Becks coming to town? Chicago Fire are on the verge of making the play-off's with just 2 weeks of the regular season to go. I can see you're impressed, well don't be. Fire are 3rd from bottom of their Eastern Division but they will qualify as one of the best 8 teams, judged on their points total but like the cities beloved Cubs they will not be expected to dally around what they call the post season for too long.

America's schools lead the way in awarding everyone a gold star, even if you suck and Chicago paraphrase that pretty well in the MLS actually having lost more games than they've won.

DC United, Chivas and last year's winners Houston Dynamo look too strong from what I have seen on the box. I know some ex-pat Addicks up in Toronto follow their local side, who have struggled in their first MLS season, but I have never got into watching Chicago Fire regularly.

When I first came to Chicago they played at Soldier Field which is walkable but since they have moved out of the city, not having a car has made it difficult for me to get to the new stadium, although I did see them draw at home to Columbus, which was dire.

Chicago's fans deserve more games though, since their move to the very decent Toyota Park they were averaging 15,000 although since the arrival of Mexican footie icon Cuauhtémoc Blanco they have been packing them in recording near capacity crowds of just over 20,000 for the last 6 home games and this during the height of baseball season.

Their final game of the league season is next Saturday against Mr Beckham's LA Galaxy. Beckham hasn't played since the end of August but is expected to play in their final home game on Thursday and then again on Sunday in Chicago. Beckham has only played in 3 of a possible 17 MLS games, a terrible return on investment but as he keeps saying he is here for the long term and not just the final half of this season. However I still think he has had a positive effect on the burgeoning sport. There are of course people, who never had any interest in the world's game, still turning their noses up and pretending it doesn't exist but crowds are up as is merchandising. In fact a stat that will surprise most American sports fans is that the season-end average MLS attendance will overtake the National Hockey Leagues, just over 18,000.

The Fire v Galaxy game is sold out, cheekily you had to buy tickets for the two games proceeding too but at least Fire fans may get to see old Golden Balls unlike a lot of disappointed soccer fans around this country.

I did get an email from Ticketmaster the other day asking if I wanted to bid on "two west side pitch level field seats to include two commemorative chairs," basically sitting on a deckchair on the grass then. Throw in a hot dog and a blanket and I might consider a ten-spot.  ¶ 15:57