Bridgeview, IL - The Chicago Fire came into Wednesday night's game against the L.A. Galaxy one game behind the Columbus Crew.  Both teams entered the night in search of a win with hopes of getting one game closer to the MLS Cup Playoffs.  The Fire came into the game playing one less game than the other teams in the Eastern conference, and at (9-4-8, 35 points) were four points behind first-place Columbus (10-3-9, 39 points). The Crew is tied with Houston in the race for the Supporters' Shield, which goes to the team with the best regular season record. So to say that tonight's game was important would be an understatement. Unfortunately, the Fire were not up to the task as they fell to the Galaxy 2-0.

It looked as though storms that swept through the Chicago area along with tornado warnings would end this game before it began, but as fate would have it the rain subsided and the gates to Toyota Park opened with 20,000 people braving the weather.  The teams hit the field for warmups and as the L.A. Galaxy formed a circle near the left bleachers, Herbalife distributors could be heard screaming at the top of their lungs during pre-game stretches.

The L.A. Galaxy came into the game one key man short, David Beckham.  After receiving a red card in the Galaxy's last match, he was forced to sit this one out.  That news came much to the disappointment of the Herbalife distributors that were on hand, who were coincidentally wearing their #23 Herbalife jerseys.

At 23:00 the L.A. Galaxy struck first with #18 Mike Magee slicing his way through the Chicago Fire defense and placing a shot to the right of the net and past Chicago Fire goal keeper, Jon Busch.

The game then got a little rough with the Galaxy's Dema Kovalenko shoving the Fire's defenseman in the back with no penalties issued.  At the 40:00 mark the teams exchanged blows again, but this time the Galaxy's Stefani Miglioranzi was called on a tripping with Blanco falling hard.  A technical foul was issued and the fans could tell that the two teams had much at stake in this game.

Both teams have a history of playing each other hard with neither one having any kind of dominance over the other. Going into the match, the Fire had 14 wins (1 shootout), 38 goals against the Galaxy, while the L.A. Galaxy had 13 wins (0 shootout), 34 goals and 3 ties against the Fire.  Knowing the history of these two teams, Wednesday night's game could have gone either way.

At 53:30 the L.A. Galaxy's Mike Magee scored again after the ball was forced past the Chicago Fire's defense and Magee was off to the races to the right of the penalty box when he fired the ball to the left of the goal.  With 57:00 on the clock the Galaxy, once again, flew past the Fire defense with Magee leading the charge.  Magee passed the ball to the middle of the penalty box, but the pass was intercepted by Busch.  In Beckham's absence the Galaxy tightened their game up.

With the score at 2-0 in favor of the Galaxy, things got a little more emotional for the Fire with John Thorrington receiving a technical foul, thus suspending him for the next game.  In the final clash of the night, the Fire's Stefan Dimitrov ran toward the goalie box to head the ball, but the Galaxy's goalie, Donovan Ricketts came flying into stop the ball, which resulted in their heads colliding in sequence.  The result left Ricketts on the ground with visible blood coming from his head.

Despite the Fire's stellar defense in their previous games, they could not hold off the Galaxy Wednesday night. Mike Magee had their number all game. The offense was no better; the only thing they were able to score was a mound of frustration with the game ending in a shutout for the Galaxy, two goals to one.

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