The Fire resume MLS league play on Sunday by travelling to Los Angeles to take on the best team in the the league so far this season. The Galaxy are atop the standings and in command in the race for the Supporter's Shield on 40 points with an impressive 12-2-4 record. Fortunately, the Fire may be catching them at an opportune time.

The old sports saying goes that you have to wait three years before you can accurately assess or evaluate drafts and player acquisitions. Frank Klopas was hired as Technical Director in January of 2008 and has now begun to shape the on-field product into his vision. The term "attractive attacking football" was thrown around alot this off season and we've seen some brief glimpses of what Klopas and Carlos De Los Cobos have in mind.

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.

Source: Chicago Fire

Frank Klopas and the Fire technical staff committed highway robbery yesterday. Not only did the Fire pick up Corben Bone and Kwame Watson-Siriboe in the draft much, much later than they were projected to go, but they also began to fill two of the team's bigger needs in the process.

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.

The MLS Player's Union has released this seasons list of player salaries.

The Fire's list includes rookies, minimum salary player increases, and raises for some of last years players.

Base Salary Guaranteed Compenstion

CHI Banner Michael D $ 40,000.

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.

Injuries continue to be a big issue ahead of the Eastern Conference Final rematch tomorrow night against Real Salt Lake. Brian McBride is questionable with a leg injury although he did participate in light running today at training. If McBride can't start, which seems likely, Stefan Dimitrov will get the nod against RSL.

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.

A furious late comeback from two goals down is wasted as the Fire surrendered a deluge of corner kicks and practically unchallenged header opportunities. The last corner kick chance was the deciding factor as CJ Brown failed to mark Brian Ching in the 85th minute. An insane second half which saw six combined goals provided some entertainment but little in terms of redemption for an awful defensive performance.

In November, ESPN.com's Bill Simmons - affectionately known as the "Sports Guy" - published The Book of Basketball with one goal in mind: to answer every question that could ever be posed about the NBA. One of those questions deals with what Simmons calls "The Secret." Simmons learns of the "secret" on the deck of a Vegas topless pool, where he and Isaiah Thomas (the Hall of Fame point guard and former GM who was a longtime object of barbs in Simmons's columns) are hashing out their differences.

Apologies for my absence this weekend. I was at a conference in St. Louis and had no internet access for the better part of three days. It was awful.
I will be attending this morning's introduction of Carlos de los Cobos and plan to post shortly after the press conference ends. Stay tuned.

The Fire formally introduced Carlos de los Cobos as head coach today, unveiling the 51-year-old Mexican manager in front of a crush of media members and fans. I'll be transcribing the 45+ minutes of interviews I got from the press conference later on this afternoon, but I wanted to share a few quick observations now.

"For those who know their Fire history they remember a guy like [former head coach] Bob Bradley based on his integrity and the type of ethical guy that he is. When I sat down with Carlos the first thing i thought about was Bob Bradley. Carlos is someone who is very honorable, who is going to come here and work very hard and get results.

With the draft set to get started in less than 20 minutes, it's about time I started live blogging the event. The Fire has the 13th, 22nd, 29th, 45th and 52nd picks in this year's draft; which contains four rounds and 64 picks. I'll be watching the event live on ESPN2 beginning at 1 and hopefully some of you choose to follow along right here.

"We have advised our players to report to camp as planned. In the meantime, we will continue to meet with the league to determine if an agreement can be reached. As of this date, however, we have no agreement on a new CBA."

• MLS Players' Union in a statement released last Thursday

So, there you have it.

When Denis Hamlett was let go by the Fire on November 24th of last year, my personal reaction was a bit mixed. I thought it was the right move for the Fire, but I was a bit sad to see Denis go. Though he could be pretty harsh to some journalists on the Fire beat, Denis seemed to take a liking to me (something I attribute to the fact that I'm young and seem completely non-threatening) and we became something like friends by the end of the season.

A couple of news items for you to chew on this afternoon...

MLS just released the full 2010 schedule and -- at first glance -- the Fire's looks relatively back heavy. The Fire plays 10 of their 30 regular season games in the final two months of the season, finishing up with three games at Toyota Park.

I might not have been at practice yesterday, but I have a few updates from Wednesday's training session thanks to the email report of a faithful reader who attended the session. Here we go...

John tearing it up --

Apparently, it hasn't taken trialist Collins John long to get acclimated to the Fire.

