Fire to host Revolution

The Chicago Fire defend their title against a depleted New England squad on the opening Thursday of the new MLS season. Revs will be w/o Ralston and now Taylor Twellman will be out with surgery.

Already gave some stats in the previous post. Here are a few Thursday stats: Home team is 7-2-6 on Thursdays. There were three Thursday matchups last season with the title holder going 1-1-1. Overall on Thursday the champ has been able to hold on 9 times and dropping the title six times. New England are 1-1-1 on Thursday. Their only win coming as a challenger in 2002. That is also the last time a home team won on Thursday; the visiting team has won 4 of the last 5(one draw). Chicago has also played three times on Thursday - all three dates were in 1998(a great year for Chicago in case you don't recall). The Fire are 1-0-2 on Thursdays, retaining the title once and losing it twice that year.