Same as Oustead I think, he just had less brain fats. Serviceable, a bit better with his feet. An upgrade over Sanchez and Ousted. He's no Thorton or Campos of course.
I think they did some salary cap maneuver on Kronholm. His apartment + car isn’t something that can be afforded on his salary unless he has made good investments in the past
That's what I was wondering. The narrative last year was that the Fire had good attacking talent but gave up way to many soft goals. They added some defenders but I haven't seen any speculation about upgrading at keeper, so I didn't know if the consensus was that he was being let out to dry. Instead they likely just don't have the budget space.
It’s weird because he was good with Kiel to end the season and they were happy to see him get recognition for the USMNT. He was prone to brain farts but nowhere as often as they occurred here. He joined us 2 weeks after that’s season ended? I do know all our keepers complained about how bad the keeper coach here was, but I also know Pauno didn’t insult the crap out of Kronholm publicly in training like he did all the others. I guess we’ll see.
Surely it's 4-2-3-1 then (a much more stable foundation if we want to press) Goalie Sekulic Kap Calvo Bornstein Gaston Djordje Frankowski Stojanovic Aliseda Beric Sapong, Collier and Medran to add offense of the bench, Bronico, Pineda, and I dunno, Azira? to shut things down (still pretty bad in that department). It's not like you're competing against teams with quality depth elsewhere in MLS, maybe we're getting there. It still feels like a team missing its best player, to me.
One of the DPs is going to have to outperform their price tag so we’ll see. Heitz could have spent big money but he wanted these lower end DP signings so we’ll see how good the scouting is. We need another winger and CB
My grasp of MLS roster rules is pretty loose, especially under the new CBA, but one would hope one of these DP slots could be bought down at some point and a then-established Heitz can take a dump truck of Joebucks and find this team a talisman.
I'm good with keeping our powder dry, assessing what we have and then pouncing. Big litmus test early not only for scouting, but coaching too.
Interesting that two of the three "stars" of the team (Medran and Sapong) are on the bench. That means 1 of 3 three things: 1) The team is better than MLS thought 2) Medran and Sapong are worse that we thought 3) Nobody really know much of anything about this team
I think Medran and Sapong are two different stories. Medran is a total question mark. While nominally a "big" talent for MLS based on his pedigree, he's a guy who failed to stick at a number of different places despite being given a lot of opportunities and found himself without a club by age 25. It might click for him as a big fish in a small pond, or he might just not be professional soccer material despite the talent. The fact that he's a holdover from the previous administration probably doesn't help. Sapong, as a seasoned, versatile MLS campaigner who is the nominal "backup" for a new-to-MLS 19 year old and a new-to-MLS guy with a somewhat spotty injury record is someone we're certain to see a ton of, even if he's not necessarily starting in our best XI.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I do not disagree with you. I was merely quoting the team outlook from mlssoccer.com the other day. I have no real enthusiasm for Medran. I know nothing about the guy. I am hopeful he is good, but we don't know.
https://www.chicagofirefc.com/post/...fc-acquires-serbian-midfielder-luka-stojanovi Doesn't mention he is a DP, so he probably isn't.