Football Season Guide

MLS
USA
MLS
2019
Chicago Fire
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Chicago Fire

In


Przemyslaw Frankowski (mid), (Jagiellonia), Marcos Urena (att), (Los Angeles FC), Christian Martinez (mid), (Columbus Crew), Marcelo (def), (Sporting Lisbon), Jeremiah Gutjahr (mid), (Indian Hooiser), Amando Moreno (att), (New York Red Bulls II), David Ousted (gk), (D.C United), Fabian Herbers (mid), (Philidelphia Union), Andre Reynolds II (def), (Chicago Fire Academy), CJ Sapong (att), (Philidelphia Union)

Out


Jonathan Campbell (def), (Seattle Sounders), Michael De Leeuw (att), (FC Emmen), Marcos Urena (att), (LD Alajuelense), Matt Polster (mid), (Rangers), Daniel Johnson (mid), (Legion FC), Yura Movisisyan (att), (Free), Drew Conner (def), (Free), Patrick McLain (gk), (Free), Luis Solignac (att), (Free), Nicolas Del Groco (def), (Free), Alan Gordon (att), (Retired), Christian Dean (def), (Retired), Brandon Vincent (def), (Retired)

It was an extremely disappointing 2018 for Chicago Fire who comfortably missed out on the play-offs and finished second bottom in the Eastern Conference. Veljko Paunovic’s side were below par for much of the campaign and things must improve in 2019. They notched just 8 league wins with only one coming away from the SeatGeek Stadium. They finished 18 points behind the play-offs. Nemanja Nikolic and Aleksandar Katai were the only players who delivered for Chicago scoring a combined 27 goals between them with Nikolic notching 15 of those. Veljko Paunovic has completely stripped an underperforming squad with a host of departures including Jonathan Campbell, Matt Polster, Michael De Leeuw and Yura Movsisyan. Paunovic is building a new look side and their big acquisition is defender Marcelo who arrives from Sporting Lisbon. The defender adds plenty of experience and solidity to a leaky defence. He arrives with plenty of quality having spent his career in Portugal including 7 successful seasons at Rio Ave where he was named player of year in 2013. Paunovic’s other acquisitions include winger Przemyslaw Frankowski who arrives from Jagiellonia in Poland where he made 140 appearances scoring 24 goals so he certainly will add some creativity and fire power to the Chicago attack.

Target


Paunovic needs his new look team to gel and quickly if they are to have any success this season. They will be looking to push for a play-off spot and finishing in those play-offs positions would represent an excellent season.