Chicago Fire Soccer Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 12/2014
Full name:
Chicago Fire Soccer Club
Nicknames:
The Fire
Men in Red
Founded:
1997
Stadium:
Toyota Park
Bridgeview, Illinois
Capacity:
20,000
Chairman:
Andrew Hauptman
Head Coach:
Frank Yallop
League:
Major League Soccer
2014:
Eastern Conference: 9th
Overall: 15th
Playoffs: Did not qualify
Chicago Fire Soccer Club is an American professional soccer club based in the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview, Illinois.
The team competes in Major League Soccer (MLS).
The organization is named for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and was founded on October 8, 1997, the event's 126th anniversary.
In their first league season in 1998, the Fire won the MLS Cup as well as the U.S. Open Cup (the "double").
They have also won U.S. Open Cups in 2000, 2003, and 2006; in addition to the 2003 MLS Supporters' Shield.
The Fire maintain an extensive development system, consisting of the Chicago Fire Premier (Premier Development League and Super-20 League teams), the Chicago Fire NPSL team, the Chicago Fire Development Academy, and the Chicago Fire Juniors youth organization.
They also operate the Chicago Fire Foundation, the team's community-based charitable division. Toyota Park is the Fire's home stadium.
The team's head coach is Frank Yallop.
Brian Bliss serves as the team's technical director.
Yallop's coaching staff is rounded out by assistant coach Clint Mathis and goalkeeping coach Aron Hyde.
HISTORY
Overview
Founded on October 8, 1997, the club was originally based at Soldier Field.
Since 2006, they reside at Toyota Park at 71st and Harlem Avenue in Bridgeview.
The owners of the Fire are Andell Holdings, who purchased the club in 2007.
Andell Holdings director Andrew Hauptman acts as club chairman, while the director of soccer is Frank Yallop and the Chief Operating Officer is Atul Khosla.
The Fire are historically most successful in the U.S. Open Cup; winning championships in 1998, 2000, 2003, and 2006.
The Fire keeps a close connection with the Chicago Sting (its predecessor team in the NASL) by holding frequent commemorative events, reunions, and wearing Sting-inspired shirts.
Many notable players have worn the Fire shirt, including U.S. internationals Chris Armas, Carlos Bocanegra, Frank Klopas, DaMarcus Beasley, Brian McBride, Tony Sanneh, Cory Gibbs, Ante Razov, Josh Wolff and Eric Wynalda.
Some of the club's other notable American professional players include C.J. Brown, Jesse Marsch, Chris Rolfe, and Zach Thornton.
The Fire also has a reputation for importing international talent, from established veterans like Pável Pardo, Piotr Nowak, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Tomasz Frankowski, Lubos Kubik and Hristo Stoichkov; in addition to younger players such as Patrick Nyarko, Marco Pappa, Damani Ralph, Bakary Soumare, and Nery Castillo.
Club foundation and initial success
Founded in 1997 at Navy Pier, on the anniversary of the Great Fire, the Fire immediately tapped into the diverse ethnic makeup of the city.
The team brought in Polish players Piotr Nowak, Jerzy Podbrozny, and Roman Kosecki; the Mexican Jorge Campos; and the Czech Lubos Kubik.
While all showed their talent while playing for Chicago that first year, American players (Zach Thornton, Chris Armas, C.J. Brown) proved most integral to the Fire's continued success.
Under the club's first head coach, Bob Bradley - and against all expectation – the team completed the double in its first competitive year, beating D.C. United in the 1998 MLS Cup Final, and defeating the Columbus Crew in Chicago to win the 1998 U.S. Open Cup a week later.
The team's momentum continued, reaching the 2000 MLS Cup final (losing to Kansas City) and winning the 2000 U.S. Open Cup.
Internationally experienced players such as Hristo Stoitchkov joined the Fire, while young American talents such as DaMarcus Beasley developed.
The Fire quickly became cemented as one of the league's preeminent teams.
Nomadic times
With Soldier Field undergoing massive renovations, the Fire moved to the western Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois in 2002.
That same year, Bob Bradley abruptly departed the team to lead the MetroStars, from his home state of New Jersey.
The Fire then selected the U.S. men's national team's top assistant, Dave Sarachan, to assume the vacant post.
Chicago qualified for the league final while also capturing the Supporters' Shield and 2003 U.S. Open Cup along the way.
The team returned to Chicago and the renovated Soldier Field midway through the 2003 season.
