Chicago Fire Confidential

I thought Mapp played very well at times this season too.

pappa on the left, nyarko on the right. what we need to find is someone at OMC.

Everyone needs an attacking center mid, but who is available and willing to come to MLS? It is probably easier (and cheaper) to find a decent winger. Is the El Salvadoran national attacking mid available? (wink)

i thought i heard rumors of xavi coming! ;)

It sounds like Nyarko and Pappa will play the wings in DLC's 4-4-2 formation once Castillo is ready to go.

In terms of adding another winger....I'm not a fan of the move he's pulling in Seattle but Freddie Ljungberg has been peddling himself around MLS and the Fire appear to have some interest.

Is Nery a striker? I always thought he played in behind the front man. 4-4-2 needs creative players in the middle and Pause, Husidic, Lowry, Thorrington arent that. I feel like the 4-5-1 is a good formation for us.

Sounds to me like Castillo will play right behind McBride/John.

Sam writes about the Fire Academy's U16 championship...

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/commentary-chicago-have-formula-academy-success

The management of the Fire is confusing and chaotic. Don't think the current coach has a clue of
what's going on. I'd take Mapp any day of the week over Banner. Never understood why he'd start Banner over Lowry in the first place. Overall, I think Lowry has easily outplayed both Pause and Banner,has more interceptions and knows how to distribute the ball. The Fire doesn't need another outside Midfield but an attackinh center midfielder, Conde doesn't fill the bill for that position
The Fire looked stronger earlier in the season starting Husidic and Lowry. Hopefully this is Mc Bride's last year (too slow) Personally, I'd put Nyarko on top if the get an attacking center midfielder.
John isn't the answer, hopefully Castillo will work out, Fire spends to much time looking for players on the cheap. Mapps lack of progress seems more due to the ineptness of the coaching staff than anything else

I find it a little difficult to believe that Mapp underperformed because of Dave Sarachan, Juan Carlos Osorio, Denis Hamlett, and Carlos De Los Cobos.

I feel a lot of players underperformed under Sarachan, Hamlett, and De Los Cobos.
Mapp wasn't the only one, haven't seen much out of John, is he worth the $,
doubt if he'll turn out a expected, the only reason it makes sense of getting rid of Mapp is the salary cap. I feel there is too much dumping on Mapp.
Apparently, Nowak sees some potential in Mapp, and I'd trust his judgement over
de los Cobos

How was John not worth the money? He is a 24 year old, former Dutch international player and played really well in the top league in the world. We are only paying him $160,000. Coming into the season everyone was in love with John and no he is the worst.

well based on that he sure seemed like he was worth the money. but after watching him for half a season do you believe he was??

and wait a second, didn't he have just one good season at fulham and has been struggling ever since?

Where have you been watching him for a half a season? Cuz I've only seen him play 45 minutes here and there. Dude was in a hospital bed longer than in Toyota Park, so I'm willing to wait and see what he can still do.

Well, he's appeared in 9 of our 14 games and has played 476 minutes, equivalent to about five full games. That's not a ton of time, but I certainly can't say that what I saw in his first 476 minutes makes me very excited about his next 476 minutes.

i like mapp, but in proportion to what he was earning, he wasn't producing.

i am not a banner fan, but you get a bit weaker player than mapp for much less in salary

plus this frees up a roster spot and salary cap room for a 2nd DP.

good move by the fire, IMO

A 2nd DP? This is the FO that was interested in a 38 year old that just signed with a 2nd division Mexican team. Say we get Ljunberg, would you rather have him at 1.3 million or Mapp at 245,000. What would Freddie need to do in order to be proportionate to what HE is making. 10 goals and 10 assists in half a season?

not making an argument for or against ljunberg, but his cap hit would "only" be 155k more than mapp's. so the huge salary difference wouldn't impact the team's ability to sign other players as much as this makes it sound.

A second DP would only count as $167,500.00 against the cap for this season.

They could have space below the cap for a second DP this year. With or without Mapp.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-fire-confidential/2010/07/a-look-at-the-salary-cap-situation.html#more

Ljungberg's MLS contract also expires in November so they would not be on the hook for him next season. Of course, the reason he's not playing in Seattle right now is because he was being a diva about the contract extension Seattle was offering.

Simon Borg talks to Pappa about the Mapp trade
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/marco-pappa-says-mapp-trade-no-surprise

YHESSSSSSSSS!!! Second best move this year right after Nery!!!

How much allocation money is the question. I hope we didn't give him away. Mapp is a valuable player in this league. we gave away Johnson to RSL too cheaply, and paid way too much for MacBride. The players we lost to expansion, except for last year, are all still in the league and starting. I have little faith in the competence of the front office.

The Fire havent made any mistakes in expansion decisions IMO. They can only save 11 players so someone has to go.

They protected Carr instead of King, and Carr makes more than double King's salary. King starts for DC; Carr is useless even if not injured. Andy Williams is still with RSL and Jaqua had trade value. All mistakes.

Right on celt, I agree. The King thing didn't make much sense, for the
Fire's future I hope Banner and Carr will be gone by next year.
Carr has under performed Mapp by a wide margin.

