Showing posts with label Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cuauhtemoc Blanco. Show all posts
Why the Fire Doesn't Fire Sarachan
This is pure gut reaction, but I still thought I'd throw it out there.
In spite of the now four consecutive losses - with the latest coming last night against Red Bull New York - and in spite of being outscored over that period by (and I'm going by memory here) 11-3, firing Chicago Fire head coach Dave Sarachan only makes sense in terms of economics - e.g. having a good enough team that, when Blanco shows up, people won't be so turned-off that they'll come out for something other than the one-time novelty factor.
In terms of on-field performance, I'd say the Fire are better off letting Sarachan continue through the end of the year - the main reason being the team. Check out the line-up against Red Bull:
There's not much left over on the full roster either.
As much as I like many of the players - Mapp, Pickens, Ivan Guerrero, even Jim Curtin - that's about it in terms of names that impress (me, anyway). Armas is a good player, but, I'm taken with an argument by Biz Mark of US Soccer Snob on Chicago's problems:
In blunt terms, the Fire is simply too old up the middle; on one level, I'm a little surprised they're not the team "taking a run" at Shalrie Joseph. Top that off with an offense both relying on one man so far (Chris Rolfe, on whom I'm a bit lukewarm) and waiting on a savior (Blanco), this team has too many holes to fill on the fly and with the resources on hand. Also, if they did make the major - and I'd argue required - changes they'd surrender points during the process of getting everyone on the same page. Under that admittedly shy-of-air-tight logic, I'd say the Fire leaves Sarachan to make the most of what he can with this season and look to the overhaul on the off-season. Best-case, he pulls off another late-season run like he did last year and the Fire still make the playoffs - and, yes, he'd still get canned for anything short of MLS Cup.
The only question, in my mind, is the economic piece. Even if the results don't come, it's possible (even if unlikely) that replacing the coach will a few people back to see what happens. And, as noted above, the Fire sure as hell don't want to suffer an attendance/revenue slump knowing they threw all that money at Blanco. But that, to my mind, is only the counter-argument: if I ran the Fire, I'd take the short-term hit and return to building the franchise later.
(#########)
In spite of the now four consecutive losses - with the latest coming last night against Red Bull New York - and in spite of being outscored over that period by (and I'm going by memory here) 11-3, firing Chicago Fire head coach Dave Sarachan only makes sense in terms of economics - e.g. having a good enough team that, when Blanco shows up, people won't be so turned-off that they'll come out for something other than the one-time novelty factor.
In terms of on-field performance, I'd say the Fire are better off letting Sarachan continue through the end of the year - the main reason being the team. Check out the line-up against Red Bull:
Chicago Fire -- Matt Pickens, C.J. Brown, Jim Curtin (Thiago 70), Gonzalo Segares, Logan Pause, Chris Armas, Justin Mapp (William DeOlivera 80), Brian Plotkin (Pascal Bedrossian 63), Ivan Guerrero, Calen Carr, Chad Barrett.
Substitutes Not Used: Jon Busch, Jerson Monteiro, Bakary Soumare, Daniel Woolard
There's not much left over on the full roster either.
As much as I like many of the players - Mapp, Pickens, Ivan Guerrero, even Jim Curtin - that's about it in terms of names that impress (me, anyway). Armas is a good player, but, I'm taken with an argument by Biz Mark of US Soccer Snob on Chicago's problems:
"This match [Fire v. FC Dallas] revealed that the FIRE can no longer afford to play converted defenders such as Gonzalo Segares, Ivan Guererro and Robinson as midfielders and expect them to cover for an aging central defensive tandem of CJ Brown and Chris Armas. Armas in particular looks like he aged ten years in the off season."
