Some hazy sun to mostly cloudy, upper 40s. Small chance of sprinkles now in Iowa moving in at the end.
Fire II earned their first point, but only a loser's point as they lost the PK shootout following a scoreless draw. Duràn played the whole match and had his poor penalty saved. My MOTM: Justin Reynolds Chicago Fire FC: GK Brady; D J. Reynolds, D Terán (Quintos, 61’), D Burks, D A. Reynolds II (Ostrem, 36’); M Monis (Penn, 61’), M Casas, M Oregel (Kidd, 81’), M Rodríguez; F Offor (V. Bezerra, 81’), F Durán https://www.chicagofirefc.com/news/...point-in-mls-next-pro-against-rochester-ny-fc
Last year's U-19 coach Ludovic Talliander. He's a guy brought over by the academy director Cedric Cattenoy (N-Rod's only holdover). Patrick Nyarko is his assistant.
The good news: Monis scored the Fire II's first goal. The bad news: The backline of academy kids let Toronto II score 4. The 4-2 result flattered the winners a bit, but there were only 2 first team players available. Luka Bezerra scored a goal and looked strong in hold up play. https://www.chicagofirefc.com/news/...ls-of-the-season-in-4-2-loss-against-toronto- Fire II is dead last in the East, but they are the second youngest team in the league. The next 3 games are at home starting off with Philly Union II. Next week's squad could be light on first team players since the Fire play in Minnesota.
I used to love the old reserve games the day after the main MLS match. Is this league supposed to be something like that? I have noticed some of our players playing like Terran.
It's more for U-23 first team pros and top academy prospects, though it's a chance for players recovering from injuries to get a runout. While I wouldn't expect to see Shaqiri in an MLS Next Pro match, a couple of Sundays ago we did get to see Teràn for 60' and Duràn for 90' at home. Toronto's 28 year old 3rd keeper played against our teenagers yesterday while we had only 2 first team pros. Monis only played a half because he'll probably suit up in the USOC match. Allan Rodriguez saw his first game action anywhere for almost 2 years.
As much as I root for these guys, I would have to disagree with your view of Bezerra's performance. His hold up play imo was nonexistent from what I saw on the stream until mid 2nd half. I believe he will need to improve this if he wants to be successful in Indiana. Similar to his brother, seems to finish really well with space but struggles with hold up play and connecting passes in the final third.
I missed the first half hour, but I thought he did pretty good from what I saw. He is bigger than Victor & some consider him every bit the prospect. I'll be there Sunday, maybe we can hook up.
After a week off Fire II reverted to the mean and took a loser's point in a dour scoreless draw. Another first half sendoff for Justin Reynolds on two yellows, but Minn had a man sent off for a second yellow soon afterward. Bad soccer, bad bad soccer.
Yes that was not a good game...once again lots of yellows all over the place. Was it the same ref as Fire 2 games ago? lol
No. This weeks guy, Abdou Ndiaye, seemed to get it right. I've seen the ref from two weeks ago, Laura Rodriguez, ruin many NWSL/Red Stars games at the Geek.
After a strong performance last week in a 3-1 win over Cincy at home, Fire II crapped their shorts in a 3-0 loss at NYCFC II that should have been worse. The xG for City II was 2.9, for Fire II 0.3. Some Kendall Burks news: For most of the season he's been meh, or worse especially in the USOC loss. Against Cincy II he was awful in the first half and got his ass benched at the half for soon to be Wisconsin freshman Ryan Quintos. Quintos got the start today and was middling for a bad side. Burks got a 90' cameo. For all the excitement of snatching the services of a guy from Nottingham Forest, he's been a bust.
Yeah Burks has not impressed me at all. Then again...very few of those playing for Fire 2 have impressed me at all not including first team guys playing down there...and even then...bah.
