I was the first person to my car in the U.S. Cellular Field parking lot and the race was on. Could I get to Toyota Park, buy a ticket and get into the stadium within 20 minutes? Since both U.S. Cellular Field and Toyota Park are relatively close to Chicago’s Interstate-55 it was definitely possible.

Parking and Obtaining Tickets
I was at the Toyota Park parking lot at 6:55 pm (luckily for me there was no Saturday evening Chicago traffic) and used my media parking pass to park quickly. Since Jamie Trecker, Fox Sports’ senior soccer writer, told me he had requested a media credential for me after we attended the Chicago Fire home opener back on April 5, I was hoping a credential would be waiting for me at media gate. The woman at the gate could not find my credential (also snickering and doubting I would have a credential since I was wearing a Cubs shirt and hat), but given the lack of press that had shown up for the game, she handed me a generic media pass with press box access only. I was grateful and in the stadium just a few minutes after the opening kickoff.

The Game
Toyota Park was mainly full of Mexican fans cheering for Tigres UANL. Entering the game, the Fire knew if they lost by less than two goals they would advance to the SuperLiga semifinals on July 15.

Tigres used a team mainly of reserves and youth club players to defeat the Fire 2-1. Tigres midfielder Armando Pulido scored twice to give the Tigres a 2-0 lead at halftime. It was not until Cuauhtemoc Blanco scored a penalty kick goal at the 85th minute that the Fire knew they would advance to the semifinals.

SuperLiga 2009
This was the second SuperLiga tournament I have attended – the first coming in 2007 when I attended the semifinal and final at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA.