Backdraft contributors put their heads together and compiled a list of hard-hitting questions for Chicago Fire forward Chris Rolfe. The striker discusses his personal goals, his teammates, and most importantly, how he orders his hotdogs.

Backdraft: You scored some absolutely crucial goals during the end of last season's campaign. After a sustained period of injury, just how good did it feel to be back among the goals?

Chris: After being sidelined for any reason, it always feels great getting back in the starting eleven with your teammates. Scoring those goals really helped
me feel better about missing a crucial part of the season because I knew I
was helping us to get closer to our goal.

Backdraft: What are your hopes for yourself and the team this season?

Chris: To win the MLS Cup and Open Cup and to be influential in the majority of the goals our team scores.

Backdraft: How important is winning the Supporters' Shield to yourself and your teammates?

Chris: We want to win every game, so I suppose it's more of an unspoken goal. Unfortunately in our league, the rewards for MLS Cup and even the Open Cup are greater than Supporters' Shield and that makes a big difference. However, we want to win as much as possible because we are competitors, and we know that our fans enjoy every chance to celebrate.

Backdraft: Over the last year or so, you've been asked to play up front and through the midfield channels. Ultimately, do you feel that such constant shifting between positions will help or harm your chances of receiving another look into the national team under Bob Bradley.

Chris: Hopefully, it will help my chances. The more versatile the player the
better, I think. As long as I don't become average at both positions it
should only help my case.

Backdraft: What parts of your game at either position do you feel you could improve?

Chris: In the midfield, I can always improve my defending and ball-winning. As a forward, I am always looking to get sharper around the goal, creating better runs, and one on one attacking.

Backdraft: Being a younger player, what are you looking to learn from veterans at your position like Frankowski and Blanco?

Chris: I try to find their habits off the field in regards to how they take care of their bodies and how they prepare. On the field, I will just watch them in
certain situations that I may have trouble in and if they're successful, I
try to bring that into my game.

Backdraft: What is your opinion concerning Osorio's exit from the club?

Chris: He had an opportunity to move on, which he thought would be better for his family and himself, so he left. I enjoyed having him here, but ultimately he had a way out of his contract so he took it.

Backdraft: How do you order your hotdogs?

Chris: One strip of ketchup, one strip of mustard and then cover it all in relish.

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14 Comments

Ben April 30, 2008	Ketchup? On his freakin' hot dog? I don't think I'm alone when I say he should reconsider, or be traded. I'm also close to questioning how he was raised, but I don't want to offend his family until I'm certain they're responsible. Ketchup? Really? Someone buy this poor child a jar of mustard and dice some onions for him. Someone invite him to the next tailgate.
Pola Henderson April 30, 2008	Yes, ketchup!!! :)))
JLM April 30, 2008	I'm sorry, but ketchup on a hot dog is unforgivable. And that relish better be radioactive green. Next he'll be telling us he prefers CPK to Lou Malnati.
maverick April 30, 2008	Am I the only one wondering if there is any relation between him putting ketchup on his dog and karma paying him back with an injury?
FIRExNECK May 01, 2008	Chris Rolfe is better than a katsoup lover!!!
JMJ May 01, 2008	ketchup is fine on a hotdog... when it is cut up on a plate or on the tray of your high chair.
C Rolfe May 01, 2008	good point... the last time i probably ate a hotdog, i was in a high chair. i mean, really, what grown man eats hotdogs?!?
el tiger May 02, 2008	Ketchup is good it is red, I suggest it is ok on a hotdog. Don't stop living in the red and off the red. Tradition for the sake of traditon is blarney...Fire till I die..
Benjamin Kumming May 02, 2008	"good point... the last time i probably ate a hotdog, i was in a high chair. i mean, really, what grown man eats hotdogs?!?" The kind that asked the question, sir! I don't know what kind of space food you professional athletes get but encased meats are a staple for the rest of us.
JF May 02, 2008	Ahh, Chicago. America's home for unshakable condiment orthodoxy. I really couln't understand this nonsense when I moved here a dozen years ago. Now I just view it with same bemused resignation with which I greet the other unalterable sillinesses of this great city, like rampant government criminality and the foolish insistence that one must root for one and only one of the city's two major league baseball teams. Whatever.
Ben May 02, 2008	Speaking as a vegetarian from Chicago, I can say that I root for the White Sox and the Cubs.
el tiger May 02, 2008	That what is this white sox and cubs, I don't know what you are talking about, is that some hippy veggie tantric thing or what? I only know Fire Fire Fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elizabeth May 05, 2008	Maybe we should send the team a gift from Hot Doug's. Now there's a place even vegetarians can go.
Buffalo Mike May 05, 2008	Oh, come on man! Next you'll be putting it on wonderbread with american cheese. It has nothing to do with Chicago...that's just plain gross. :O