OUT: MF Brian Plotkin (athletic pubalgia) ... CHICAGO FIRE -- OUT: FW Calen Carr (L knee sprain)
SUSPENDED: none
COLUMBUS CREW: For the Eastern Conference Championship, the Crew will have to come back on a short week after finishing their semifinal series on Saturday. The Chicago Fire played both of their semifinal series matches on Thursday. "We'd rather have the same week Chicago had but it is what it is," Schmid said. "We have to accept it and move on. It's not like we're playing within 48 hours." ... Still, the Crew followed weekend matches with Thursday games three times during the regular season, and are 2-0-1. "They get a little more rest, but whatever, that's just the way it works out," Frankie Hejduk said. "We've got a bunch of guys who are fit enough on this team to do what we need to do to be prepared for a Thursday game." ... The Crew are hoping to have a big crowd behind them and capitalize on their home-field advantage -- just as they did in the second leg vs. Kansas City. The Crew owned the best home record in the regular season (11-2-2), have won seven in a row in league and cup at home, and were 13-0 in the regular season when scoring first. "When you're playing at home you want to capitalize on the adrenaline early and get a goal," Robbie Rogers said. "That goal was a big plus for us and made it an uphill battle for them." ... The Crew were also able to bounce back and win the club's first game in the postseason in six years, since a 2002 series sweep of San Jose. The Black & Gold were 0-2-4 since. "With each game in the playoffs our team gets more confident and more comfortable in each situation. It's been a long time since this team has been in the playoffs so for some of the guys it's a whole new experience," Schmid said. "You see how Evans is growing from game to game. You can see how Rogers is growing game to game. There's always pressure in that first series because it's home-and-home. Now it's one-off. This is what we played for all season to have this game here." ... The teams met just a month ago, in the second of their 2-2 draws. "We've played them twice this season and watched their games on TV. McBride's added something to their team. (Cuauhtemoc) Blanco is another guy you've got to tie up but we also feel we can get at them," Schmid said.
CHICAGO FIRE: After having the league's best defensive record for much of the regular season, there were some questions as the Fire started to leak goals down the stretch, conceding 13 goals in the final six games. But after back-to-back shutouts of New England in their semifinal series, they feel they have regained their form. "We have done so well defensively," Gonzalo Segares said. "Maybe a little bit at the end we lost our heads, and were not as sharp as we were at the beginning, but Denis sat us down and told us to get back to basics. In our two playoff games, we have been pretty sharp in the back, closing every space. That is how we like to play." ... Getting past the Revolution in the first round was also a boost to the Fire's confidence. Chicago has seen its season end at the feet of the Revs each of the past three years, twice in the conference championship. "It's a big relief to win this series because [the Revolution] have knocked us out of the playoffs so often. New England has shown a consistency of being a good team. But tonight our guys showed the will to move on," Denis Hamlett said. ... In the final five games of the regular season, Chris Rolfe contributed five goals. Ironically, they were all on ESPN Primetime Thursday: two in a 3-1 win vs. Los Angeles and a hat trick in a 5-2 win against New York. He followed it up with the second-leg opener last week. "He seems to play his best on ESPN Thursday nights and I'm glad we are playing the next game on a Thursday," Hamlett said of Rolfe. "He is good around the goal and showed that tonight on his goal." ... The game will feature two of the finest playmakers in MLS in Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Each team will have to find ways to deal with the other. "You have to have people around him," Jon Busch said of Schelotto. "If he has time on the ball, he'll take teams apart. To be successful, you have to knock him off of his game. I'm sure teams that play us say the same about Cuauhtemoc." ... In both regular season meetings, the Fire took a first-half lead, only to have the Crew answer with a pair of goals. "They don't quit," Rolfe said. "The previous year, once you got a goal on them, they would drop their heads. At their place, we took [a 2-0] lead and they responded."
