What I want for the 2013 season.

As we sit and open presents and share Christmas cheer with our loved ones, I can't help but think of some wishes for the beloved CF97. Well here are just a few of my wishes:

1. To have our cup back. We need to get the Open Cup back home in Chicago. We found out last year that no matter the opponent we have to take it seriously. I will never forget the words of my dad "No matter who you are playing and no matter the tournament you always put the best team on the field that you can".

2. The next thing on my list is that the Fire finally acquiring the CAM and proven goal scorer that this team needs. We may have the goal scorer position already filled if we keep Rolfe playing up top with Macdonald. In order to do that we need a proper CAM that can take over and create those chances so we can let Rolfe and Macdonald do their thing.

3. The final thing on my list is that the Fire set their sights higher. In 2012 Frank and company said their goal was to make the playoffs. Now that that goal has been achieved maybe they can have set their sights on the top of the league and the MLS cup. I hope they do this because I for one am tired of mediocrity. Mid-table is not good enough for a team that set a standard by winning the double in their first year. It's about time that we get back to that standard and accept nothing less.

Well that's it, I hope all of you have a great holidays and hope that there will be great things for us fans and the club in 2013. Look for more from me here and also at Hot Time in Old Town.

Season Opener and Home Opener Announced as Well as Some Other News

This week the MLS released the home openers for all 19 teams which you can find here. Also CONCACAF announced the Champions League quarterfinal dates here. So what does this mean for Frank and the boys? We travel to LA to take on the defending MLS Cup champion on March 3rd. This would be a good chance to see what the 2013 versn of the Fire will be like. The interesting thing is that LA may choose to rest players before their clash against Herediano in Coasta Rica on the 7th. On the 9th we will get to fill Toyota Park for the home opener versus Chad Barrett and the New England Revolution, followed by a visit to Kansas City on the 14th. Right now I'm calling 5 or more points from the first 3 games a good thing.

Some quickies:

• Julian Posada has left the Fire. Question is when did he show up?
• SKC signed a DP in forward Claudio Bieler. Never heard of him? Neither have I.
• New Jersey has signed Juninho but still no coach

Well thats it for now, I will doing fewer posts on here in the future as I will be contributing some articles over at Hot Time In Old Town. So look over there for my musings, but I will still try to post here on a regular basis.

Now this is great.

Sporting Goods

1st Phase Has Come and Gone........Wait What?

So the 1st phase of the quasi free agency draft happened yesterday afternoon and there was only one selection that took place. The Fire selected Maicon Dos Santos in the 1st phase. Now earlier this week I had highlighted one of the players that I could see that could help the Fire out and Maicon was one of them. I just did not expect them to select him in the first phase. What this means is that the Fire now have a player that they can make an offer to and that offer basically has to match what his option would have been for the 2013 season. According to the MLSPU Maicon made roughly $113K in 2012 and I assume that is about what he was slated for in 2013.

Now do I like this move? Yes, but I also have a reservation about it also. Now Maicon showed early in the 2012 season that he could be deadly from outside the box. He scored a couple goals for DC that were absolute rockets from 20 yards or more out. He can handle the physically side of the game and as a bench player he should be able to provide a spark coming into games in the 2nd half. Now there are some downsides to Maicon. He has shown inconsistency over the years which has led him to being bounced around the league. I think that the inconsistency is something that can hurt this team but, using Oduro as an example, maybe Maicon just needs a different situation to be in to thrive. This move also provides cover at forward since we all know that Franco is not going to be back with the team in 2013. Well that's all I have time for today but look for my next thoughts to be about why the transfer market maybe be a bit barren for the Fire and trying to predict what Frank has in mind for 2013.

A Look at the Re-entry Draft

So tomorrow will be phase one of the re-entry draft for the MLS. Here is a link for all of the players that are available for the draft. I'm not going to go through every single name that's on the list but just touch on the Fire players and some interesting names that could possibly work for the Fire. So the Fire declined the options of Nolly, Bone, and Segares. The first two names were not surprising to me considering Bone was projected to graduate as a Generation Adidas player and Nolly found himself third choice behing Johnson and Tornaghi. Segares was a very big surprise to me considering he has been one of the best left backs in the league since he first started playing in the MLS. Frank must have a plan otherwise he would not have done this to a fan favorite and a player that brings some grit and physical play to the team. There have been ideas tossed around why this was done and the two that make sense to me are: 1. They will try to negotiate a lower price with him because he was due to make over $200K in 2013, or 2. They have someone else in mind to take over at that position for a far cheaper salary. I'm leaning towards the first one because he is a fan favorite, and like Nyarko and Rolfe he really enjoys playing here and loves this city. Moving on here are a few names that I think would help fill our need for depth at certain positions. Now let me point out that I think these would be good for us if we draft them in the second phase of the process because that way the team would be able to negotiate a deal at a lower salary. The only names that stuck out were Ike Opara, Danny Califf, and Maicon Dos Santos. The first two would provide depth and MLS experience at center back. Opara is still young but has had injury problems over the past year but he did show a ton of promise in his rookie season. Califf you know what you're going to get with him. A center back that is very physical and doesn't mind doing the dirty work. The major knock on Califf is that he is 32 but he could provide some experienced back up for Berry and Freidrich. Maicon Dos Santos could provide us with a forward off the banch that is not afraid to shoot. With Oduro coming out and saying he doesn't like playing off the bench there is the possibility that he may be shipped off somewhere else via trade or just cut loose. Santos could be a player that could hellp us out after scoring 7 goals for DC last seaon and only being 28 might be a good utility player as long as the price is not very high. Other than that i don't think there are many other names on that list that the Fire could use(insert Chad Barret joke here). Thats about it for today, look for another post this coming Saturday recapping the first phase of the re-entry draft and some other thoughts of the player movement for the Fire.