After that season, longtime captain Piotr Nowak retired to take a position in the front office.
He departed a year later to become manager of D.C. United.
In this period new talent emerged, including Jamaican striker Damani Ralph.
Still, stagnating performances and the building strength of the Eastern Conference made Chicago's league position ever more tenuous.
In 2004, the team missed the league playoffs for the first time in their history.
Turmoil, and a permanent home
The 2005 season began with the unexpected dismissal of popular club president Peter Wilt by then-owners AEG, a move decried by fans, many players, and club staff.
This came as a shock, given his brokering of a $100m deal to build the Fire a stadium in the collar suburb of Bridgeview.
He was immediately replaced by Metrostars executive John Guppy.
Competitively, the season was most notable for the blockbuster visit of Milan from Italy's Serie A, and the surprising 4:0 away defeat of D.C. United in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
2006 arrived, and the Fire moved from Soldier Field into its new stadium in Bridgeview, on the southwest side of Chicago: Toyota Park, located at the corner of 71st Street and Harlem Avenue.
In its first season, it played host to an unspectacular league campaign; but victory in the 2006 U.S. Open Cup marked a continuation of the club's successes and promise for the future.
The anxiety to win another league title continued to grow, however.
Sarachan entered 2007 (his fifth season in charge) under intense pressure from fans and the administration to produce a league championship.
Tension mounted further on April 3, 2007, when the Fire signed Mexico and América star Cuauhtémoc Blanco to a Designated Player contract.
After a perfect three matches to open the year, they won only one of their next eight, and Sarachan was dismissed. Following a brief search, Millionarios manager Juan Carlos Osorio was named the club's third head coach.
The Hauptman era
More change came soon afterward.
On September 6, 2007, Andell Holdings, a Los Angeles-based private investment firm controlled by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Hauptman, acquired AEG's interests in both the Chicago Fire Soccer Club and Toyota Park.
Reports estimated the purchase price to be upwards of $35 million.
The team has not won a major trophy since Hauptman bought the team.
On the field, behind Blanco and Wilman Conde, Osorio's central defender at Millionarios, the Fire went on an extended unbeaten run to close the season, easily qualifying for the playoffs but were defeated at New England in the Eastern Conference Final.
On December 10, 2007, the Fire announced Osorio's resignation.
He was named manager of the New York Red Bulls eight days later.
Hauptman filed tampering charges with the league in protest, and the Fire were compensated by the Red Bulls with cash and draft picks.
Changes came quickly in Osorio's wake.
On January 17, 2008, former Fire star Frank Klopas was named Technical Director in charge of player personnel, and longtime Fire assistant Denis Hamlett was appointed manager.
While the Fire struggled at home in 2008 the team found unusual success on the road, gathering 22 out of a possible 45 away points. Momentum grew with the long-anticipated signing of Chicago native Brian McBride on a free transfer in July 2008.
After disposing of the Red Bulls 5:2 in the season's final game, they decisively conquered New England in the first round of the playoffs with a 3:0 victory at home.
This was Chicago's first playoff advancement over the Revolution in four consecutive seasons. But triumph only lasted for a week, as they again missed the league final with their 2:1 Eastern Conference Final loss to eventual champion Columbus.
The 2009 season saw few alterations to the previous year's roster.
The story of the season was much the same, as continued poor home form offset excellent performances away from Toyota Park.
This led to a second place Eastern Conference finish behind Columbus.
Despite this, Real Salt Lake managed to upset the Crew in the quarterfinals, meaning Chicago would host the semifinal for the first time in six years.
Chicago's nearly flawless home playoff history meant little in the end, as they lost to Salt Lake, 5:3, on penalties after 120 scoreless minutes.
Shortly thereafter, manager Denis Hamlett was dismissed.
A team in flux
Leading up to 2010, Chicago hired Carlos de los Cobos as head coach, previously manager of El Salvador.
Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Chris Rolfe and Gonzalo Segares all departed.
More changes came in the summer transfer window with the trade of Justin Mapp to Philadelphia, the acquisition of Mexican international striker Nery Castillo, and the trade for former Swedish international midfielder Fredrik Ljungberg.
Defender Gonzalo Segares returned to the Fire, leaving Apollon Limassol after only six months away.
Despite these reinforcements, the Fire failed to qualify for the playoffs for only the second time in club history.
