Andrew Dykstra - Most popular for 2010
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Two weeks ago, when DC United collapsed late, allowing two goals to the New England Revolution in
rapid succession in what became a 2-0 loss, I saw a father and son walking out of the stadium.
The boy couldn't have been more than 5 years old. As they left through one of the exits, one of the
more hardcore fan folks ran by yelling, "DC Uni-ted!
Forgive me for a second as yesterday I never got to a weekend recap. Work schedule and just an
overall lack of time on my part played the reasons this week. I tired to make up for it with the
power rankings though by giving a little more than I usually do but still its not nearly as much as
I normally would do.
Photo by ISIphotos.com
By TRAVIS CLARK
WASHINGTON - Andrew Dykstra couldn't have asked for a better backdrop for his first win in Major
League Soccer. Scores of friends and family members were on hand to watch Chicago's 2-0 against
D.
By TRAVIS CLARK
With July making way for August, the pressure really begins to turn up for clubs in search of a
playoff berth.
The international transfer window has seen a number of moves, as front offices bolster rosters
in an effort to fortify rosters and make a playoff run.
By ANTHONY ZILIS
During the first half of Sunday's 1-0 loss to AC Milan, the ball bounced toward Patrick Nyarko.
With midfielder Ronaldinho running at him, Nyarko touched the ball over the Brazilian star's head
and ran on to the ball.
"It was great, I was laughing it off with my teammates," Nyarko said.
RSL and LA lead the way out of the World Cup break. (Getty Images)
I feel as though its been months since we discussed anything Major League Soccer related on
here. Between my vacation this past week and the World Cup there really hasn't been much going on
in the world of MLS. I know some clubs had some small friendlies or scrimmages while we were all
out enjoying the group stage of the World Cup but now its time to get back to business.
So near. And yet soooooo far. Getty Images/Daylife)
Goalkeepers, eh? We love ‘em. Tall and furry with big hands, they fulfill almost every
criteria on our perfect man checklist. And yet, unless they're Joe Hart, Iker Casillas, Pepe Reina
or Victor Valdes, the goalkeeper rarely gets his moment in the sun on Kickette.
How will the Fire fare going forward in 2010? (Getty Images)
Today is the start of a new series. As teams get into training camp and new players come on
board its worth looking into each club to see how they are stacking up and what else they need to
do to get ready for the 2010 season. I got this idea from the post I did a few days back on how the
Philadelphia Union were looking.
Just a quick one from me this week, with four midweek matches taking place in Major League Soccer
before it takes a short break for the World Cup, where Bob Bradley's USA kick off against England
tomorrow.
Chicago Fire hosted
Colorado Rapids in Bridgeview, and the two battled out a
thrilling 2-2 draw.
BY ADAM SERRANO
The 2010 season may be only be a few days dead, but the 2011 season has already kicked off with
the Expansion Draft.
The Vancouver Whitecaps and the Portland Timbers added ten players to their initial MLS rosters
on Wednesday as their clubs began to take shape for the 2011 season.
Please, enough with the FC's. This goes for you too, ACSTL. It's already tired and played. We have
official nicknames in this country. If you want to be traditional, call yourselves the Tigers or
the Crimson or whatever. Leave the FC for the UK.
_____________
The Galaxy should wear white shirts with blue shorts at home.
The Fire outplayed the MLS Cup champions for the better part of the match but came away empty
handed again due to one of the familiar themes that have plagued the team so far this season.....an
inability to finish. Incredibly, Steve Kinney provided the Fire's best chances to score while
hitting the post twice in the second half.
Comments on the KC game from mlssoccer's Greg Lalas
"Fire and Rain
Okay, I'm flummoxed. I have no idea what to make of this Chicago Fire team.
At moments, they are a flowing, languid example of why it's called the beautiful game. At other
times, they make even the guy who wrote Soccer for Dummies shake his head.
By ANTHONY ZILIS
Last season, Chicago Fire goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra won his team's backup spot in an exhibition
match against Club America.
Dykstra's performance was impressive, and he eventually beat out former MLS Goalkeeper of the
Year Jon Busch for this season's starting spot.
Game time: Saturday, 8:30 p.m.