I had to fight so many people on Twitter when Burks was drafted, but no one wanted to hear me. And I know everyone here doesn't care about the draft, but if there's one thing I think I've put across it's that the Draft is only a crapshoot if you don't put in the homework. I haven't done the homework on the Draft in a couple of years, but at the very least doing that has given me some pretty decent instincts when it comes to how a player can translate from the NCAA to MLS. They may not be the best at picking out the most talented, but I do pretty well when it comes to instantly recognizing busts. I've had to develop the quick-draw reaction because of how little information I could gather, but I think I've done pretty well. I identified guys like Jonny Campbell, Fabian Herbers, and Mo Adams as solid and serviceable MLS players. And outside of the Fire, I spoke highly of guys like Miles Robinson, Julian Gressel, and Tajon Buchanan out of the draft, guys who have gone pretty far. Then there's the 2019 draft where I was calling out guys like Frankie Amaya, Santiago Patino, and Sam Junqua as reaches in the top 10. And even when I wasn't studying the Draft, I still immediately saw Jonathan Jimenez as a trash pick in 2020. What I'm saying is that while I might not be good at finding the good ones, I sure as hell can spot the bad ones. And so when we get to this past January, I did a quick check of who the big names were in the draft and checked with those who were doing the research. The name that was constantly being tossed around was "Ousseni Bouda". Not quite in the same way that Cyle Larin was back in the day or Brandon Vincent (he was good, he just didn't wanna play soccer anymore), but more like a Julian Gressel who was impressive but others seemed to be better fits. So, in essence, the very definition of "Best Player Available" at 7th overall in this draft was Ousseni Bouda. The analysts knew it, the fans (who cared) knew it, everyone knew. The Fire had just filled up their defense pretty well (this was when Teran looked like he was improving and Pineda was still a CB) and what they really needed was speed on the wing. Someone who can just make things happen. This was a perfect set-up. But Georg Heitz seemed to have had some residual Nelson Rodriguez left in him. Maybe he was working off of a list that Nelson had given him and this was his last revenge; we know that Heitz does not want to learn MLS rules and probably didn't scout the NCAA. And Heitz traded down at a position where you're already so damn lucky to be the last team to get a player that was given a unanimous "this is a solid pick for this draft class", to get a guy who wasn't even on anyone's draft boards. Like, no one even knew this guy was draft-eligible, they had to go searching for his highlight reel on the stream. They knew he was with Washington and that they had a pretty good defense, but he was such a minor part of that line behind guys like Ryan Sailor and Dylan Teves. He was a centerback whose highlights were goals, which is the biggest red flag when scouting a centerback (See: Francisco Calvo and Harry Maguire). And then you look at accolades and Charlie Ostrem, the guy we drafted in the second round, was more decorated on the same team. And that's the big point to this. I don't care if you wanna try to put up a gamble. But do it where you have the space to do it. If this guy wasn't on anyone's draft boards, you don't need to drop a first round pick on them. The first round, especially the Top 10, is for the guys who have a pretty solid rep coming out of college. You save experimentation for the second round, late first at most (say, last 5 picks of the round). If you wanna just trade out of the spot, I hate you, but I do respect that it's something you wanna do. But don't trade down a few picks and then act like the smartest guy in the room. Because you're not until you can actually prove that you were right. And the horrifying gamble on Burks was that he was already on trial with Nottingham Forest. Which basically means, if he's good enough for the Fire, then he's good enough for Forest. And if he's not good enough for Forest, then he's not worth a first round pick for the Fire. And that's a no-win situation unless you can convince the guy to turn down possibly playing in the Premier League next season. It was about managing risk and Heitz just doesn't understand how that works in a draft because he doesn't care about the MLS system. But the worst part was the people who kept telling me "The draft is a crapshoot, just take BPA" or "This could be a great steal if we can convince him to come here." Because I get that, in concept, it would be a great steal if we got a top-level CB that no one was even thinking about in the draft. But Jerry Rice, a guy Bill Walsh absolutely loved and wanted since early in the prior season, was still only drafted at 16. Or, in a more recent draft, Packers traded down in 2013 and got Eddie Lacy in the second round, despite questions about him. That's where you make those questionable moves. This smelled of Mitch Trubisky levels of "what are you trying to do here?". Sorry for the NFL tangent there. Although, I dug through NBA Drafts to find something of a comparison (I consider the MLS Draft and NBA Draft to be somewhat similar in how absolutely hit or miss a lot of these guys are; the only difference to me is that in the NBA there has to be hits, and more of them, because it's the only place for the best players to go) and the best one I got is the 2005 draft where the Trailblazers traded out of the 3 pick for the 6 pick so they could get wingman Martell Webster, a guy out of high school. Meanwhile, they passed up on the chance to to draft Chris Paul at a time where they were in greater need of a point guard than a wing. And Webster would end up becoming the highest drafted player to ever be dropped to the D-League (until 2009 when the actual biggest bust in the modern NBA was drafted at #2). My point here is: It was a risk that wasn't needed. And anyone who brings up my past comments on the Jack Harrison trade should realize that I still believe it was a "good trade at the time" while this one was trash the moment it hit the table.
Good news from north of the border. The only bad note, see the above post. Final score from the house Josh Penn built.#ChicagoFireII | #cf97 pic.twitter.com/bsBotk6xE0— Chicago Fire FC II (@ChicagoFireFCII) May 28, 2022
Mbongue gets one back for @TorontoFCII! pic.twitter.com/CjZrCjXI7O— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) May 28, 2022
Wow those goals were very nice. Some good hustling play and actual skills. Would be awesome if the Senior team could have a game like that.
Results and details of the Friday May 27/22 MLSNEXT Pro game between Toronto FC II and Chicago Fire II played at York Lions Stadium in North York. http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports22/22tfc231.htm This was their earlier meeting April 17/22 http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports22/22tfc216.htm I never usually venture out of the Canada forums.
Canada isn't a bad place to be these days. Stay there, you don't want to come to this forum! Thanks for your reporting
Finally some good news! Fire II win 4-3 in a match that shouldn't have been that close. While it was far from a perfect performance, Victor Bezerra looked every bit the modern #9 AND scored two goals. Sergio Oregel Jr. with 2 dead ball assists. He and Casas Jr. played together for the first time in many weeks and looked good in the central midfield. Omari Glasgow was a factor in the first half with an assist, but had a quieter second half. It was nice to see the first team players have a good game.