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.

For the first time, I think ever, the league has released the list of players graduating from the Generation adidas program ahead of the expansion draft. Boy that was nice of them huh?

Fans in Philadelphia can relax a bit as Danny Mwanga will not be graduating this year. None of the 2010 GA rookies will be in fact.

Someone get MLS referee Alex Prus on the phone and tell him I'm about to say something nice about him. Honest.

I get after MLS referees with some regularity. But in all honesty, it's not always their fault. I really don't think MLS and U.S. Soccer do enough to encourage these guys to take better control of matches.

We've been over the hype victims, darkhorses and well as the disappointments, but now is the time when I tell you who I think can win the 2010 World Cup. I started this post last week with five teams that I really thought could win it. Now, after Robben's injury, I think it may be down to just four. Let's start with the defending champions Italy.

The Fire don't have additional fixture congestion to worry about in the coming months after bombing out of the US Open Cup competition again. This time on penalty kicks in front of a small crowd of 2,526.

After a fairly listless first half, the Fire controlled a good portion of the run of play during the second half and the overtime but were not able to find a score.

Nery Castillo is the DP

The Fire essentially crashed out of SuperLiga 2010 with a 1-0 loss to New England but the biggest story of the night was the addition of forward Nery Castillo to the roster as the team's designated player. Castillo should arrive this coming week for a physical and begin training with the team shortly after.

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.

By L.E. Eisenmenger - BOSTON, MA (Jan 8, 2010) USSoccerPlayers -- Patrick McCabe is the Senior VP and Managing Director of First Wave Sports, as well as a prominent player agent. They represent coaches Sigi Schmid, Robert Warzycha, and Preki, and players including William Hesmer, Troy Perkins, Nat Borchers, Jim Brennan, Baggio Hassidic, Jack Jewsbury, Stefan Miglioranzi, Logan Pause, Teal Bunbury, Andre Akpan, Chad Barrett, Robbie Findley, Alejandro Moreno, Yura Movsisyan, and Cam Weaver.

With the World Cup less than 6 months away, we have decided to start the build up early doors with an A to Z list of our favourite players who set the World Cup alight. Some are recent stars, some are relics from the days of black and white TV but all were mustard. The thing is, each week we will be using just stars whose surname was that week's letter, eg: this week it is letter A which gives us Ardilles, Aguas, Aldier etc etc.

So today is Oscar day, so like many other people, movies are on my mind. Last year we had a couple of unusally great little football films in Looking for Eric and The Damned United, the latter a biopic of Brian Clough which proved a fascinating insight into the man (albeit in a nicer way [...]

We've not done one of these in AGES so here is another addition to our footballing lexicon the 'Trequartista'.

A trequartista is a term coined for that mythical 'second striker' role, someone who plays in the hole, creates and scores, and is usually supremely gifted.

The Trequartista is not a new advent:

The Austrian 'Wunderteam' of the early 1930s had great success with Mathias Sindelar, a centre-forward who constantly dropped deep, and Vsevolod Bobrov did similarly for the Dynamo Moscow tourists who so delighted British crowds in 1945.

Llegamos a la mitad de la década de los 90, y nos encontramos con una selección española muy diferente a la de cuatro años atrás. Tras el Mundial de Italia, el fútbol español a nivel de la selección, había entrado en una profunda crisis.

Luis Suárez fue destituido un año después del Mundial.

The Starting 11 for the Fire :

GK Andrew Dykstra

D Kryzstof Krol

D Wilman Conde

D CJ Brown

D Dasan Robinson

M Patrick Nyarko

M Marco Pappa

M Peter Lowry

M Baggio Husidic

M Justin Mapp

F Collins John

Here's the stating line up for the Fire

GK Andrew Dykstra

D Wilman Conde

D CJ Brown

D Tim Ward

D Krzysztof Krol

M Peter Lowry

M Logan Pause

M Baggio Husidic

M Marco Pappa

M Patrick Nyarko

F Brian McBride

Pause makes his way back into the line up and Husidic becomes more of an attacker.

After controlling a good portion of the first half despite being down 1-0 the Fire turned in an absolutely dismal second half defensive effort in route to a 4-1 loss in Toronto. Not only was the defensive effort lacking but it seems that several players were negatively affected by line up and formation changes.

Here are some interesting items to look at in the wake of yesterday's misery.

From mlssoccer.com, Nick Firchau's thoughts....

"On a night of few real surprises in the league, the biggest head-scratcher belongs to Carlos de los Cobos. The Fire coach is suddenly mortal again, thanks to his team's 4-1 flop at Toronto FC.

Tim Ward and Baggio Husidic were injured in training today and are new to the injury list. John Thorrington is still out.

CHICAGO FIRE -- OUT: FW Calen Carr (R quad strain); MF John Thorrington (L quad strain); DOUBTFUL: DF Tim Ward (L calf strain); QUESTIONABLE: MF Baggio Husidic (R calcaneus contusion); DF Steven Kinney (L hamstring strain); MF Justin Mapp (L hamstring strain)

Our series on the US at the World Cup continues with a look at the 1994 World Cup, the only time the US hosted the tournament (so far).

The lead up to the 1994 World Cup

Player development in the US after the 1990 World Cup continued to be hampered by the lack of a viable professional league in the US.

After having last weekend off, the Wizards are back at CAB hoping to break their 2 game losing streak and 4 game winless streak. In that stretch, the Wizards have only scored 1 goal and that was in second half stoppage time in their last game. Tomorrow the Wizards take on the Chicago Fire. The Fire have 1 more point than the Wizards with one more game played.

