Preseason Game #4:FIRE vs. San Jose 2/9/13 8:00pm (chicago-fire.com)

CHICAGO -- In a stunning move today, Chicago Fire owner Andrew Hauptman announced that he has release 26 players from the team roster, including all eleven projected starters. The spots will be filled by guest players, most of whom are named after Spanish food stores and bastardized country name spellings. While the Fire will now be significantly under MLS salary cap restrictions, Hauptman reminded fans that his monthly bill from the Bridgeview Super 8 is quite high and the Dollar menu sounds cheap until you have 30 guest players ordering McDoubles and McChickens (limit two items per player). Logan Pause has been retained as the only salaried player in a move described as "an effort to drive one internet fan absolutely bat-shit crazy." The names of the guest players are expected by press release this afternoon, however, that press release may not come until the press release announcing a guest team president and guest technical director signing is released.

 

He's signing family members to max salary positions and splitting the wages. Keepin' it in the family.

 

It's about time Andy caught on to the Chicago Way.

 

What I've gotten so far from this preseason is our scoring woes will continue unless something is done.

 

To be fair, the starters have yet to play more than about 40 minutes as a group in a game. Not quite the same as a full 90. And even then, Nyarko played for the first time yesterday, and he is a significant part of the attack

As best as I can tell, the only team so far to score more than one goal with their starters has been DC, who scored two against the NASL Tampa Bay Rowdies. And both of those came after the 50' mark.

It is worrying that MacDonald appears to be as slow as he does, but hopefully that will change by the time the season starts. Tough to tell if he is out of shape, or just only giving 70%.

I think the CCC will be a good indicator of what our team will be like this season. Until then, its mostly just for tactics and fitness.

 

Maybe, but all we've seen so far is a few games with a new central midfield and one half from Nyarko. The Carolina games should be a better gauge of what we'll see when the season starts.

 

All signs seem to point to a 4-4-2 at the moment. Probably with Pause at right back. Larentowicz and Lindpere both look like definite starters, though, so if Pause really isn't working out at right back, we might have something to worry about.

 

FWIW, so far Pause has been better than Anibaba at right back but not as good as Gargan.

 

If (and that's a big "if") Kinney is still the same player he was before he got hurt, I'd start him at RB over Pause. Anibaba has no business playing RB except maybe in a pub league. He's Arne's/Berry's backup at CB and nothing else.

 

Something. Something. Farm animal pictures of various players ahead of him in the depth chart... Something something...

 

The goal and some the Fire's better play in that game was while they were playing a 4-2-3-1 ....

 

I noticed Berry and Atouba were connecting alot, quit a few long balls and Atouba would split the defenders .On that play it was Berry to Atouba to Amerikwa to Bone- then looseball- Amerikwa on top of it and fouled.Interesting to note that Atouba was prowling right there ready to pounce on the 2nd loose ball but the PK was called.

 

No matter what you say Pause is an excellent yoeman at defense. He knows the game. He just isn't exciting. That being said I rather liked Gargan and wished we did not let him go. I prefer Anibaba as a reserve for CB as someone said previously. I am NOT sold at all on Kinney. Not sure why everyone thinks he has Ever done anything special. He has potential like everyone else but has not actually proven anything. I still don't think we've had anyone even close to Prideaux at RB since he retired.

 

I assume Gargan wore a "Greece Sucks" t-shirt to practice one day around the middle of the season because that's about the point when Klopas decided he'd rather start you or me at RB than Gargan.

I wish he'd started Pause there for the remainder of last season but by then it was clear that Pardo could no longer hold the center. It sucked for us that Anibaba was almost single-handedly responsible for us missing the real play-offs last year by giving up so many goals from his side of the field. Usually you can't pin a goal on any one player but Jalil is the exception that proves the rule. He couldn't figure out when to get back from attacking and kept getting sucked inside when his man cut inside. This consistently left a gaping hole on our right that kept costing us goals and dropped points. If I was coaching against the Fire and I saw Anibaba starting at RM, I'd have my attackers just go after him mercilessly and be disappointed if that resulted in less than two goals.

 

Pause proved last year he doesn't have the speed to play rb.He should be on the bench as a late game addition in midfield if we have the lead.Anibaba while making mistakes last year is still young enough to hopefully to learn from them, if not he has to be on the bench backing up berry and freidrich.

 

I think that if it's not working, then Klopas might go back to a 4-2-3-1 with Rolfe in the midfield. I just can't see Pause not starting, though I think he's a serviceable right back (especially after watching Anibaba play there last year).

As far as Anibaba is concerned, he's clearly not working on the right. My guess as to why he was starting over Gargan is that Klopas wanted him on the field gaining experience along with Berry so that he'd be ready to step seamlessly into central defense when Friedrich retires (though I'm sure Klopas would never admit this). That decision probably cost us a few places in the standings last year and lead to our early exit from the playoffs, but I think Klopas was looking towards the future with that move.

 

Is Pause slower than Gargan or Prideaux? My impression is that he is not slower, but I'm not sure.

 

I think Pause could be the same with more experience. You might be right about Gargan, however, we never saw him in the middle of the field.