Mike Magee looked pretty good the first month of the season (6 goals in his first 10 games)...of course, he was playing for LA then.
Optimistic Fact: Our last 5 form (12 points, 3-0-2) is tied for third best in the league, behind only Vancouver and RSL. Over the last 5 games, we have gained AT LEAST 3 points on every team in the East. When looking at the playoff teams we have gained 3 points on Montreal 5 points on New York 4 points on Philly 6 points on SKC 9 points on Houston
Optimistic update: Over the last 6 games, we have now gained 5 points on Montreal 8 points on SKC We are now just 2 points out of the final playoff spot with a game in hand. On top of that, its Houston currently in 5th, and they have not won in their last 7 MLS games. Give it a week, and I suspect we will be in the playoff spots We haven't lost in 9 straight games now (all comps)
Magee and Soumare pushed Any of our other forwards and Anibaba out of their previous positions, which pushed our revolving door RBs out of their spots. Lindpere got benched, Duka got good. Alex is playing big. Now if only Rolfe and our other CM (Larentowicz, Pause, or Paladini) could catch up, this team could be great.
I gotta give a big middle finger to all the haters though. From day one I said we were one leader/scorer from being a really competitive team and that's looking to be true. I'm just surprised Magee stepped up in both roles since I'd never seen either out of him consistently.
Our defense is a shambles, save Sega. Baky is truly awful and needs to sit ASAP. I would prefer to see Johnny Cuesta in there than Baky. With the way the ball is moving around pretty freely going forward, we are capable of giving everybody a run for the money on any given night. But we are not tough to beat.
Guilty as charged. But what us already thinking offseason haters hadn't counted on was THE SIZE OF SAID PLAYER'S AWESOME NUTS!!! Who knew the guy would be a hometown hero on the field to compliment/accompany another hometown hero on the bench? Can you imagine what this club could be if we had hometown heroes in at least management ranks if not ownership as well? shit, just save yourself the time and trouble, MLS FO, just hand us the trophies now... we'd be talkin' DYNASTY here's a great special S8 fundraiser.... tattoo drive... we the fans will pay for any player on the senior squad to get a tattoo of the flag of the city of Chicago over their left chest-al/breast area. I'll pay for one. We the fans will donate to FWFK in exchange for the players getting tattoos of the flag over their heart. Double for flag and badge. I have never been a huge fan of Bakary as a player like I have been of other defenders, even though I was there when we signed him and had a group photo taken with him at SuperDraft. I was not sad at all to see him go. We knew who we were getting. Long balls to nowhere and turnovers. And that is aside from the way he treated Logan Pause for calling him out. I wanna see him try that sh1t with Magee. Now, Gargan... that's another matter. We could really use him now.
I don't remember many "haters". I do remember people being cautious about how much of an impact Magee would have and that was the intelligent approach to take. I'm not "hating" now. I also offer the cautionary tale of last year when Rolfe was the 2012 version of Magee. We were ripping it up for two months until a lack of depth killed us at the end of the season. We have no depth this year either so perhaps a little prudence is called for in assessing our situation. I'd also like to remind you that of that MLS teams we've played during our run. only two of them -RSL and Portland- would be in the play-offs if the season ended today and we beat neither of those teams, tying a strangely listless RSL side and needing two late goals to tie Portland, both games at home. I'm loving the improvement we've shown since Magee got here. I'm also waiting until we play consistently well against some good teams first before I go annointing ourselves MLS's answer to 2013 Bayern Munich. Let's enjoy what we've got before getting all Seattle here.
The RSL game was in Utah and that was before Magee even. Although we had already traded for him, so maybe the aura of the savior was enough.
I stand corrected thus: The trouble is, that looks even LESS optimistic than my original. Anyway, my point stands. Let's enjoy the moment and not get ahead of ourselves.
Fair enough. With the additions of Lindpere and Larentowicz to join Rolfe, I was pretty excited at the beginning of the season. Sadly, that didn't last long. I still think we're at least two more players and probably more from being truly "competitive" which I define as one of the three or four favorites among people who actually know MLS to win MLS Cup in most (but not all) seasons. Magee has certainly improved us but right now, as jjmariachi pointed out, our backline is nowhere near good enough as a unit and we need another starting forward. It would be great if Duka could keep playing out of his skull but let's see what happens with him when Magic Mike isn't in there to make him better. Plus, our starting 11 is going to get tired, injured and/or yellow carded a few times so we need to get a better bench to avoid last year's collapse.
Yes, but my point was an FO who could pull in the players we did deserves some leeway. No, the moves didn't work out. But if over a ten year period we consistently pulled in players of that pedigree as role players we'll be a perennial contender. As for the back line, I'm going to give them the time I have the squad as a whole from the beginning of the season. I'm not happy with our defense either (just look at my comments in the recent game thread) but I typically take the long view. Without Arne, any replacement is a downgrade. But we still have to adjust our expectations.
Seeing as we have about the same attacking quality as this time last year and the same lack of depth but a worse defense, I expect roughly similar results to last year, unless we get some help from the teams ahead of us or some more new players. YMMV.
We are primed for an even greater swoon at the end of the season than last year given the "have to win every game to make the playoffs" scenario we find ourselves in. Without at least one (preferably 2) impact signing during this window this team is likely to fade big time down the stretch. But for now, it is great fun.
We also need a real center back and a starting-caliber RB. That puts Soumare and Anibaba on the bench where they belong to serve as back ups to Berry and the new CB. Cuesta is not the new CB we need. If we could get these three guys, there is no reason trophies can't follow and even Dollar Menu goes from cheapass clown to acceptable.
That seems like a plan for next season. I mean, if Andy wants to buy them (he saved lots of dough on the fireworks show) then good. But I'm going to be pleasantly surprised if we get one impact signing. That said, San Jose's first goal was probably equal parts Baky and Berry's fault, if not more Berry's fault. I don't see an emergency need at CB. This is MLS. We can't buy 11 national team starters.
I'd be shocked if we ever got a complete starting roster under Dollar Menu. Come on, DM, surprise the living crap out of me! I respectfully disagree but there's another thread we can discuss this... We are one Berry-injury away from a complete no-quality shambles in the back. If that doesn't scare you, you're not a Fire fan. Then it's a damn good thing that nobody expects that, isn't it? We won't get another Arne under DM so I'll settle for getting a Gargan-level serviceable starter at RB and the equivalent of that at CB. Save the Keane money (Shyah. Right. As if.) for a forward. But if we could just get two starter caliber players at RB and CB, that would be a marked improvement over what we've got now.