The Fire have had a tough couple of months, failing to win in May and struggling in June as well. The team played in the Sister Cities Cup,a friendly tournament between Chicago Fire, Red Star Belgrade, Legia Warsaw and Paris St. Germain. Fire lost in the semi-final to PSG and then lost the 3rd place play-off against Legia Warsaw. Belgrade went on to win 7-6 on penalties in the final. The team also failed to win in the MLS during May and suffered a 1-0 defeat to AC Milan in a friendly.
The team broke its bad run by beating New England Revolution 1-0 on the 27th June. Chicago have only lost two of their games this season but have been guilty of drawing too many (six in total now).
Team USA didn’t take any Chicago players to South Africa for the World Cup so hopefully the team will benefit from having a full squad to choose from for the rest of July with some big games coming up, including the start of the SupaLiga.
As part of my summer project to follow Chicago Fire I will be posting periodically about their progress and any notable achievements and such.
The Fire’s season is five games old and after a rocky start (lost two of first three games) we have pulled back to a 2-1-2 (wins – draws – losses) record and seem to be finding the net pretty regularly. Back to back 2-0 wins over D.C. United then Hosuton Dynamo have given us some great momentum for our next few matches – Toronto FC, Kansa City Wizards and FC Dallas.
Brian Mcride is leading from the front, scoring 2 of our 7 goals to date. I always had a lot of time for McBride at Fulham and think that he is probably going to end up top scorer for the Fire this season if he can stay fit and healthy. He really is going to be the key to any success this season.
Following a conversation with Andrew I have decided to make a concerted effort to show some support to an MLS team this season. With Andrew picking New England Revolution and Matt picking the team from Philly, I decided to stick to my curreny US sports city allegiance and pick Chicago Fire.
The team was founded in 1997 and entered the MLS in 1998 with immediate success winning the MLS Cup and US Open Cup double in their first season. The team followed up this success by reaching the MLS Cup final in 2000, losing to DC United, and also winning the US Open Cup that year. This initial success was attributed to a squad with the ideal mix of experience and youth.
Notable players in the club’s history include Hristo Stoitchkov, Paulo Wanchope, Piotr Nowak, DaMarcus Beasley, Jorge Campos, Josh Wolff and Eric Wynalda. The club’s first coach was Bob Bradley.
The current squad is coached by Carlos de los Cobos and captained by former Fulham ace Brian McBride, it also includes players such as former Premier League striker Collins John.