So the Fire took on the Crew this past Sunday and won in fighting fashion. After going up 2-0 through a stunner from Pappa and a great finish from Oduro, the Fire were reduced to 10 men when Segares received a striaght red for a reckless challenge. But the Crew only managed to pull back 1 goal as Klopas' team defended like crazy and played well as a unit, including key saves from Sean Johnson, to secure a second straight 3 points at home and some distance from the spots 5-7 in the East. It was a fantastic game that included some questioning when Grazzini was subbed off with Rolfe coming on in his place. With his contract expiring at the end of this month and no news from the FO about if his option was going to be picked up, Grazzini lifted his jersey to reveal a "Thank You Chicago" shirt. What the meaning behind this was we will never know but I will talk more about it a little later.
So as far as this week is concerned, The Fire travel to KC to take on SKC in a fake rivalry game. Well this is going to be one hell of a critical game and one tough game as both teams look for the 3 points. The Fire have a chance to decrease the gap between them and 3rd to 2 points if they can win. On the other hand SKC could make the gap between them and the Fire 8 points with a win. To make this harder on the Fire they will be without Segares(suspended), Puppo(injured, but who really cares?), and Grazzini(family issues, nope you read that right). So as far as the Fire are concerned it is going to be one hell of a fight for them and I can see a 1-1 draw if we are lucky because lets be honest without Grazzini controlling the middle of the park its going to be tough. Yes I hear people say "Hey lets try Rolfe in that position", well I say that might work but highly unlikely. Rolfe is a good player and we need him out on the field but I just feel he would be more helpful up top. But we will see what lineup Frank puts out there, maybe we'll get to see the Alex in the lineup but who knows.
So also this week, actually today, it was announced that the club has picked up Grazzini's option that will keep him with the team until the end of the year. That's great news, but it still doesn't answer the fact that this was not addressed previously or when Grazzini came out about the situation a few weeks ago. Well since I'm not able to attend practice due to work obligations, Guillermo Rivera over at Fire Confidential was able to get some quotes from Javier Leon who is Andrew Hauptman's right hand man when it comes to the team. His quotes can be found here. What I don't understand is what took so long? Leon kept mentioning Grazzini had family issues, was possibly looking at a transfer back to Argentina, the option was already done it was just that Grazzini wanted to hold off on an official announcement, and will not be traveling with the team to KC for a very important match up. Grazzini also mentioned a few weeks back that he was waiting to get everything resolved and that he wanted to stay here. All of this just does not make sense when you put it all together. The thing is also that they are looking at more transfer targets and one especially is a report that came out of Belgium saying the Fire have already agreed a transfer fee for a striker named Sherjill Macdonald. This move also doesn't make any sense since the only room that has been opened is two domestic slots by releasing Dube and trading Siriboe. How can the Fire add an international player with no slots available, something has to give. Will they release Puppo(not likely since he is Leon's DP), transfer Robayo back to Columbia, transfer Pappa to Europe(the thing that Pappa has said he wants to do), or even transfer Grazzini to another team? Who knows how they're going to make moves because to me it just seems like a total mess. Who knows, who knows. We will have to wait and see how the brain trust acts while this transfer window is open but as far as I know something just doesn't seem right with how the whole Grazzini situation is going down. The official reason he is not traveling to KC is that he missed training on Tuesday which doesn't make sense because he participated in full training Wednesday and Thursday. Take everything how you will but this fan is calling BS on the upper management and thinks that there should be some people in charge who know how to build a successful franchise on and off the field.
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