In blunt terms, the Fire is simply too old up the middle; on one level, I'm a little surprised they're not the team "taking a run" at Shalrie Joseph. Top that off with an offense both relying on one man so far (Chris Rolfe, on whom I'm a bit lukewarm) and waiting on a savior (Blanco), this team has too many holes to fill on the fly and with the resources on hand. Also, if they did make the major - and I'd argue required - changes they'd surrender points during the process of getting everyone on the same page. Under that admittedly shy-of-air-tight logic, I'd say the Fire leaves Sarachan to make the most of what he can with this season and look to the overhaul on the off-season. Best-case, he pulls off another late-season run like he did last year and the Fire still make the playoffs - and, yes, he'd still get canned for anything short of MLS Cup.
The only question, in my mind, is the economic piece. Even if the results don't come, it's possible (even if unlikely) that replacing the coach will a few people back to see what happens. And, as noted above, the Fire sure as hell don't want to suffer an attendance/revenue slump knowing they threw all that money at Blanco. But that, to my mind, is only the counter-argument: if I ran the Fire, I'd take the short-term hit and return to building the franchise later.
(#########)
Blanco to Sign with Fire (Hmmm...)
A couple few outlets tell me that the legendary and notorious Mexican forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco will join the Chicago Fire sometime in the middle of summer.
I haven't gotten over my original reservations about this one, but it looks like Chicago ignored my thoughts. And this doesn't move me to reconsider what I think of their chances for 2007. I do, however, see one considerable positive in this: it ought to be damned interesting to watch.
Regardless of what I think, Blanco's in town getting a physical and it sounds like he'll meet with fans later tonight...no doubt to glower at the Yanquis. Between now and the next set of pictures, there's nothing better to pass on than this wonderful post from The Offside's Chicago Fire blog. In case it's not obvious, it's the photo that makes me so happy.
(#########)
I haven't gotten over my original reservations about this one, but it looks like Chicago ignored my thoughts. And this doesn't move me to reconsider what I think of their chances for 2007. I do, however, see one considerable positive in this: it ought to be damned interesting to watch.
Regardless of what I think, Blanco's in town getting a physical and it sounds like he'll meet with fans later tonight...no doubt to glower at the Yanquis. Between now and the next set of pictures, there's nothing better to pass on than this wonderful post from The Offside's Chicago Fire blog. In case it's not obvious, it's the photo that makes me so happy.
(#########)
03.10-03.16: Week IN TRADES/RUMORS
Here's a general round-up of Major League Soccer stuff I failed to note or comment on over the past week:
Done & Dusted
Toronto FC
MLS's one and only Canadian team added Andy Welsh to their roster this week. According to the report in Soccer America Toronto picked up a young, left-sided buck in this transaction. We shall see....we shall see....
DC United
Disgustingly, the Capitol's black-and-red were most active this week, siging two players to developmental contracts: Kiki Willis and Kasali Yinka Casal. The latter sounds the more impressive of the two, but we'll never know anything about them for sure till they take the field. Speaking for the rest of the league, I'm hoping for more Filomeno than Gomez.
Rumors 'n' Such
Chicago Fire
Still no Blanco. It's fun to rack up cheap site visits by mentioning his name, though.
Chivas USA
Will the So Cal Goats add Laurent Merlin to their roster? LA Soccer News says new Chivas coach Preki made an offer - not much of one, but an offer all the same.
(############)
Done & Dusted
Toronto FC
MLS's one and only Canadian team added Andy Welsh to their roster this week. According to the report in Soccer America Toronto picked up a young, left-sided buck in this transaction. We shall see....we shall see....
DC United
Disgustingly, the Capitol's black-and-red were most active this week, siging two players to developmental contracts: Kiki Willis and Kasali Yinka Casal. The latter sounds the more impressive of the two, but we'll never know anything about them for sure till they take the field. Speaking for the rest of the league, I'm hoping for more Filomeno than Gomez.
Rumors 'n' Such
Chicago Fire
Still no Blanco. It's fun to rack up cheap site visits by mentioning his name, though.
