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Fire Wed Aug 20 2008
Missing Players
The U.S. National team plays Guatemala tonight in World Cup Qualifier, the result of which will bear a big impact on next month's match vs. Trinidad and Tobago at Toyota Park. Despite spending the entire season towards the top of the table, no Chicago Fire players were called up to represent the U.S. There will be a Fire player in the mix, however, with new midfielder Marco Pappa getting his first call up for Guatemala.
Gonzalo Segares will also make a trip to Central America to play for Costa Rica against El Salvador, and Cuahtemoc Blanco received a surprise call up for Mexico against Honduras.
All this would be well and good if the Fire didn't have a game tomorrow night. Thankfully, their opponents, the LA Galaxy, will be missing some stars of their own with David Beckham heading to England for a friendly against the Czech Republic and Landon Donovan playing for the U.S. So, the two teams with the biggest stars in MLS will meet in the marquee ESPN2 spot without either Beckham or Blanco present. I think I've mentioned that MLS needs to pay attention to the international soccer calendar a few times already
Oh yeah, and former Fire head coach David Sarachan is now L.A.'s assistant coach, working for Bruce Arena (and probably David Beckham's handlers).