TV: 6ABC
Philadelphia Union (2-5-1) pay a visit to the Chicago Fire (2-3-4) on Saturday in the latest
stop on the Union national tour, otherwise known as nine of 11 games being on the road to start
their season. They picked up their first road win last Saturday against Houston and come in with
all sorts of momentum, as their attack clicked last week better than it has in their existence.
The last five regular season matches between the Fire and the Crew have ended in 2-2 draws. This
one also could have ended in the same manner if the Fire had not blown several chances to at least
put a shot on goal and make Columbus goalkeeper Will Hesmer work. The Fire managed a total of 16
shots but only 2 of them were on goal.
Sloppy defending, inexcusably bad man marking and ineffective offensively. That pretty much sums
up a disaster of an opening to the 2010 SuperLiga tournament. The Fire was hammered at home 5-1 by
Monarcas Morelia and the loss was well deserved.
Steven Kinney scored the Fire's lone goal which at least kept the home side from being shut out
completely.
Lost in the shuffle of Chicago's 3-2 drubbing of the LA Galaxy was the play of rookie goalkeeper
Sean Johnson. The 21-year old made his MLS debut against the suddenly struggling Supporter's Shield
leaders and played brilliantly. Johnson made several big saves, both early and late in the match.
With such a strong first showing, the question remains: is Johnson the answer in net for
Chicago?
The Chicago Fire will be fielding a new starting goalkeeper when the 2010 MLS season begins on
Saturday at Red Bull Arena.
According to multiple sources, veteran goalkeeper Jon Busch will either be traded or waived by
the Chicago Fire this week. If Busch's departure happens as expected, untested second-year
goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra will get the nod in goal for the Fire.
By AVI CREDITOR
For a game in which so much is determined by team success, who would have thought that New York
Red Bulls players would be hot Fantasy MLS commodities?
Yet a couple of weeks into the season, that's exactly the situation in which we find
ourselves.
A bad start to a season is not necessarily an indicator of what the remainder of the year holds
for MLS teams (Houston started last season 0-2-2 while Columbus started 0-2-5) but dropping points
at home against one of the weakest teams in the league is not a good sign by any stretch. The Fire
continued their maddening habit of sloppy and frustrating performances in front of large home
crowds by losing to San Jose 2-1 in front of twenty thousand plus at Toyota Park.
Photo by ISIphotos.com
By AVI CREDITOR
Ah, another scheduling curveball. Two matches for lowly Toronto FC, another bye week for the
Columbus Crew. Are you prepared?
Toronto's slate is intriguing, not because the Reds are full of fantasy potential, but because
if the team is ever going to get going, it'd be against expansion Philadelphia at BMO Field.
The Chicago Fire returned to Toyota Park on Saturday night for their second home game of the
season. Two was the lucky number for the Fire as for the second week in a row they won 2-0, winning
their second game of the season to go with two defeats and one draw and achieve their second clean
sheet in two weeks for their young goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra, and second MLS win for new coach
Carlos de los Cobos.
Photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com
By AVI CREDITOR
With the schedule reverting back to the usual eight-game, one-per-team slate, this week is
pretty straight-forward. There are the matchups that, on paper, look exploitable, and you should
gear any transfers or lineup decisions toward those games.
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- With six games under his belt -- 20 percent of the MLS regular season -- this
seemed to be an appropriate time to get inside the mind of the Chicago Fire's Andrew Dykstra and
his first season as the team's No. 1 goalkeeper.
The preseason fiasco of the late switch with Dykstra taking over Jon Busch's previous role has died
down, and the 24-year-old has had ample opportunity to get into a comfortable place as Chicago's
last line of defense.
By ANTHONY ZILIS
Last season, Chicago Fire goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra won his team's backup spot in an exhibition
match against Club America.
Dykstra's performance was impressive, and he eventually beat out former MLS Goalkeeper of the
Year Jon Busch for this season's starting spot.
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- The Chicago Fire dug themselves into a bit of a hole, but a Brian McBride goal
allowed the Fire to salvage a 1-1 draw against FC Dallas on Thursday night in MLS action in front
of a crowd of 12,552 at Toyota Park.
