Here, there, everywhere

LAST WEEK: With one game in the books, the Chicago Fire and their fans finally have some idea of what the 2003 edition of the team will look like. Not much of an idea, mind you, but an idea nonetheless. Real quickly, my impressions of the game were that Chris Armas' touch is a little rusty, but his determination is not; Kelly Gray made some horrible touches that puts his spot on the depth chart in question; Andy Williams showed a better work rate than his critics would have had you expect; DaMarcus Beasley is still really quick and still occasionally trips over the ball; Rodrigo Faria, in missing a penalty kick, is definitely one of ours, but showed he can hold the ball as a more withdrawn forward and hit guys on overlapping runs. That, and we're a very fast team, and will beat a lot of teams to a lot of loose balls.

THIS WEEK: So, that taken care of, it's on to RFK stadium and DC United. Obviously, this would be a slightly bigger deal if Hristo Stoitchkov weren't serving out his suspension for breaking the leg of a college student in a preseason scrimmage, but the Fire will still be facing Dema Kovalenko in an opposing uniform for the first time, unless you count Beasley and Carlos Bocanegra playing against him in last year's All-Star Game. The fact that Kovalenko tackled Beasley hard from behind in a game that meaningless should give a hint as to what we can expect when they go up against each other for real. The other obvious matchup will be Chris Armas against DC playmaker Marco Etcheverry, who looked a bit like his old self in a 3-2 loss in Kansas City last week, particularly on an end line dance that led to a goal for forward Santino Quaranta. Quaranta is a big forward, but the Fire have enough size in the defense to contain him. Defensively, it's going to be the wings that make all the difference, as Evan Whitfield and Orlando Perez will need to contain the likes of Earnie Stewart, Ben Olsen and Bobby Convey in some configuration.

Given DC's abundance of talent in the midfield, and the continuing unavailability of Ante Razov due to suspension, I expect coach Dave Sarachan to bring out the 3-6-1 formation we saw last week against New England to clog things up. According to Whitfield, it was more of a 3-4-3, and the Fire's website says it was a 4-5-1, but if Williams and Beasley play any defense at all, and Whitfield and Perez push up on the wings, it's really a 3-6-1. The good news is that due to various injuries, the DC defense is anchored by Fire whipping boy Mike Petke, and that should translate into many good scoring opportunities, even for a lone forward. And if keeper Nick Rimando has as awful of an outing as he did last week, those opportunities should translate into goals. Prediction: Fire 2 (Faria 2), DC 1 (Stewart).

AROUND THE LEAGUE: Prior to last Sunday's game, the New England Revolution acquired the rights to midfielder Jason Moore from the Fire. With Colorado's Zizi Roberts opting for just his first name on the back of his MLS shirt, the dueling J. Moores may force recent red card recipient Joe-Max to do the same. Or not, I'm just saying. Maybe this will all start some XFL-esque trend in jersey naming, in which case DC United defender Mike Petke is probably a lock for resurrecting "He Hate Me." We do, Mike. we do.

AROUND THE WORLD: There was much consternation about forward Thierry Henry's second goal in the epic matchup between Manchester United and Henry's Arsenal on Wednesday, as Henry looked to be about a step offside on the through ball that got him in on goal. What strikes me as odd, though, is that I haven't heard much concern over Henry's first goal. There wasn't a replay that gave a good view of the far post, but it looked like defender Ashley Cole's shot deflected off Henry while the striker was in an offside position. Have we been that conditioned by that "passive offside" nonsense that this wasn't even noticed? Or am I just not looking hard enough? I've seen some discussion of it, but nothing in any actual news stories I've seen or heard.