Why is Sporting Kansas City-Chicago Fire is a historical rivalry of the MLS?

When Chicago Fire came into the MLS on 1998 D.C. United was the strongest team. The Fire won the Cup on it’s rookie season and since then it hadn’t been able to regain the throne. Sporting Kansas City, back then named Kansas City Wizards, won the league in 2000 and afterwords it’s luck has been just the same as Fire. Nonetheless, both of them are historical franchise that have cultivated a healthy rivalry due to the closeness of Kansas City and Chicago.

This rivalry is quite weird in US sports. In most of the leagues this two cities participate in different conferences. Actually, they also do it on the MLS. Moreover, this cities usually have other cities which they identify as their derbies, with Chicago mainly pointing out to Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan franchises and Kansas City pointing out Kansas, Colorado and Texans franchises as their rivals.

But the history of the MLS has been different to the formation of the rest of the professional sports league in the United States, and for many reasons the Lake States haven’t participate in the soccer league, besides from Illinois's Chicago Fire. This makes the 700 kilometers distance to Kansas City the closest distance to another MLS’s city for Fire's fans. Far away from rivalries as fierce as Portland Timbers-Seattle Sounders, or as contemporary as the Hudson Derby between New York Red Bulls and New York City FC, Sporting-Fire derby is a game full of respect and with fans that support one-another.

Statistically, Kansas City is up in the head-to-head matchups with 12 wins over Chicago Fire. The Illinois franchise have won eight games, and they have drawn nine times. In todays game Sporting will try to keep up their pace and shorten their distances with Western leader’s Sounders, while the Fire will try to win the game to earn a playoff position on the East, at least for a week.