by Dan Gaichas, Chicago
There is truly a lot to absorb here with the removal of Frank Yallop and his crew. Nelson Rodriguez comes in as general manager on October 19th and his role appears to be in charge of soccer operations at the Fire. Given his reputation around MLS and US Soccer circles, the suspicion is that MLS may have had some influence in this decision even though a league spokesman told Orrin Schwarz otherwise in the Daily Herald. They may also be the factor that an NASL team named the Sting might be coming soon, but more on that for another time.
Yet, some people are worried as he was president during Chivas USA’s final season in 2014. To be fair, he was merely overseeing things while the league attempted to find an ownership group to help rebrand the team in the future. That club was a gigantic mess before Rodriguez got there.
The Fire are not at that level yet, but it could if things continue to go the way they are going. Then, the league might end up looking towards influencing who owns the club.
All but five players on the current roster have come in since Brian Bliss became technical director. He says he is more “hands on” and will be tasked to stabilize things on the pitch for the remainder of the season. Hi first task will be to get the Fire re-learn how to win games. The Fire have won only 13 out of 63 league matches since the start of the 2014 season. Confidence appears at an all-time low and at least finishing decent in these last five matches should be priority number one right now for Bliss.
In the offseason, it is expected that the Fire will have the #1-pick in January’s SuperDraft, an open designated player slot, and a significant amount of allocation money (aka “Garber Bucks”) from the Didier Drogba saga and the Shaun Maloney transfer among other things. Clearly, improvements to the defense must be made, that is incredibly obvious.
What also must be determined is to determine who among the roster should the club rebuild around. There is unquestionably talent in Harry Shipp, Matt Polster, Michael Stephens, David Accam, and Kennedy Igboananike. Using them properly will be vital as the charges are that Frank Klopas only played them when he had no other option and Frank Yallop didn’t know what to do with them when he played them.
The club also need to re-establish an identity. As I have said repeatedly this season, the Fire have good players, they do not have a good team. If Bliss can get them working like a team and playing confidently, then that’s a step in the right direction.
The playoffs are realistically out of reach for the Fire and a last-place finish (the second in team history) seems nearly certain. What Brian Bliss and later Nelson Rodriguez need to do now is develop something that they can build upon for next season and beyond. There are tools there to make that happen.
What Andrew Hauptman and COO Atul Khosla need to do is let them do their jobs. Without a President who can focus both the business and soccer operations on a single goal, much of the fans’ anger is towards these two. They say they share the “frustration” of the fans, but to paraphrase Bret Hart from a 1997 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw, ‘frustrated’ isn’t the [expletive]word for it. (I’m not linking the YouTube video since that contains NSFW language.) Fans are angry and depressed with what they have seen the last six seasons.
And now, the Fire are starting all over again and both Messrs. Hauptman and Khosla are still in their posts whilst there has been a revolving door in almost every department at the Fire. The Fire are restarting all over again and there is personnel who can get the ship righted for the first time in a while–that is, if they are allowed to do their job. If they are not, and/or things continue to go down the path Chivas USA took under Jorge Vergara, then Major League Soccer should consider using their influence when it comes to the owner of the Chicago Fire.
This is the third largest market in the United States. The passion for soccer is there in Chicago. But the perception is that soccer is growing most everywhere in the country except where US Soccer is headquartered–in Chicago. The Fire need to change that perception and now. Otherwise, MLS may have intervene when it comes to the entire Fire operation and restart all over again.
