Table of Contents
Oh hi! I’m Jiggly. And it’s a Tuesday.
Well, it shouldn’t be a surprise to any of you. This week is part two of my Mailbag Extravaganza. I’m really happy that it is, because I just don’t know what to say about the Fire right now. They won in a game that they looked absolutely garbage in and this week they’re playing to a sellout crowd that will not look like a sellout by the time we get to the second half probably. I don’t really wanna talk about that game, so I’m very happy to keep last week’s energy going into this week. Let’s get right back into it.
Our first question this week is a fitting one after a halftime of sorts from a member of the Press Box Gang, @JoeChatz: “The best song for after halftime at Fire matches?”
I read this question wrong when I first read it, which means I got really excited about answering the question I thought this was. This question is about the Second Half Song vote, which is when fans vote for a song to be played before the second half kickoff. I know he wants the Percolator, which has always been one of the best choices, but if we stick with bands that have Chicago connections, I’ve always wanted to at least see The Tossers get a shot. Maybe something like USA or The Town Where I Was Born. But yeah, of the options, Percolator is usually the best choice.
The thing that I read however, was: At the halftime whistle, what song do you immediately put your earbuds in for while you await the second half. Whether I’m at home or not. You see, I’m a person who needs constant music playing in the background. I cannot physically handle silence and having that music on helps me focus better. Not like ambient stuff either. I remember I was somehow able to sneak my earbud in while taking a math final in high school and I did significantly better on that final than I did on any other test that semester. I think I was listening to the “2nd Law” album by Muse. Nowadays, I listen to stuff like Outkast to go to sleep. I should probably also mention that I’m a musician that has released music (on Spotify, but the good stuff is on Bandcamp), and worked at my high school radio station for all four years.
Music is an important part in how I interact with the world and watching the Fire is no different. At the stadium, I will always have my headphones on me and I will instantly plug them in and listen to something while I’m on the move in the stadium. And when I’m watching a game from home, the commentary is usually just low enough to where I can kinda hear names and crowd reactions, but I have music playing over it. The first half is usually something more upbeat, or at least more fun. Most games this season, I’ve had MF DOOM playing. But when halftime hits and that first album is over, what is the most Fire song to reach for at halftime. When I pull out the earbuds and start walking upstairs to meet with Adnan at halftime, what is playing on the way?
You may think, with my own history of loving really depressing music, I don’t really have Julien Baker, The National or Joji playing around games. There was one exception, after the Columbus game, I had way too much to drink and spent the ride home blasting Snail Mail’s newest album into my eardrums. It was not a good night to be a Fire fan. But even if it’s not depressing, it’s never really anything upbeat either. I’d say that the best music for halftime of a Fire game is best described by the guy that I think makes that sort of music, that it’s “a statement that I can hide behind the tears with this large rock show.” Late songs in illuminati hotties albums work (along with the mere concept of “tender punk”) and there’s always my favorite songwriter Jamie T, who creates music that embodies the spirit of “Life sucks, but fuck it, we ball.” But the best music for halftime of a Fire game is Bleachers.
Jack Antonoff has such an amazing musical IQ. Every time he talks about why he’s doing something in his songs, it just makes sense to me and the way he speaks about music just sounds right to me. I actually considered bringing up a metaphor at some point centered around how he built the sound of Bleachers around this low hum on a synthesizer. That hum, much like the reason I constantly listen to music, delivers this warm hug sonically that drowns out all the extra noise in your life. I think most of Bleachers’ catalog is perfect for halftime, but the best song would probably be Don’t Take The Money. There’s this deep sadness inside of an attempt to drown those feelings with nostalgia. It’s loudly trying to drown out the thoughts that will haunt you about our failure to sign a proper DP, our inability to score goals, and many of us haven’t really experienced a truly great Fire season.
And then it’s time for the Percolator again.
