What Went Wrong: Chicago Fire Know They Have The Talent
What went right: It didn't seem like very much went right. Bright spots include Freddie Ljungberg, who helped spark our offense. Hopefully we will be able bring him back next year. Discovering Sean Johnson was also a big plus, he looks set to become one of the top keepers in the league. We got positive contributions from other younger players, such as Calen Carr, Marco Pappa, Patrick Nyarko, and Steve Kinney. Brian McBride's send off was considered to be a success for what it is worth.
What went wrong: A lot. We cut our starting goalkeeper just before the season started. We fired a coach who had taken us to two consecutive Eastern Conference Finals matches (Dennis Hamlett). We brought in a foreign coach, Carlos De Los Cobos, but he was never able to put a consistently performing team on the pitch. We also had A LOT of injuries, which caused a lot of juggling of lineups. This contributed to the disappointing season, as it's hard to get familiarity and get comfortable as a team with a constant juggling of lineups. C.J. Brown is said to have been sick in the last home game of the season so he did not get a proper send off. I can't imagine opening day will be anything but C.J. Brown Ring of Fire day so hopefully that will be fixed.
What we learned: We learned we have some great young talent, but we will also be losing two legends in McBride and Brown to retirement. Once we figure out the head coaching situation, as De Los Cobos may not be back, we can start building a winner for next year. I think we have the talent to be a top team, we just could not put all the parts together this year.
Where we go from here: We will need to make a decision regarding one of our DP's, Nery Castillo. He is still young, and if he can unearth the form he enjoyed a few years back, he could provide a deadly tandem with Ljungberg. Nery had not played regularly for the past couple of years before we got him. Thus, it took a while for him to get his fitness, and when he did, he battled nagging injuries. We have some young players that will battle to replace Brown, but we really need a proven striker. Collins John has disappointed, and is not a solution for us for next year. We have a strong core of midfielders, and our goalkeeping is top notch.
Core 11 (players that should be protected): Calen Carr, Nery Castillo, Freddie Ljungberg, Steve Kinney, Marco Pappa, Patrick Nyarko, Bratislav Ristic, Peter Lowry, Gonzalo Segares, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Baggio Husidic (Sean Johnson and Corben Bone are Generation Adidas)
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