If events occur in a particular manner Tuesday at Toyota Park, the Group A competition in SuperLiga 2009 could end early.
The Fire play host to the doubleheader in the international tournament pitting teams from Major League Soccer and the Mexican FMF Primera Division. Group play continues this week with semifinals scheduled for July.
Each group has four teams, with the top two teams advancing after round-robin play. All four teams in Group A will play at Toyota Park Tuesday.
The Fire play MLS rival Chivas USA in the first game, and Mexican clubs San Luis and Tigres UANL play in the second game of the doubleheader. The Fire and Tigres each earned wins in their first group games over the weekend, so all they need to do is win again Tuesday night to advance to the semifinals.
That's easier said than done, in both cases.
The Fire defeated Chivas USA 3-2 in Carson, Calif. on May 28 but only after they got the benefit of a 96th-minute penalty kick by Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Although they are in different conferences, the teams know each other well, because Jesse Marsch, Ante Razov and Zach Thornton are among the Chivas players who were former Fire members (Razov is out due to right ankle surgery before the season).
The Fire and San Luis played a wild contest Saturday in which both teams had eight shots on goal but there was only one goal, a tally by Brian McBride in which Blanco himself chased down a ball in the left corner against a San Luis defender and sent a pass back to McBride down the middle.
Fire coach Denis Hamlett used his best available lineup in the game, and is likely to use a similar group in this second game in hopes of getting into the semifinals Tuesday.
"We will obviously take inventory (Monday) but it's important to get six points out of the first two games," Hamlett said.
The Fire have not been in an international competition in several years, but the outcome Saturday gave the team a reason to believe it can succeed in this tournament.
"I think we have a chance to win it all if we keep playing well," Fire defender Gonzalo Segares said.
The Fire will be without Segares for the rest of the group phase as Segares moves on to play for Costa Rica in the CONCACAF Gold Cup next month. Also unavailable is defender Bakary Soumare, who will return Tuesday from participation with the Mali World Cup qualifying team and is expected to play Saturday against Tigres.
Chivas will play without striker Eduardo Lillingston, who received two yellow cards, resulting in a red card, against Tigres. They also will have the disadvantage of traveling from Carson to Chicago for the second game, and conditions in the Windy City this week promise to be warm and muggy.
The Tigres-San Luis game will be a fun one for fans of the Mexican Primera Division, although they will not see the best Tigres has to offer. The team decided to keep its first unit at home to work on the upcoming Clausura season and sent its reserve team and youth squads to represent it in SuperLiga.
San Luis, on the other hand, was led Saturday by two-time World Cupper Braulio Luna, who had three terrific shots on goal but could not get past Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch.
"We just didn't finish," San Luis coach Juan Antonio Luna said. "Games are won by scoring and we didn't score."
The Fire benefit from staying at home throughout group play, and will entertain Tigres Saturday. San Luis and Chivas go to The Home Depot Center for their final games.
But if the Fire and Tigres win Tuesday at Toyota Park, those games will just be exercises.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
