"The Fire became the fourth MLS team eliminated in the third round, joining Los Angeles, D.C. United and Houston on the sidelines. Only FC Dallas and New England remain."
It takes only a quick look at the competition bracket, usefully posted on the U.S. Open Cup's official site, to know this isn't the case. For one, Chivas USA hasn't played their Round of 16 game - that's on "June 16, 2007" against the Seattle Sounders. And that's in Seattle, by the way, the significance of which will be made clear later. There's also the fact that the Colorado Rapids is still in the tournament.
Getting back to that "significance" flag I planted earlier, maybe the Tribune's staff is stupid like a fox. For starters, they can't be blamed for forgetting Colorado is not an MLS team; I do it all the time, at least when I don't forget the Rapids' existence entirely. As for Chivas, maybe the Trib's staff knew all about Chivas' road record and figured that, combined with the Seattle Sounders' current hot-streak, would, in fact, leave New England and Dallas as the only two teams that one can say without smirking belong in MLS.
In reality, though, there are a minimum of three MLS teams remaining in this year's tourney. And the way the brackets break down means that at least one lower-division team will make the semifinals - and given how MLS teams are faring in LHUSOC play this year, why would one bet against them? If a USL-1 - or, god forbid, USL-2 - team wins the tourney this season, what the hell, y'know? For all the interest MLS teams and schedulers show in the tournament, it would be justice, wouldn't it?
That returns, rather nicely, to the post I was going to write. And if you read the report on Chicago's loss in Windy City Soccer, you'll read this priceless line:
"This was a night where the Fire was clearly second best in every aspect of the night except goalkeeping where Jon Busch kept the match close."
It shouldn't be this goddamn hard to tell which team on the field is top-flight.
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