Andrew Dykstra

Dasan Robinson, Wilman Conde, CJ Brown, Krzysztof Krol

Julio Martinez, Baggio Husidic, Logan Pause, Patrick Nyarko, Marco Pappa

Collins John

Subs : Johnson, Watson-Siriboe, Umanzor, Banner, Lowry, Dimitrov, McBride

De Los Cobos opts to stay with the 4-5-1 and Martinez surprisingly returns to the starting eleven.

The Fire finished the Sister Cities Tournament in fourth place after being defeated by Legia Warsaw 3-0. After a scoreless first half which saw some improved play from the previous effort on Wednesday against Paris Saint-Germain, the Fire provided a second half effort reminiscent of the disorganized effort againt Toronto two weeks ago.

The Fire continued their increasingly frustrating habit of dropping points at home. This 1-1 draw against FC Dallas opens up more questions and problems for Carlos De Los Cobos and Frank Klopas. The first half saw the Fire control possesion and create more opportunities than FC Dallas. The second half was controlled by the Hoops although neither team played particularly well.

By ANTHONY ZILIS

After a winless May, the Chicago Fire needed a win badly Saturday night opening June against the Philadelphia Union at Toyota Park.

Patrick Nyarko, Marco Pappa and Baggio Husidic helped make it happen, providing the creativity and goals in Chicago's 2-1 win at Toyota Park on Saturday night.

By ANTHONY ZILIS

After a winless May, the Chicago Fire needed a win badly Saturday night opening June against the Philadelphia Union at Toyota Park.

Patrick Nyarko, Marco Pappa and Baggio Husidic helped make it happen, providing the creativity and goals in Chicago's 2-1 win at Toyota Park on Saturday night.

El Mundial de EEUU 94 deparó numerosas sorpresas, una de ellas fue la excelente actuación de la selección búlgara.

Bulgaria era un puñado de buenos futbolistas, algunos de ellos jugando en las mejores ligas, que se presentaban en EEUU con ganas de demostrarle al mundo furbolístico quiénes eran y a qué venían.

Jamie Smith delivered a second dose of magic and Conor Casey latched on to a perfect header in second-half stoppage time as the Colorado Rapids salvaged a 2-2 tie with the Chicago Fire on Wednesday night in Bridgeview, Illinois.

Smith, whose perfect free kick set-up Drew Moor for the winner against Columbus on Saturday night, unleashed another long crisp pass.

By Ollie Irish

Very cool, even if I wouldn't quite put Bob Baggio in there with all-time greats like Pele, Maradona, Cruyff and Zidane.

Via Guardian

4:00 cdt

Justin Mapp did not make the trip to Columbus but Baggio Husidic will be available.

Every once in a while, I will post non-famous goals for a very famous player. I selected Roberto Baggio this time, one of the best in the game for the art of playing a simple football. Most of the...
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Seeing a young Roberto Baggio, Ronaldinho, or Fabregas is always exciting, but noticing young players which in 5 years can become one of the world's best is rare. With Serie A's relative downfall compared to other European leagues, it's time to find some new stars, starting from these eight prospects:

1.

Non solo ha ritrovato l'azzurro, dopo il periodo di ostracismo lippiano, insieme ai tanti attestati di stima del Ct Prandelli, condottiero del nuovo corso che sta per intraprendere la nostra nazionale. Ora per Antonio Cassano, pronto a guidare l'attacco dell'Italia nell'amichevole di Londra di domani sera, è pronta la maglia numero 10, indossata da Francesco Totti e dal Divin Codino, Roberto Baggio a Usa '94.

Chicago Fire venció 2-1 al New England Revolution y logró tres puntos que le permiten seguir peleando por un lugar en los play offs. La mala noticia es que Deris Umanzor no estuvo ni en la banca. Los goles del equipo de De los Cobos fueron de Baggio Husidic y Calen Carr.

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To say that FC Dallas has been 'good' this year would be an understatement. They haven't lost a game since May 20th when they played the Los Angeles Galaxy and their only other loss was on April 17 to the New York Red Bulls.

After the boring international break, Serie A came back with a bang. 27 goals scored this weekend, and many of them beautiful. Some great results, and at weekend's end we find Lazio still on top of the table. Inter and Milan are following closely tied in second place. Juventus made a great turnaround and climbed up the table, while Fiorentina surprisingly sit dead last.

SerieAWeekly.com Qasa Alom The Serie A more than any league in the modern era has been graced with phenomenally creative talents that combined artistry with athleticism to put beautiful in "the beautiful game" with Fantasisti such as Zico Baggio, Boban, Rui Costa, Recoba, Zidane and Kaká jinxing, shimmying or feinting their way into the hearts of every calcio fan.

There is a cornucopia of Internet voting being laid out here. Bear with me.

First, the MLS is putting all 30 of the Goal of the Weeks up against each other. The tricky part is they don't show you the vote totals after you voted. It will be interesting to see who wins because teams with multiple candidates won't want to pick one player over the other.

After posting Zizou favourite player, here is Roby favourite one as he always stated in his interviews. It was the Brazilian star Zico. Zico was more than a midfield. He often scored goals. He was...
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Every year MLS announces the names of players who are graduating from the Generation adidas program.

The MLS expansion draft will be held on Wednesday and the Fire's list of protected players includes a surprise or two. The team has elected to protect both Mike Banner and Calen Carr while making two designated players and this year's opening day goalkeeper available for selection by either Vancouver or Portland.

The Fire lost midfielders Peter Lowry and John Thorrington in today's MLS expansion draft. As most expected the relatively inexpensive and productive Lowry was the type of player that would draw some interest from expansion teams. Lowry was selected in the 7th round by the Portland Timbers.

The Fire gambled that John Thorrington's salary and injury history would keep him from being drafted but Vancouver's Tom Soehn took a chance on him with the final pick of the draft.