Armas and Marsch leave an awfully big crater in the attacking midfield, kind of like last year's Revs. Give 'em credit, the Revs went out and fixed their problem. Face it folks, this season is turning into a throw away for the men in fire engine red. Considering all of the elegant matches we saw on the plastic bowling alley last season, maybe we couldn't do worse with a side full of muckers & grinders. Cardinal Stadium will be nearly sold out every match. We don't need to be pretty. The Revs sure weren't & they were a crossbar away from lifting MLS Cup.
It's hard to congratulate NE for being around to pick at our carcass. This is a sad but true fact. With a capacity of only 15,000, the Fire doesn't need a winning record to sell out Cardinal Stadium, something we learned in 2002. A major goal of this upcoming season may be to groom a team that can have a shot at winning again in 2004 and drawing fans to Soldier Field, since it's likely that the city fans who have been willing to go to see the team in the suburbs will outnumber the suburban fans that will follow the team back to the city. Crowds for 2003 are guaranteed. Crowds for 2004 are less certain. But in the meanwhile, will we be able to hold onto Beasely (especially) and Bocanegra for two more seasons, or we'll be rebuilding forever--like DC?
Just think about your new coach is an assitent for US National Team so the prefered lineup is a 4-4-2. The center mids will be two holding mids (as Armas and Reyna, or O'Brien and Mastronei). The wingers will push wide or in to join attack, and leave the space for wing backs to cross. So far Marsh and Armas are perfect for midfield job. DMB is good on the left wing. In this system, one of the forward will stay back to do some playmaking. So looks A. Williams can fill in that role. I suspect that Fire would try to get Magee. In San Jose, they also play two holding mids--Mulrooney and Ekulund with Donovan doing some playmaking.
What we could end up seeing is a system where the two central midfielders are more defensive minded and the playmaking actually comes from the wings, like the one currently en vogue among the majority of English clubs (or, for that matter, a lot like the one New England played last year - how many of their goals came via Ralston?)
Actually, they just became the Miami Fusion after the Great Florida Garage Sale of 2002. And added Twellman. Well, AEG certainly seems hell-bent on alienating the Fire fan base and if the suburbanites get a load of these trade shenanigans and two losing seasons they may not follow to the Fire to The Mistake On the Lake. But then, does AEG give a crap about Chicago if they can build up LA and NY? Of course, more trades are in the works so maybe we'll get some great-yet-unkown right-sided winger who can bend it like Beckham to balance out Beasley on the left and we'll play a wing attack as is being discussed. That's probably not the best playing style for the Plastic Postage Stamp but it just might work in Soldier Field. The question is: will anyone but us diehards be there to watch? I'm hoping the novelty of the new stadium will help lure the subrubanites for that first season in which the Fire will hopefully be competitive enough to keep them coming back.
No way. I ain't letting my wife sell my diaries to nobody! Dude, we got our ass kicked by Brian Freaking Kamler in the first round of the play-offs last year.... Anyway, I know what you're saying. Still, please remember that this season we know we'll play with 0% Nowak and 0%Wolff. We're still stuck with Hristo for now and he's next to useless at this point. I don't know what Marsch's status is (he's currently out of contract) but he and Razov held the team together last year and I think losing him would be a bigger blow than a lot of Fire fans realize. We do get Armas back (let's hope he's the same player he was pre-injury) and we won't have call-ups this year which will help us. And hopefully we've used up our injury quota for the next four years. But much of our success last year was because we also had Bob Bradley at the helm. Now, if Sarachan = Second Coming of Bob Bradley, we'll probably see a repeat of last season - squeak into play-offs with mediocre record, get bounced in first round. And there wouldn't be anything wrong with that, given the circumstances. But if (and we have no idea how Sarachan will have the team play so that's a big if) we play catenaccio this year, will that and failure to win any silverware (and let's face it, winning anything this year will be a shock of epic proportions to rival our inaugural Double) attract fans for 2004? On the plus side, if the Fire play enough catenaccio, maybe Paul Gardner will get so irate that he'll quit writing about soccer, move to Borneo and never to be heard from again. That would be worth it.
At least my diary would be better written and funnier. Intentionally funnier, that is. Yeah maybe he's the next Alex Ferguson. I certainly hope so. In that case, how long will it take for Dave to get frustrated with the same things that you think made Bradley insane? One year? Two? I don't know what caused the injuries. We sure can't blame Jason Moore's appendix on the World Cup and I doubt that we can blame "strain" caused by playing too many games for Armas and especially Wolff's injuries. And Whitfield got hacked during league play. I don't care, really, I just hope it stops. While I still think the Nowak "trade" was conducted in MLS's usual shady, shoddy and shabby way, I'll be happy with making the MLS play-offs and not embarrassing ourselves in the Open Cup ala the Burn. Anything else is gravy. I think those are reasonable expectations this year.
Thank you, Mike. The Fire still have a deep and experienced defense--one that will be one of the best in the league, still. (for now) three forwards with extensive MLS experience with the biggest problem in finding playing time for all three. Even if Kelly Gray plays #10, he won't have to be constantly tracking back covering for the likes of Billy Walsh and David Vauderill with Armas and Marsch behind him. Perez and Mapp will provide sufficent cover for when Beasley goes to Europe. The lineup is still a very good team! If there is a time to smoothly transition to a younger team, now is the right time to do it. We have the core of the team in their mid to late twenties with over three years experience still here. A good group of younsters ready to move up. It is the perfect time in the careers of guys like Armas, Brown, Marsch, Razov, Thornton to step up and take over the reins of a club. It is the time and place for them to take the next step. Transtioning a club is always difficult, but it has to happen.
If there was then McCracken would have won it already. To be fair, we DID have Hristo for his one good year and LA was still busy shooting themselves in the ass with Mexican "superscorers". Besides, Campos sucked and the two "other Poles" weren't exactly kicking ass in '99. I'd LOVE to see LA's salary figures for the past six years. I mean, they've been in what, almost every Cup Final since 1998, yet they never lose players to the cap AND they always have room for some hideously expensive foreign supersigning, be he Mexican or Korean. What really killed us when the guys we brought in as relpacements started getting injured themselves. We can pretty much count on Ante and Armas to miss a few games as they haven't gotten any younger over the past five years. And IF we keep Hristo.... well, 'nuff said there. Hopefuly, everyone else will stay healthy, especially Beasley. As CUS has pointed out, we still have a decent team left. Not a favorite to win any Cups, mind you but a decent team. He's kidding himself, though, if he thinks we're not taking a step backwards this year compared to most of our opposition as things stand now. Luckily for us DCU is still in trouble and the Crew and Rapids haven't done anything to move forward yet. That, combined with the fact that everyone makes the play-offs in MLS should see us into post-season play.
So who will replace Nowak as our playmaker this year? Can Hristo (if healthy) play in the middle? Could Beasley play in the middle? Could Gray play with some presence and authority?
I see an archer with no neck, that comes from "America", who will lead but not win. I see a great Battleshipp, but it sails away before the crew could board. and I see a strange farting man holding a Goose and laughing.
Funny reading this thread. With Piotr gone, we were talking about a lost season and a rebuild because our midfield was now reduced to Armas, Marsch and Beasley.