Moving onto something more soccer focused, we have the third Sad Boi, @rga_02 who asks: “Sayuri Akino can play out on the wing, but Minami Fuyuki can do that plus drop down to a deep lying role depending on the formation. Now how would you incorporate those two in a propa bri ish 4-4-2 formation”
This is a fantastic question. For those of you who don’t know what RJ is talking about, which is likely most of you, he is referencing one of my favorite manga, “Dosanko Gal wa Namaramenkoi (Hokkaido Girls Are Super Adorable)”. My profile picture on Twitter is of the character Sayuri Akino and my phone’s lock screen is actually Minami Fuyuki. It’s getting an adaptation in January and while I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who doesn’t hang out around the romance/slice of life side of anime, I love it and am excited to see it adapted. I also really like Akino and I think it’s because I actually relate to her quite a bit. She has a lot of issues with (emotionally) masking in public and is incredibly indecisive, which is a trait that is brought out of not wanting to inconvenience others. She’s also just really cute. She’s not the main heroine, it’s Fuyuki. But it’s all set in Kitami City, which is all the way in the north of Hokkaido. And, as I constantly say, Hokkaido is just the Wisconsin of Japan. I’d love to move to Sapporo someday.
Anyway, the question basically presents an assumption that both Akino and Fuyuki are wingers, at least in their description. This is a bit weird, because I think this question implies that Akino may have a bit more speed than Fuyuki. In the arc where Akino is introduced, she doesn’t know how to ski at all, while Fuyuki is pretty damn good at it. So honestly, it’d make more sense if Akino were more defensive than Fuyuki. But, I was given some facts to work with and I think that I’m making too many assumptions about their other abilities. The thing is, to me a winger is someone who needs speed no matter what. And if they’re a more defensive player, you kinda don’t wanna see as much speed. Or at least, it doesn’t matter quite as much. Like, Miguel Navarro has the speed to push up into the attack, but he does consistently leave himself wide open going back because of it.
With the restriction that we’re playing some Brexit Ball 4-4-2 stuff here, I’d want to have one of those two forwards be the target for crosses and set pieces, while the other is the runner that chases down those route one passes. If Fuyuki has those defensive skills, they’ll be a whole lot more helpful in the midfield because there’s almost no real serious pressing in a Brexit Ball system. She should be pushing along with the block and helping when the ball is caught up in the final third rather than leading the charge, so she can help back in the midfield. Plus, if “deep lying role” means that she has the vision of someone who plays in a deep lying role, that’s even more helpful to have her further back to pick out those long passes forward to Akino. Because Akino, with the presumption that she has the speed of a winger, may be best placed at striker with the free roam to pick up those long balls and start the attack from the tip of the spear. You’d still need a target forward for the situations that call for it, but they’re not really the sorta player you’d want chasing the long balls. Akino would be the one to do that.
Up next is from another very special question asker, @DonCraft15. Fun fact, Don is actually a legendary figure in Fire supporter history and one of the founders of Barn Burners, which was the first supporters’ group for the club. Back when it was email chains. He wrote, “Who is one player you would want to sign for the Fire if you could sign anyone?”
You know, mentioning Barn Burners and the early history club makes me think about the early days of the club. Things like the “Eastern Bloc”, that group of Eastern European players that made up some of the best parts of the team’s lineup early on. Now, mentioning Polish players, you will probably instantly think of Robert Lewandowski and I think that anyone would take him. He fits the goalscorer needs and he fits another need by being a bigger name than Shaqiri. He would be THE star and Shaqiri could go back to that supporting role he plays best in. It’s a very simple answer. And I refuse to be simple. I’m weird. I want to think about this from the most pragmatic position. And pragmatically, this “any player” should be someone that would create options for the club. Not a star DP, but a plug and play type of guy who has the versatility to work with whoever else the club gets. Because if we’re only able to move this single player to the Fire with no consequences, it can’t be someone we have to build around. We instead should be able to use them to build around someone else.
So my answer? Daizen Maeda from Celtic. Apologies to our Paul, who has told me many times how pissed he would be if the Fire stole one of the guys from his local, but I think he would be an excellent choice. I’ve talked a lot about guys like Shuto Machino or even Kyogo Furuhashi (also at Celtic), but they are simply strikers. Solid goalscoring options, but they limit what you can do with them on the pitch. Maeda, on the other hand, can move around when needed. He can probably play anywhere in attack and if he was coached by Veljko Paunovic, he’d probably end up right back, too. He’s got a solid pedigree when it comes to scoring, but the times he chooses to score are also really important as well. It almost reminds me of someone like Jerzy Podbrovzny, always there when you need him. And his work rate is absolutely insane, he runs harder and for longer than anyone else out on that pitch.
