It’s the 82nd minute of the first game of the year. The Chicago Fire are incandescent, glowing a luxuriant red, elated, piling into a screaming mass of bodies in joy; floating nearby are their supporters, doing likewise. Nemanja Nikolic has just hammered home a lovely team goal to give the Men in Red a desperately hard-won 3-2 lead over Sporting Kansas City.
It’s the 86th minute of the first game of the year. The Chicago Fire have guttered, their faces ashen, dumbstruck, each alone in a private misery; piled nearby are the supporters, likewise ashen, dumbstruck and miserable.