expected Chicago’s season to end in disappointment against the powerhouse that was DC United beat the Fire both times the teams met in the regular season by a combined score of 7 2 Both losses came during two five-match losing streaks the Fire endured In between those streaks they won 11 straight matches The Fire’s up-and-down performance made the season unpredictable but exciting THE RIGHT MIX Chicago did not lack talent Its players may have been new to each other but fans of world soccer were familiar with them The Fire had a trio of experienced Polish forwards in Piotr Nowak Roman Kosecki and Jerzy Podbrozny Along with Czech midfielder Luboš Kubík these players formed the so-called Eastern Bloc of Eastern European stars They were especially popular with Chicagoans of Eastern European heritage The Fire also had some young American stars such as midfielder Chris Armas striker Josh Wolff and goalkeeper Zach Thornton In addition they had a rising coaching star in head coach Bob Bradley He had been an assistant on DC United’s two title teams All three players would end up 6
Chicago star Piotr Nowak evades DC United defender Jeff Agoos in the 1998 MLS Cup playing for the US men’s national team And Bradley would become the national team's head coach DC had its share of talent as well Eight players and head coach Bruce Arena represented the club in that year’s MLS 7
Fire midfielder Diego Gutierrez dribbles away from DC United forward Marco Etcheverry All-Star Game Arena would be soon be coaching the US men’s national team And United’s Eddie Pope and Jeff Agoos had played for the United States in that year’s World Cup 8
KICKING OFF The weather conditions for the MLS Cup were perfect It was a warm and sunny day at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena California And United nearly had a perfect start with Moreno’s attempt 15 seconds in DC kept up the pressure Its style was to attack Chicago tried to play solid defense and be prepared to counterattack For the first half hour the Fire defense absorbed a lot of pressure The United players were getting frustrated They felt the referees were missing calls and Chicago was getting all the breaks Chicago was hesitant to send too many players up the field and expose its defense The Fire carefully and slowly built their attacks In the 29th minute their patience paid off Ante Razov exchanged passes with Nowak near the 18-yard box Nowak ran free and drew the goalkeeper out to him At the last second he passed to Podbrozny who tapped the ball into a wide-open net Chicago doubled its lead just before the half The Fire took control of the ball in midfield Nowak carried the ball into the box and cut to the middle He unleashed a shot that deflected off teammate Diego Gutiérrez and found the back of the net 9