I honestly think that Lewandowski is a realistic signing if the Fire play their cards right over the next season or so. So if I’m being given some dark magics to influence the world of soccer and bring the Fire the most impactful player possible for them, I wanna take the risk on actually signing Lewandowski and use my free swap on Osaka native, Daizen Maeda. Seriously, he’s like if Fabian Herbers was Champions League quality.
Now for a bit more of a difficult question, this time from @i_am_chris_king who asks, “Most underrated anime I should be watching now”.
I’ll be honest, I don’t like this question as much as you might’ve thought I would because it’s just such an ethereal question. I don’t really like giving out general recommendations because I’ve just had bad experiences with them (I will never forgive the person who said I should watch Fairy Tail). I prefer when people tell me what it is that they like or that they already watch before I give them something new. This is largely because I’m so far outside of what a normal anime fan is. I’ve never watched Dragonball, Naruto, or One Piece. My “Big Three” was Bunny Girl Senpai, Toradora, and Bloom Into You. There’s also the question of whether you want something currently airing or something to go back to. Cause this is about the end of the current anime season and there’s another one starting up soon (that I still need to make a video for). By the way, the second season of Spy X Family is coming out for the fall season and it’s my mom’s favorite currently airing series. You should check it out. But that’s not underrated, that is very much hyped.
So I guess I’ll approach it this way: What is a show that I really enjoyed that I never see anyone talking about. And the bonus challenge is for it to be something that the average person can still enjoy. It should be accessible to at least an anime fan instead of a “weeb” (there’s a difference). So I’m not bringing up Yuushibu or Renai Flops, because those are definitely just shows that I personally enjoyed because I enjoyed their concepts more than the actual content of the show. Also not talking about the fantastic Yakuza-esque critique of Japan’s maid cafe culture in Akiba Maid Wars because that’s way too much for someone new. Stuff like Saekano or Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road are only so brilliant if you come into them with established understandings of rom-com harem or isekai action tropes, respectively, so they’re off the list. And as amazing as Bocchi the Rock and Lycoris Recoil are, they already have incredibly big and loyal fanbases so they’re definitely not “underrated”. So that leaves me with one very glaring show: Megalobox NOMAD.
I’m not even recommending a whole show. Nomad is the second season to Megalobox and I truly believe that you could skip the first season if you wanted to. It’s just a retelling of the original classic 60s boxing anime Ashita no Joe with robot limbs and a gritty late 90s art style. The second season, though, has some of the best storytelling I’ve seen in a long time as it tackles themes of aging as an athlete, the physical and emotional consequences of letting your body be used as a punching bag for a quarter of your life (like CTE and painkiller abuse), and even some surprisingly thoughtful takes on the “immigrant’s story.” The whole thing comes together with boxing sequences you actually can care about, characters that draw you in, and the most unexpected heavy influence of latin culture
You can check out all the shows I mentioned in here, but Nomad is incredibly underrated and we should still be talking about how amazing it was. I think it’s best exemplified by the music in either season. The first season’s ending song was a nice triumphant hard indie song for an underdog’s story. But the second season’s ending song is a haunting reminder that it’s getting late, the bar is closing, and you know you can’t afford your tab.
Now to get back to topics that I definitely love talking about, it’s a question from @mike_tomszak: “Do you think the addition of a capo stand in section 122 (or 123) would improve the on field performances?”
This sounds like a fairly sarcastic question, but I’m gonna take it as seriously as I’ve taken all of these other questions. Cause having unity within the fanbase is important for those on the pitch. As some have brought up, the games in front of empty stadiums are much more difficult for a home team than a hostile crowd is for an away team sometimes. And a hostile road environment is still pretty damn important to create for traveling teams. Think about it, who is ever truly comfortable playing against Boca Juniors at La Bombonera? And who actually fears walking into Soldier Field? Hell, maybe it’s the Fire who are scared to play another game, but it’s certainly not because of the crowd.
