Harry Shipp isn’t just facing his former team, this Saturday night.
The only professional club that Shipp was ever tied to before the Impact was the Chicago Fire, his boyhood club. The Fire had even made him its third-ever Homegrown Player on January 9, 2014. And Shipp grew up in Lake Forest, Illinois, a 70-minute drive away from Toyota Park, where the Impact will take on the Fire this Saturday at 5pm EDT (TVA Sports 2 [pregame show at 4:30pm], 98,5fm and TSN Radio 690 [pregame show at 4pm])
Really, Shipp is returning to the site of his first soccer love.
“I’m excited to get back,” Shipp said on Thursday. “The amount of time between that trade happening and now is good. I’ve gotten a few games to settle in with the new team, so it’s not going to be weird to go back. I’m looking forward to going back and seeing people that I got used to seeing for a few years there. It’ll be fun. Hopefully, we win, and it makes me feel better coming back to Montreal after.”
There is no doubting that Shipp is well and truly devoted to the Impact. He insists that he will celebrate if he scores – “My celebrations aren’t all that crazy anyway…” – and that he has given the coaching staff some insight into tendencies that the Fire may exhibit on the field.
Shipp is also curious as to what kind of reaction he will get from the Fire fans, whose show of affection was clear for all to see when Shipp got traded to Montreal on February 13.
“Hopefully they don’t boo me if I score,” Shipp said with a laugh. “Honestly, if we play well and come away with a convincing win, I think that, no matter what I do on the field in terms of goals or assists, I’ll be happy.”