I agree, Carr has speed but that is it. What ever happened to the scouting system, the Fire alwats had bright young prospects. Did we get some NFL cast off and now evaluate talent based on what they see on paper?

What happened to the scouting system?
Peter Wilt, remember him, there was a time when the Fire had professional management. When de los Cobos was hired as coach, Wilt wrote a piece saying that actually, de los Cobos resume was a bit thin and that he may not be the answer to what ails the Fire. At the time, I thought he was a bit negative, but now I have to agree with him. Now the Fire is reduced to picking scraps off the floor. We need an attacking midfielder to produce assists and distribute passes, maybe then we'll get some goals.
John was signed on a hope and a prayer, nothing more based primarily on one season. He make work out if we can maintain ball control and string several one/two touch passes in a row.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_MLS_Expansion_Draft

The Fire didn't protected Carr that year. Seattle just chose King over Carr. The Fire haven't left anyone exposed that they really needed. You can only protect 11 players. So what do you want them to do? Wikipedia "expansion draft" and tell me who they should have switched all those years...

On King /Carr I see you're correct. In this case their incompetence is in keeping him. Carr may be the dumbest-soccerwise-player in the league. A headless chicken caught offsides on those rare occasions he actually played. I notice, going to your fine source, that they protected Thiago while 6 unprotected players are still in the league. There was a time, as dersting points out,when Chicago would pick up a Rolfe or Ralph as late picks. They passed on Altidore 2 or 3 times if memory serves, and it may not; For the first 4 or 5 years of the Fire I always thought Chicago were as good as anyone except perhaps DC. We now look quite poor in terms of depth or class. We will see if Klopas can change that. Here's hoping.

Every team in the league passed on Altidore once, so that argument doesnt work. He was 16 years old at the time. On your Thiago point, he was a good player for us and at the time he was a starter.

So what exactly are the rumors of who might be coming in as the second DP? I haven't been able to find anything.

I can't believe some of you are peeved at the Collins John signing FOURTEEN league games into his time here. Oh yeah he missed time due to that intestinal issue. Yes we obviously need an attacking midfielder and you (lonecoyote in this case) are completely insane if you don't think the next signing is going to be an attacking midfielder.

actually i think collins john is on the verge of a breakout in the next month

get a 2nd striker with him and i think you'll see good things

Mapp has been hands down the most frustrating Fire player to watch since they moved into TP.

If they got a shiny nickel in allocation money from Philly it was best trade they've made in years to dump the 250K in salary and free up a roster spot.

Mapp just doesn't have the motor and will never fill the potential because of it. I was so excited to hear that news this afternoon.

Guillermo - Any word on when Nery arrives and might make his debut?

I'm waiting on verification from the Fire but it looks like his visa paperwork hasn't been finalized yet. They haven't announced when his formal introduction will take place. Hopefully have more info tomorrow.

Everyone uses this word "potential" with him. He is going to go to Philly and be a good player for them. He is a very good MLS player and we will miss him. Sure he frustrates the hell out of people more times than not, but so does almost every player in this league. His touch on the ball was one of the best on the team and we will feel his loss. Sure it frees up a spot but we have to fill that spot and we havent heard any news on who that is and without Nery and Mapp, that means Banner will be playing until then...

Unless the Fire have a quality replacement waiting in the wakes, then I don't understand selling Mapp. He has done a decent job in filling in at the CAM position, the place where we are lacking the most. Plus, he seemed like the only guy on the team capably of putting in a good cross, and with forwards like John and Mcbride, crosses are fairly important. For those who think this was a great move, I have to disagree. If only they would've traded him for Le Toux. Nery can't arrive soon enough.

Beasley doesn't have a club right now...

There is probably a reason for that!

He's 28 years old, been to 3 World Cups and we just lost a winger yesterday. I would rather have him than lets say a Mr. White everyone wanted. 93 caps for our national team and is still in the picture for them. He is a former Fire great and we could use him. I'd rather have him than any Mexican player they are looking at, other than Dos Santos.

I like the thought of Beasley back in MLS with the Fire but he seems to be pretty clear in his desire to stay in Europe right now.

For all the Mapp defenders out there can you please try to defend zero goals and one assist?

WE know he brings next to nothing defensively.

No Mapp means more Banner. Is that a good thing? I dont really understand your defense comment because he isnt out there for his defensive abilities. Nyarko and Pappa dont play defense either. Thats kinda why Husidic and Pause are there. Sure Mapp is making a lot of money but if we bring in another DP, he will be making more. So based on your logic, this guy needs to be a scoring machine and set players up every game. Who is this DP going to be.

Mapp was at his best through the years when he would make them long runs on the wing, it would open up the rest of the field, Blanco benifted alot from those type of Mapp runs, the trouble is that we did not see that type of play game in and game out. If Peter can not tap his potential in Philly , nobody ever will.

Any number of Mexican internationals.

Nothing to hold back on. Keep it going.
Mapp did OK but not nowhere the potential the everyone thought he had...

i'm still mad at JCO for leaving guerrero unprotected. he still could have had another one or two good years left with us.