So what a capo stand can provide is a focal point for chants to generate from when things get slow. You can technically play just one song the whole game and it’ll probably be fine, but if you do there is a chance that some will slow down in the group. Someone high up can notice the change in energy and coordinate with the drums that they’ll go in a different direction so as to help things move. I’ve done this myself this season while on the drum with the Barn Burners, so it’s not like it’s impossible to do this without a capo stand. But there’s also the added thing that if we want to bring in new fans, we need to give them someone to look to. During the last home game, more people were joining in on chants when I was actually staring them down and trying to get people involved. I think that having someone in the capo stand who is being proactive to actually generating a cohesive environment in the supporters’ section can do a whole lot more than everyone looking away towards the pitch. Wasn’t that what the Second Vatican Council was about with the switch to “versus populum”?
Whether it would help on the pitch, I don’t know. Because I don’t know how much the supporters’ section on its own can do to create the sort of larger environment that is Soldier Field. The active support is limited to just one endzone with incredibly bad acoustics. From midfield, you do not hear chants, you hear drums. So it becomes pointless to have anyone attempt to bring people together because they’re not gonna hear or see anything from there. Therefore, they won’t be joining in and the sound of the overall stadium will not improve. If anything, I really miss the “East Side/West Side” chants that have been missing for years now. They were cringe with an empty stadium, but now it’s not even attempted despite some more solid sized crowds. It’s apparent that a lot of these new fans are interested in joining in, but they need the help of someone guiding them through it. Is the capo stand the right decision for that? Again, I don’t know. But what I do know is that the goals for taking down the capo stand were not achieved. It’s not a more equitable environment for chants to start naturally among the crowd and it almost seems to be more challenging for people to join in. I should still add, Sector does have their chants on their website if you wanna pull out your phone in the middle of the game and find them. Or you can study them during the week before you go to the next game.
But for now, despite the loud drums and the section and a half of passionate people, that passion isn’t seeming to spread outside of that section, so change should be considered.
Now, for the final question in the first edition of Jiggly’s Mailbag, this one coming from the man behind @barnburners1871, “How did the GM interview go?”
As Tim helpfully brought up in the Twitter thread: I was speaking to Evan Whitfield about possible ways to reach out to the communities that the club hasn’t found success with historically, when I promptly said (as the others in the conversation were talking) that I needed to go to the bathroom and get another beer. I am very bad in social situations in the first place. I had a full bladder and an empty beer can. Something needed to be done. I was later found standing in line waiting for tacos, but I would’ve gotten back to the conversation as soon as possible if I hadn’t gotten distracted by the thought that the taco truck might close.
But for real, this is no longer a joke. I genuinely feel like I should be considered at this point based on the fact that no one available is qualified. They’ve already got an ex-journalist at the helm already, you might as well try again with someone who has more local ties. And if there is no one who is qualified, maybe just go with someone completely unqualified to see if something can happen? The Fire know where to find me. I probably won’t be in line for tacos again, but I’m sure they’ve got all the information they need to contact me in another way.
Miscellaneous Notes
Sometimes You Win. I barely touched on it, but I just find it weird and a bit annoying that the Fire played so poorly against the Red Bulls and still won in the end. Why can’t the season just be over so we can finally regroup, rebuild, and stop pretending that we’re okay?
Bedard Save Us. Justin Fields had what was statistically the best game of his career and statistically the best game as a quarterback that whole week, but somehow the Bears found a way to lose. Anyway, Conor Bedard has the weight of the entire Chicago sports world on him cause there’s nothing else out there. And he hasn’t even scored a preseason goal yet.
Adnan Asks. Our non-league coverage specialist and my Sad Bois co-host Adnan Bašić sent in his question late, but it’s pretty easy to answer. “How come she don’t want me?” Buddy, she doesn’t even know me.
I Have Plans… MIR97 has some big plans that we’re cooking up, so stay tuned over the next month or so and deeper into the offseason as we start trying to make some of those things a reality. Should be fun.
I love you.
And I’ll see you next week
