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.

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.

The Washington Post is reporting that former El Salvador coach Carlos de los Cobos is the leading candidate to become the Fire's next head man.

Should De los Cobos be coming to Chicago he likely wouldn't be coming alone. Another report from the Washington Post has De los Cobos's hiring hinging (at least in part) on the Fire's ability to sign 24-year-old Salvadoran winger/forward Julio Martinez.

Left back Gonzalo Segares is close to signing a deal with Cypriot team Apollon FC. The two sides have reportedly agreed to terms with the 27-year-old Segares needing only to complete a physical for the deal to become official.

"I talked to his agent and I talked to Gonzalo and I think they're pretty close to an agreement with Apollon," Fire Technical Director Frank Klopas said.

So far this offseason the Fire has parted ways with former head coach Denis Hamlett, seen Brandon Prideaux retire, lost David Myrie in the expansion draft, and watched as Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chris Rolfe and (now) Gonzalo Segares left to ply their trade abroad.

They have yet to bring in anyone new.

I'm sure many of you have heard of Megabus, the bus company that offers really low fares to and from cities across the country. And if you've heard of Megabus, you've probably heard that they offer free wi-fi on all of their buses. Well I'm currently on a Megabus (going to St. Louis for the weekend) and there is no Internet connection.

According to a report by Nick Firchau of the Southtown Star, the Fire and Carlos de los Cobos have agreed to terms for the former Mexican international to become the fifth head coach in team history.

De los Cobos, who had been rumored as the front-runner for the job for about a week, most recently managed El Salvador's national team, guiding them to a fifth place finish in CONCACAF qualifying.

The MLS SuperDraft is tomorrow people. It's going to be a big day for the Fire, who will have to wait until the 13th pick to make their first selection. I'm going to be live-blogging the whole damn thing and I'll be having a good time with it, so be sure to check it out.

If you plan on checking the draft out during your lunch break (it starts at 1 p.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Hopefully you have the day off (as I do...) but if not, definitely spend a minute thinking about what Martin Luther King did for the people of this country -- it's a better place because of him.

Secondly, apologies for the delay in posting. I had some stuff that needed to be taken care of this morning and it prevented me from having a piece ready for the early morning.

Let's rewind to Thursday's draft for a minute. The Fire picked up a couple of defenders, two midfielders and even a keeper with their selections, but neglected to draft a forward -- seemingly a position of need -- with any one of their five picks.

On the surface (assuming the Fire took need into consideration when making their picks) not drafting a forward makes little sense.

Krol in action for the Poland U-23's

According to a report out of Poland, the Fire and defender Krzysztof Krol have agreed to a deal that will bring the 22-year-old former Real Madrid reserve team player to Chicago on loan.

According to the report, which cites one of the owners of Jagiellonia (Krol's club prior to the Fire), the loan is for one year with an option for a permanent transfer at the end of the season.

Former Fire forward/midfielder Chris Rolfe has kindly agreed to take some time out of his schedule to answer some questions from you guys.

I'm guessing Chris will have a good deal to say about his new situation at Danish club Aalborg BK (where the season will resume in the beginning of March), life in Europe, the manner in which his Fire career ended, and much more, so ask away.

The Fire announced this afternoon that midfielder Julio Martinez will join the club on loan from Mexican second division side Club Leon FC. Martinez, who played for Fire head coach Carlos de los Cobos on the El Salvadoran National Team, for which he has scored two goals in ten appearances.

The Fire made the official announcement today that defender Krzysztof Krol will join the club on loan from Jagiellonia Bialystok for the 2010 season. Krol will join the Fire pending receipt of his Visa and International Transfer Certificate. Terms of the deal, which a Polish report said was for one year, were not officially released.

It's been a while since I last spoke with Fire Technical Director Frank Klopas so we had a few things to catch up on when we talked today. First on the list was the Fire's newest player, defender Krzysztof Krol. The 22-year-old Krol, who the Fire officially acquired on loan from Polish team Jagiellonia Bialystok, will likely fill the void left by Gonzalo Segares at left back.

In the winter of 2006, I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to London to visit my Aunt and Uncle. In short, it was an absolutely fantastic trip. My family and I saw the houses of Parliament, the crown jewels, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and even took a short trip up to Scotland. Truly, it was the trip of a lifetime.

Couple of quick updates...
MLS and the Players' Union have agreed to move the deadline to negotiate a new CBA from February 1st to the 12th. The two sides have engaged in what have been called productive discussions over the past couple of days and are making progress towards signing a new CBA.