WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

That’s right, it looks like the New York Red Bulls coaching situation is about to end as the club is set to land Chicago Fire coach Juan Carlos Osorio.

The decision came after the Red Bulls and Fire reached an agreement on compensation for Osorio, which will more than likely be a draft pick or two and maybe some minor allocation. He had two years remaining on his contract with the Fire.

An agreement on the deal is set to be reached sometime this week.

Osorio spent five seasons with Manchester City, first as a conditioning coach before being promoted to full assistant coach, before leaving to become head coach of Colombian club Millonarios. He guided Millonarios to a fourth-place finish before accepting the Chicago Fire coaching position during the summer. He took over a Fire club this summer that looked to be on the verge bottoming out all together. Somehow he lead them to a playoff run that ended in the eastern conference finals against New England.

I thought Preki would be the coach next year but I knew deep down that New York really wanted Osorio. They wanted to get him before they signed Bruce Arena last year. I think this is a good deal for the Red Bulls and a short end of the stick kind of thing for Chicago.

I am very eager to see what Osorio can do with guys like Jozy Altidore and how well Claudio Reyna could end up playing under Osorio. This deal may make me change my mind about New York not being a playoff club next season. They still got a lot of work to do on defense and in the goal but Osorio will definitely make them good on offense as he was able to take a Fire club, mostly guys like Chad Barrett better.

Again, Chicago could get some draft picks out of this. The last time they lost a coach to New York they got a first-rounder so expect something like that again. Which should mean they will get the seventh pick in next month’s draft to go along with their other first round pick.

Who Chicago goes after now is the question. Wouldn’t it be interesting if they got Bruce Arena to replace Osorio? It would never happen but it would be interesting to say the least.

Popularity: unranked [?]