Former US international Brian McBride and club original C.J. Brown retired at season's end, followed closely by the departures of Wilman Conde, Ljungberg, and Castillo.
2011 began much in the way of 2010, with foundering performances both home and away. After nine winless matches, Carlos de los Cobos was let go on May 30, 2011.
Technical Director Frank Klopas was named interim head coach.
Behind summer reinforcements Pavel Pardo and Sebastián Grazzini, as well as forward Dominic Oduro's 12 goals after being acquired in a trade from Houston, the Fire qualified for the US Open Cup Final (lost at Seattle) and narrowly missed making the playoffs after gaining 24 points in their last 12 league matches.
After the season's conclusion, Klopas was given the permanent manager job on November 3, 2011.
Although expectations were modest for 2012, Klopas' first full season as coach, the year saw a change in fortune for the Fire.
The spring and summer months saw several new acquisitions for the club, starting with the reacquiring of Chris Rolfe from Aalborg BK.
Rolfe, who scored eight goals and 12 assists in the 21 games he played in 2012, would later be named the Fire's MVP.
Other signings included Brazilian midfielders Alex Monteiro de Lima from the Swiss side FC Wohlen, Alvaro Fernandez from Seattle Sounders FC, forward Sherjill MacDonald from Beerschot AC of Belgium and veteran defender Arne Friedrich from VfL Wolfsburg.
Although they would fall out of the U.S. Open tournament early that season, the Fire eventually compiled a 17–11–6 record, their best since 2000, and ranked as high as second in the Eastern Conference before ending the year in fourth place.
On October 31, 2012, in their first playoff appearance since 2009, the Fire lost their first-round MLS Cup playoff match-up at home against the Houston Dynamo, 2:1.
In the 2012-2013 offseason the franchise made some moves to improve on 2012's success.
The team acquired Joel Lindpere and Jeff Larentowicz and also traded Dominic Oduro for Dilly Duka and the rights to Robbie Rogers.
The beginning of the season saw the team struggling to score goals, resulting in a record of 2-5-1, with a goal differential of -8 through April.
After two successive losses to the Union in May, and with veteran Arne Friedrich still on IR, the Fire acquired their former centerback Bakary Soumaré from Philadelphia.
Also in May, semi-retired International Robbie Rogers returned to the United States and expressed an interest to play only in Southern California, at which point a deal was brokered for Rogers' rights in exchange for Chicago native Mike Magee from the Los Angeles Galaxy.
On June 23, 2013, Friedrich, who had not played a 2012-13 game due to recurring injuries, announced his retirement from professional football.
After starting the season 2-7-3, the additions of Soumare and Magee led to seven wins in the squad's last 10 games.
The Fire were busy in the transfer window as well, adding veteran defensive midfielder Arévalo Ríos and forward Juan Luis Anangonó.
After an energizing 12-6-6 finish to the season, the Fire narrowly missed the playoffs for the third time in the last four years - losing out to the Montreal Impact on goal differential.
On October 30, 2013, the club announced that the president of soccer operations Javier Leon and head coach Frank Klopas had stepped down, but the Fire front office had a replacement one day later.
The Yallop era
On October 31, 2013 Chicago Fire named Frank Yallop as its new head coach and director of soccer.
On December 5, 2013, Fire MVP Mike Magee became the first Fire player to win the Volkswagen MLS MVP Award - beating out Los Angeles Galaxy's Robbie Keane and Montreal Impact's Marco Di Vaio for the honor.
Meanwhile, Yallop was busy recruiting a new coaching staff which included "Ring of Fire" member and Chicago Fire veteran C. J. Brown and former U.S. International striker Clint Mathis as the team's assistant coaches, adding Columbus Crew's Brian Bliss as Technical Director.
Former Fire forward Brian McBride was added as an assistant coach in May 2014 for a short-term assignment.
The shake-up extended to the roster, as Yallop moved team veterans and starters and brought in youth prospects - reforming the team while freeing up cap space. Major exits in early 2014 included Chris Rolfe, Austin Berry, Jalil Anibaba, Daniel Paladini, and Paolo Tornaghi.
Filling that void was a handful of youth prospects including Harrison Shipp (homegrown player), Benji Joya (via MLS "weighted lottery"), and Grant Ward on loan from Tottenham Hotspur.
The season ended in disappointment, with the Fire ending the season with a 6-18-10 record, also setting a record for most draws in an MLS season in the process.
Players