of the previous game, and the numerous other problems Sector Latino have had as Walter explained they had been targeted by Monterrey Security since their emergence in 2005. The details of that meeting are posted here.

A second meeting was held last night at Toyota Park. Below is a full report.

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What is it like to be part of one of the Fire's most dedicated, positive and vibrant supporters' groups and yet to face continual, racially motivated abuse from security at Toyota Park? Ask Sector Latino, who have been targeted since their emergence in 2005 by Monterrey Security, and who received disgraceful racist abuse from guards at the last home game against Chivas USA.

Following this, Section 8 Chicago called a series of meeting to explore the details of the situation and put together a course of action to resolve the problem. In sum, it was determined that Section 8 must stand in solidarity with SL and that Monterrey's racist guards can no longer be present in the section.

Backdraft was present and offers a full report on proceedings below.

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Last weekend, the Fire's developmental team the Super 20s headed to the national championship finals in Virginia Beach. One of their defenders, Greg Klazura from Rockford, has an exclusive account of events in the championships for Section 8.

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Two Chicago Fire teams are top of the league -- did you know that? And that there's playoff action at Toyota Park this week?

The PDL and Super-20 teams both finished top of their respective midwest divisions this season. The PDL team made the playoffs for the eighth straight season (the only USL team to be able to boast that). On Tuesday, they will host the Kalamazoo Outrage at 4pm on the Toyota Park practice field. The game and parking are free, so come out and support our boys.

Meanwhile, the Super 20s -- created last season -- have the best record in North America since their founding, at an astounding 18-1-3. They head to Virginia Beach for the finals next week.

Many of these players are potential future Fire players, as the PDL/Super 20s program is now fully integrated within the Fire's developmental system. And they have been stunningly successful.

John Dorn, Director of the Fire's PDL and Super 20s program, told Backdraft of the team's effort and asked fans to come out to support the team this week.

"There will be a half dozen future pros -- hopefully Fire first teamers -- on the field on Tuesday and they sure could use some support," he said.  "They have worked their butts off this summer wearing the Fire badge proudly and bringing home another Division Championship while remaining pretty much under the radar screen.  We usually go on the road for the playoffs and encounter the Chicago taunts from opposing fans -- it would be awesome to hear some hometown fans pull for our boys."

So come out and support the PDL team on Tuesday, and follow Backdraft for news of the Super 20s playoff

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As most of you know, Blanco was sent-off last night and was apparently involved in further altercations on his way off the field, as the Fire fell 2-1 to DC United in extra time of their US Open Cup quarter-final.

The Washington Post is reporting the following:

In addition to his on-field conduct, which according to D.C. United defender Marc Burch included both punching and eye-gouging D.C. midfielder Clyde Simms, Blanco also allegedly head-butted a D.C. United operations employee as he was being escorted off the field, according to sources.

Here is D.C. United's comment on the situation: "As a result of incidents last night, Major League Soccer has requested video footage, which we are preparing and will be sending to the league," United spokesman Doug Hicks said. Hicks said MLS will have the video today.

It is highly unlikely, however, that MLS will take any action that would suspend him from MLS play, as the game was under the auspices of US Soccer, not MLS.

Fire spokesman Gregg Elkin said that "An MLS official told me today that it is a US Soccer issue because it happened in their “event”. He thought it would be left to them to make any disciplinary decisions, if any at all. He did add if there was a tape sent, that they would look at it."

Backdraft has also sent the following tape of the incident to MLS:

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If a US Open Cup quarter-final takes place and nobody sees it, does it really happen?

Tonight, MLS' two most storied franchises face-off in yet another knockout grudge match, as the Fire travel to Maryland to take on DC United in the Open Cup.

Yet not only is the tie of the round not on television, online video streaming was not planned by the Fire, DC United or US Soccer (last minute efforts are being made by Section 8 Chicago to co-ordinate a webcast at the time of writing).

This blackout demonstrates short-sighted vision and a lack of planning by US Soccer, who did not respond when asked yesterday by Backdraft for comment. A tournament that could be central to showcasing the joy and drama of knockout soccer, and the depth of the game across the country, is dying due to failures of marketing and promotion such as that shown in this instance.

In the case of the Fire, it's particularly disappointing. For if there's one team and one set of supporters that has shown a commitment to the Open Cup deserving of its long history, it's Chicago, who have dominated the tournament in the modern era.

It's not as if online video streaming would be novel. The Fire's two previous Open Cup games, in Peoria and Chicago, were both streamed online. The previous game was broadcast by the Cleveland City Stars, a USL-2 team who were able to gather the resources to put together a webcast that was welcomed by many Fire fans unable to make it to the game.

What do the Fire have to say about this?

Gregg Elkin, their VP for Communications, told Backdraft that "The Fire wishes all of our games can be televised, unfortunately situations arise where a broadcast is not possible." Elkin added that, "Obviously, the technology exists today for games to be broadcast games via the internet. However, if the Fire is going to produce such a webcast, it would, and will be, of the highest quality. We are not going to put forth a product to our fans that is done with only one camera or does not have professional announcers."

"We wish tonight's game was available for people to watch," Elkin continued. "As an alternative, the game can be listened to in English and Spanish via the D.C. United stations and the action can be followed by the MLS Match Tracker system at mlsnet.com.

"As the organization looks to the future, webcasts and an overall improvement of our website is a priority," Elkin said.

Meanwhile, Section 8 Chicago has made it a priority to try and get video coverage of the game online tonight. Please check back here later for

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The Fire want Brian McBride, Brian McBride wants to play in Chicago, and Toronto wants a tasty young treat in return for his allocation rights. It's believed they want a talented forward.

And one of the Fire's talented young forwards is out of contract at the end of the year, the same one who surprisingly started on the bench last game. His name is Chris Rolfe, and an MLS source told Backdraft that "Rolfe’s name is coming up often in conversations [about McBride], because he will be out of contract after this season and is asking for a hefty pay increase to resign."

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Chaos! Catastrophe! And a collective vendetta against one of our best players this season thus far.

Such has been the general Fire fan reaction to the recent slide in form, which has seen us drop three of our last four games, with a suddenly anemic offense particularly enraging those who seem to think that despite MLS' undoubted parity, the Fire ought to be immune from the mini-slumps in form every team goes through.

In particular, the criticism roundly heaped upon Chad Barrett following the last game -- where he did botch one easy chance, before missing a far harder angled shot -- has been as pointless as it has been predictable. He deserves criticism, but so do many other players from that disappointing loss to the Fake Goats.

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Backdraft was there last night to watch as the Chicago Fire Academy's U-16 took on local elite youth soccer club the Chicago Magic in a crucial top of the table encounter. Read on as we explore the future of the Fire.

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When Andell Holdings, led by Chairman and CEO Andrew Hauptman, purchased the right to operate the Chicago Fire in 2007, they were not buying a blank slate. They were buying a team with a distinct tradition. It is an organization that honors this with its Ring of Fire, whose inductees represent those who have contributed significantly to the passion that defines the Fire community.

In the Ring of Fire are former President and GM Peter Wilt, former manager Bob Bradley, and former star players Lubos Kubik, Frank Klopas and Piotr Nowak. Fittingly, it has always been up to the inductees to select new members of the Ring of Fire, giving the club a red thread running through it that links it from its origin to the present. This is unique in American soccer.

This year, they chose to put in the Ring of Fire two supporters who tragically died within the past eighteen months, Dan Parry and Brandon Kitchens. Both represented everything that the Chicago Fire has stood for over the past decade, and in their own ways, each contributed much to that tradition.

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