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.

http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/2010/04/chicago-fire-challenge-ac-milan

Nice.

Those of you waiting to get a look at rookie goalkeeper Sean Johnson in game action should purchase a ticket for tomorrow's Sister Cities Tournament games. Johnson will start against Paris Saint Germain in the first match at 7 pm.

According to Carlos De Los Cobos, the usual starters will see playing time in the first 45 minutes.

De Los Cobos Comments on Giuly

From Sam Stejskal on mlssoccer.com, Carlos De Los Cobos acknowledges the Fire's interest in PSG winger Ludovic Giuly and his desire for a central midfielder.

Ward, Thorrington, and Carr

A recap of the Fire's injury situation.

MLS

Saturday's slate of seven matches featured plenty of goals and some surprising results.

The Los Angeles Galaxy showed why they are the best team in the league this season by beating the Crew in Columbus 2-0 without Buddle and Donovan. The Crew controlled the game and outshot LA 21-3, but Bruce Arena has put together a very disciplined side that just doesn't make mistakes and capitalizes on the opposition's errors.

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 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.

In part three of Dave Greeley's interview with Crain's Chicago Business regarding the Fire and their presence in the Chicago market, the team president also addresses the diversity of the Fire's fan base and potential audience. This is interesting since it is a topic that has been discussed here in the comments sections.

With a the World Cup buzz it's easy to overlook the fact that MLS resumes play this weekend. The Fire travel to New England on Sunday night, with the early injury report being released today.

CHICAGO FIRE -- OUT: FW Calen Carr (R quad strain); MF John Thorrington (L quad strain)

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION -- OUT: DF Darrius Barnes (R ankle sprain); GK Preston Burpo (R leg surgery); FW Taylor Twellman (concussion)

Tim Ward is no longer on the injury report but John Thorrington's frustrations continue.

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.

According to the Fire's Facebook page a Designated Player announcement will be made tomorrow. Details to come.....

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.

Nery Castillo the Mexican player with loads of talent and a history of prima donna-ish behaviour joins the MLS from Shakhtar Donetsk on loan.

He will play for the Fire. He is the second youngest DP to join in MLS history which in other circumstances could be considered a feather in the cap but Castillo brings considerable baggage.

Sam Stejskal has an update on the contract negotiations between Wilman Conde and the club. The Fire have made what agent Diego Gutierrez called an "interesting" offer. The decision on whether to stay with the Fire or pursue possible offers in Argentian, Spain, France, or Mexico is up to Conde.

Greg Lalas' reports that the Fire have traded midfielder Justin Mapp to Philadelphia for allocation money.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/midfielder-justin-mapp-traded-philadelphia

The amount of allocation money has not been made public but the move allows the Fire to free up $245,000.

The Fire announced today that team President Dave Greeley has resigned to "pursue other opportunities". Greeley will stay on as a consultant until the end of August.

Javier Leon will oversee operations and begin the search for Greeley's replacement.

Greeley has served as President for the last two seasons after also working for six seasons as the Chicago Bears Chief Marketing Officer.

Sold out crowd, big cities, ESPN, and five designated players make this one of the most highly anticipated MLS regular season matches in recent memory. The game should mark the debut of Nery Castillo and Rafa Marquez as MLS players while former Arsenal teammates Freddie Ljugnberg and Thierry Henry make their first appearance with their respective new clubs at Toyota Park.

Starting Line Ups

Fire

GK Johnson

D Conde, Brown, Robinson, Segares

M Pause, Husidic, Pappa, Castillo

F Ljungberg, McBride

Subs : Dykstra, Kinney, Krol, Banner, Lowry, Nyarko, Carr

Dynamo

GK Onstad

D Mulrooney, Boswell, Cameron, Hainault

M Cruz, Obodai, Palmer, Mullan

F Ching, Oduro

Subs : Hall, Chabala, Cochrane, Robinson, Davis, Ngwenya, Weaver

The Fire have issued a release promising a "major player announcement" tomorrow. I'm not sure yet if it's a new addition or an announcement regarding a current player's status.

I'm guessing the press conference hasn't been called to announce the signing of Bratislav Ristic.

If there is such a thing as an American soccer icon, Brian McBride is it. Before Landon Donovan and last minute heroics, there was McBride paving the way as an example of how the game should be played. Fearless and relentless, he was also the very first draft pick in the inaugural MLS draft.