The Fire Makes a Move and Some Other Stuff

So the Fire made their first roster move of 2013. They traded a international roster spot to New Jersey for their Estonian midfielder Joel Lindpere. You can read all about it here. To me this is a good move. I'm not going to use the term "great" because we still have to wait and see how it actually works on the field. In the meantime I'll explain why it is a good move. Lindpere gives that box to box mid that could work well with either Pause or Pardo. He is a definite work horse that has experience in the league and also plenty of international experience with the Estonian national team. With this move he gives us more depth in the middle of the park so possibly we can move away from that 2 defensive mid formation. He also has a green card which is a definite bonus. Hopefully this works out for the team and pushes us into a better position than last year.

Well one thing that I have to point out with this club is their ambition. When Javier Leon talked about the acquisition of Lindpere here, his quote was:

"Joel is a versatile, dependable player that has proven himself in MLS,” said Fire President of Soccer Operations Javier Leon. “He will provide a dynamic presence to our team in 2013 as we look to return to the MLS Cup Playoffs.”

Now this quote is coming from the president of soccer operations and my thing is are the goals of the Fire remaining the same as last season? Last season's goal was to make the playoffs and they did by limping in and then crashing out. Leon says they look to return to the playoffs? Why not look into winning back the Open Cup or challenging for the supporters shied? Why is just getting into the playoffs good enough? Is this a case of setting your goals low so they are easier to achieve? Enough about that.

Now that the Fire have made a move they still have to add depth along the back line. I'm guessing they will be adding this depth through the draft and also hoping that those that were drafted last year are ready to become capable backups to the starters. We will see as the Fire look to start camp in a couple weeks.

One more thing, while I was watching the United vs. West Ham FA Cup tie earlier in the afternoon, I wondered to myself, why the Fire did not throw an offer towards Joe Cole? At 31 and still capable of playing at a high level he could have been that DP to take the Fire's midfield and make it one of the strongest on the league. Plus he was available on a free transfer non the less. Then I remembered he is not #keanelikemoney or #puppolikemoney.

Well that's all from me tonight, keep looking for musings from me here and also over at HTIOT.