How will the Fire fare going forward in 2010? (Getty Images)

Today is the start of a new series. As teams get into training camp and new players come on board its worth looking into each club to see how they are stacking up and what else they need to do to get ready for the 2010 season. I got this idea from the post I did a few days back on how the Philadelphia Union were looking. I figured it would be good to do something like that to all the clubs.

I’ll go in alphabetical order here with this series. Now I don’t know if it will be a daily thing or what yet, it all depends on my current work schedule but I do plan on getting each club by the end of February.

Keeper:

Who they have: Jon Busch, Sean Johnson (GA), Andrew Dykstra Continue Reading…

Expect a new look Fire in 2010. (Getty Images)

The 2009 season for the Chicago Fire was expected to be a big one. Talks of MLS Cup and Supporter’s Shield were all the rage to begin the season. Early on this year it looked like the expectations were being met as the Fire lost a single game in the first three months of the season.

Then came the summer where sometimes good teams go to waste. The Fire found some injuries got in the way of a dream season as Brian McBrdie went out with a shoulder injury while head coach Denis Hamlett struggled to keep a locker room happy. The Fire defense, which was once one of the best in the league started to come up short and even more so once Bakery Soumare left town.

Down the stretch the Fire kept coming up short as injuries piled up and their home play was anything less than stellar. In the final 12 games the club only won four games while never really finding any sort of consistent play.

In the end PKs did the club in against Real Salt Lake in the eastern conference finals. Their home play at Toyota Park was still a weakness and now they head into an offseason with a load of questions.

What Went Right In 2009:
When things were clicking and all parties involved were healthy this was one hell of a club. The depth early on was there for this bunch but towards the end even that depth wasn’t enough to push them towards a MLS Cup. McBride and Blanco were still a force to deal with and guys like Wilman Conde in the back were still some of the best in the league. On any given day the Fire could beat you any way around the field they wanted to with Blanco leading the attack.

What Went Wrong In 2009:
Let’s just say expectations were not even close to being met in the Windy City. Sure they reached the conference final but this bunch had better things expected out of them to start the year. The injury to McBride was a real killer in the middle of the year as the offense really never found it’s punch even though guys like Chris Rolfe were still tough to hold up around net. Once the word got out about Hamlett and Soumare and the locker room issues there the club really never was the same again. Questions surrounded whether or not Hamlett would return and they still will for the coming weeks.

What’s Next:
A lot of changes are going to take place over the next few weeks. Blanco is going to Mexico as we know. Rolfe is out to Europe and I’d expect a few more changes to come after that. No word yet on if McBride is coming back for another year and I would imagine a lot of that comes down to who will be coaching this club next year. Hamlett may still come back for the 2010 season but one has to wonder if he really is the right man for the gig. I’d imagine we will hear about his status over the next week or so before the expansion draft. After that expect some moves to happen and some player to leave.

Its that time of the year, the season is nearly complete and the league has handed out it’s ballots for voting for their season awards. Yes today I received an email with a link to my online ballot for voting this year. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting it to come this week but since the season ends this weekend it makes sense. I suppose I just lost track of time.

Anyways, I’ll have a full rundown next week of who I voted for and why. Not to say that I won’t take some input from you all on these matters. Tonight I wanted to go into another award race that is pretty tight as the one I discussed earlier in the day. The Defender of the Year.

This is another award that is going to be very tightly contested between a number of players. Last year we saw Columbus’ Chad Marshall run away with the award, and while he is in the running yet again for it this year I don’t believe he has completely won everyone over for it this season.

Who exactly do I see in the running? I have a few guys here listed below that I think are all candidates for this award. If you feel I left anyone out just comment below with a good reason and they may get my consideration.

Chad Marshall (Columbus): Yes Marshall is in the running and you got to believe he will get his fair share of votes this season. The thing is his injury issues will keep him off some folks ballots and at the end of it all I kind of doubt he will repeat as Defender of the Year.

Geoff Cameron (Houston): Had the season ended last weekend you could bet Cameron would be the top choice for this award. More than likely we should see Cameron walk away with the award this season for many reasons. He’s been by far one of the most consistent defenders in the league and how sick was the bicycle save last week?

Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (Seattle): Some say Kasey Keller has been the reason why the expansion Sounders have been fairly solid on defense this year but I would argue that it is mostly been due to the play of Hurtado. This winter addition has been one of those that you have to give the Seattle front office credit for because he’s been a total gem of a find.

Wilman Conde (Chicago): About two months ago I would have said he was the top choice for this award but as the Fire have slipped lately so has Conde’s play. Conde is still one of the best defenders in the league but something tells me the in-house issues in Chicago still remain and Conde won’t be there next year.

Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas): One of the reasons why Chivas USA has been near the top all year is due to the consistent play of Bornstein. He missed a decent amount of time this summer with the National team but it hasn’t kept him from picking up the slack when he is with the Goats. The Chivas defense would be nothing without him I think.

Omar Gonzalez (LA): The LA rookie has been very good, so good in fact that he has a shot at two awards (other being rookie of the year).

Others in consideration: Darrius Barnes (New England), Bobby Boswell (Houston), Tyrone Marshall (Seattle). Continue Reading…

Not too many goals to bring up this week but there did end up being a couple quality ones. A couple great headers though that could end up winning goal of the week nod from the fans.

Order of video: Alejandro Moreno, Alecko Eskandarian,  Wilman Conde, Jeff Cunningham, Kai Kamera, and Arturo Alvarez.

I blame the holiday weekend for getting me off to a late start here this week. Plus throw in the fact that I am a homeowner now all the trips to Home Depot and places like that are easily killing off any spare second over the weekend. Oh well, no time to bitch and moan about that but time to get down to business once again this week.

I felt looking at the results and each game this past week that week 16 was really predictable. I know I missed a couple games in my score predictions but aside from the RSL-San Jose game this week lacked a lot of surprise or anything worth getting overly excited about. Maybe that is the dog-days of summer kicking in here for the league but each result was as predictable as the next on Saturday.Which can be a good thing but can also be a bad thing. Continue Reading…

The trades all center around Mo Johnston and Toronto FC.

With a couple days away from the MLS Combine, the trade rumors are heating up around the league. Lots of teams are looking to move up and even down in next week’s draft. Others are looking to deal not only for picks but for other players.

Some of this below is rumors and talk going around the league circles and other is just pure speculation on my part. (I have links for some and others were sent into my inbox)

With next week’s draft a few teams have multiple picks in the first round as well as plenty more in later rounds. (NOTE: I’m still curious to see what comes out of the deals that involved Supplemental picks from this past year. It doesn’t appear that any have translated into new picks for any club or that any club has received any sort of compensation for it (though I would imagine there will be a tiny allocation on the league’s part for those deals).)

Anyways, back to the trade discussion and draft thought on hand here. I think I will pretty much go team-by-team here in what they are looking to do or not to do here as we head into the draft. Some teams are very quiet, while others are talking up a storm.

Feel free to pipe in your own thoughts on what you think your club will do here. Continue Reading…

A couple clubs officially signed some forwards yesterday in hopes to beef up some pretty weak offenses.

Kansas City has brought back forward Josh Wolff after a year and a half away from Major League Soccer. Wolff spent the last couple of seasons in Germany.

Wolff joins a KC offense that has managed just 11 goals all season, second-fewest in MLS this season (second only to San Jose).

Wizards coach Curt Onalfo is hoping Wolff can duplicate his goal-scoring success from his first stint with the Wizards, when he netted 27 goals in four seasons, including a pair of 10-goal seasons (2004-2005). Wolff compiled 59 goals and 35 assists over the course of nine seasons spent with the Chicago Fire and Wizards.

He won’t be able to play with the Wizards until the opening of the summer transfer window on July 15.

Some wonder after seeing Wolff struggle with the US National team recently if he is really the answer to KC’s offensive woes. Honestly, I think at this point anyone new could be good for this offense. They brought in guys like Claudio Lopez at the start of the season to no success. I don’t think he alone can help this club though get back into the playoff picture right now. He is 31 and has seemed to have lost a step.

Continue Reading…