If the Fire's busy May schedule has taken its toll, Thursday showed some indications that there
were some heavy legs on the Chicago side.
The Fire will be hosting a viewing party for the USA v England match next Saturday at Bull & Bear
in the River North area. Andrew Dykstra and Kwame Watson-Siriboe will be on hand. Bull & Bear is
located at 431 N. Wells in Chicago. Kick off is 1:30 pm.
The match wasn't particularly pretty but the result was exactly what the Fire needed. After a
winless May the Fire's 3-3-4 record pushes them to fourth place in the Eastern Conference table
ahead of New England. Philadelphia enjoyed stretches of possesion but could not break through until
Danny Mwanga's extra time goal pulled the Union to within one.
The Chicago Fire finally found the three points they had been looking for since April 24 with a
2-1 win over the expansion Philadelphia Union at Toyota Park on the first Saturday night in
June.
Fire great Peter Nowak returned to Chicago with his Union team on Polish Night in Bridgeview to
try to keep the Fire winless since their victory over Houston in April.
The Fire continue to struggle at home despite outplaying Colorado for large portions of the
match. Two defensive lapses resulted in two Colorado goals while Matt Pickens performed heroically
in net for the Rapids. The constant and repetitive mistakes resulting from a lack of concentration
is grating on both fans and the organization.
By ANTHONY ZILIS
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - After scoreless periods of regulation and extra time in the third round of
the U.S. Open Cup, the Chicago Fire were defeated in penalty kicks, 3-0, by the Charleston Battery
in front of 2,526 at Toyota Park.
In succession, Brian McBride hit his penalty over the goal, Krzysztof Krol's shot was saved by
Tim Melia and Wilman Conde sent his into the crossbar.
By ANTHONY ZILIS
If the Chicago Fire want to make it back to the SuperLiga final, it will have some ground to
make up after losing to Morelia, 5-1, at Toyota Park Wednesday night.
"Today it looked like everybody was dead," Fire defender C.J. Brown said. "We couldn't hold the
ball, defensively we couldn't mark people, read the game very well.
By ANTHONY ZILIS
If the Chicago Fire want to make it back to the SuperLiga final, it will have some ground to
make up after losing to Morelia, 5-1, at Toyota Park Wednesday night.
"Today it looked like everybody was dead," Fire defender C.J. Brown said. "We couldn't hold the
ball, defensively we couldn't mark people, read the game very well.
This match was supposed to be about the four to five Designated Players that was going to
perform on the field at Toyota Park on Sunday Night. The big names of world football coming
together and strutting their stuff all match long as the spotlights were shinning bright. But while
this was a fantastic scoreless draw to watch, I have to say the brightest star was the Chicago
Fire's newest keeper Sean Johnson who made brilliant save after brilliant save all night long.
Time to start thinking about this once again. This year it's a bit more complicated as two teams
will be making selections, but I don't expect the number of protected players (11) to change.
Especially since that same number was recently referenced after Portland was announced as picking
first on MLSsoccer.
Rookie Shawn Johnson has effectively ended Andrew Dykstra's bid for a starting position in
Chicago as he kept the Fire but it was another goalkeeper who stole the show in Week 22. Unlikely
squads continue to roll – as in New England and Colorado – while familiar faces collect three
points (Real Salt Lake and Columbus).
This is a fascinating read on the rebirth of a MLS Reserve League that should roll out in 2011.
Not only does it provide a great picture of what they want the league to look like, it also shows
you what the reserve league use to be. My favorite line from the link:
We're getting rid of guest players.
Photo by Michael Pimentel/ISIphotos.com
By AVI CREDITOR
Even though all but one playoff spot is secure, every team with postseason aspirations still has
something to play for, which is a big get for fantasy managers.
Instead of resting star players down the stretch, the top-scoring MFLS teams should have all
their studs in action for the final two weeks as teams jockey for playoff positioning and the
Supporters' Shield.
Photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com
By AVI CREDITOR
Oh, the unpredictability of the regular season's final week.
All eight playoff spots are spoken for, but the Supporters' Shield isn't yet and there's still
strategic jockeying to be done to set up first-round matchups.