Chivas USA
Will the So Cal Goats add Laurent Merlin to their roster? LA Soccer News says new Chivas coach Preki made an offer - not much of one, but an offer all the same.
(############)
DP slots + Blanco = Hmmmm....
Tucked in the middle of a general update, Big Apple Soccer snuck some eye-catching news into a modest little paragraph:
That catches the attention, to be sure, but it's hard to figure out who could be coming at this point who would be exciting enough to register on the "tickle meter" outside soccer circles. Obviously, there are the Cuauhtemoc Blanco rumors swirling around the Chicago Fire, something noted here, there and, at length, everywhere. That last one is actually a bonafide article by Glenn Davis (who I'm actually starting to like, for what it's worth) exploring the upside of a Blanco signing; for all the words in the piece, he could have wrapped his argument in one sentence (NOTE: My words, not his):
To be honest, that's not a bad argument to make. And Davis acknowledged, correctly in my view, that Blanco could be a risky signing - which brings us to Soccer America's valuable musing on the state of the designated-player rule. If you haven't read the Soccer America piece, I'll only say it's worth your time...even if they poop on Robbie Fowler (thought-crime! OK, the thing with Le Saux wasn't good, but, I'm sorry, the "snorting" goal celebration was fabu.) But the key take-away comes here:
That's a pretty nice counter-point to Davis' argument (OK, so my re-phrasing exaggerates Davis' position). There are other players mentioned in there (not just Fowler), but since the thrust here is Blanco, I'll close with my main thought on him: given his age and his probable reaction to many fouls against his body he's likely to suffer, his post-game banter had better be friggin' stellar, 'cause I don't think he's going to bring enough on the field to pay off on DP dollars. I'd wager a lot of money I don't have that any hype that came from his signing would fizzle by early June.
Oddly, though, I'd be OK with Patrik Berger. I can only justify that through a connection to Liverpool...and Berger drove me insane when he played for the Reds.
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New DP
The league will sign a designated player soon, a reliable league source said. Don't know the team, but I do know it won't be the Red Bulls, the source said.
That catches the attention, to be sure, but it's hard to figure out who could be coming at this point who would be exciting enough to register on the "tickle meter" outside soccer circles. Obviously, there are the Cuauhtemoc Blanco rumors swirling around the Chicago Fire, something noted here, there and, at length, everywhere. That last one is actually a bonafide article by Glenn Davis (who I'm actually starting to like, for what it's worth) exploring the upside of a Blanco signing; for all the words in the piece, he could have wrapped his argument in one sentence (NOTE: My words, not his):
"MLS should take a chance on Blanco because he's an asshole - and an asshole from Mexico to boot - and his asshole-ism could get some people to games."
To be honest, that's not a bad argument to make. And Davis acknowledged, correctly in my view, that Blanco could be a risky signing - which brings us to Soccer America's valuable musing on the state of the designated-player rule. If you haven't read the Soccer America piece, I'll only say it's worth your time...even if they poop on Robbie Fowler (thought-crime! OK, the thing with Le Saux wasn't good, but, I'm sorry, the "snorting" goal celebration was fabu.) But the key take-away comes here:
" Players interested only in fat paychecks won't help MLS. They don't need to be choir boys, but they can't be problem children, which is what most of the rumored DPs to date have been."
That's a pretty nice counter-point to Davis' argument (OK, so my re-phrasing exaggerates Davis' position). There are other players mentioned in there (not just Fowler), but since the thrust here is Blanco, I'll close with my main thought on him: given his age and his probable reaction to many fouls against his body he's likely to suffer, his post-game banter had better be friggin' stellar, 'cause I don't think he's going to bring enough on the field to pay off on DP dollars. I'd wager a lot of money I don't have that any hype that came from his signing would fizzle by early June.
Oddly, though, I'd be OK with Patrik Berger. I can only justify that through a connection to Liverpool...and Berger drove me insane when he played for the Reds.
(#########)
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