The midfield. Currently viewed as the strength of the team. But is it really set right now? Let's break it down:

Defensive Midfielders: Pavel Pardo, Logan Pause, Daniel Paladini, Mike Videira

This is clearly the strength of the midfield. Pavel Pardo is in a class by himself.

In case you missed it, the Chicago Fire defeated Real Espana 3-1 in Saturday night's international exhibition. Video highlights, goal scorers, and Fire starters are after the break. The team has a recap with some quotes from Klopas up on the website. The local paper, The Times-Picayune, had a good recap too.

The Chicago Fire had no trouble dispatching Florida Gulf Coast University 3-0 in their second game of the 2012 preseason. Marco Pappa scored a goal in the 7th minute and assisted on Dominic Oduro's goal in the 21st minute. Orr Barouch made it 3-0 in the 60th minute of the game on a Corben Bone corner kick.

I was at RFK Stadium last night. I was at RFK Stadium last year when the Fire won on the backs of two goals after the 80th minute. I certainly did not expect to see a repeat two-late-goal performance after Dwayne De Rosario converted his 89th minute penalty kick. A fairly blah game turned into a story for the ages when Sebastian Grazzini scored a scorcher of a goal and Diego Chaves finished D.

Chicago tied 1-1 with Houston in a fairly ho-hum game of soccer this afternoon. Colin Clark opened the scoring for Houston on some corner kick madness in the 33rd minute. Ten minutes later, Dominic Oduro burned Bobby Boswell on defense and got the ball past goaltender Tally Hall on a shot that required a lot of skill.

Marco Pappa scored a hat trick starting with a goal in the 9th minute of play. Less than a minute after his first goal, Daniel Paladini provoked Kyle Beckerman into a vicious headbutt that lead to Beckerman receiving a red card. The quick Fire score and Beckerman red card gave the game the same momentum as a red card/penalty kick scenario.

Chicago Fire: Sean Johnson; Dan Gargan, Josip Mikulic, Jalil Anibaba, Gonzalo Segares; Marco Pappa, Pavel Pardo, Logan Pause ©; Sebastian Grazzini (Baggio Husidic 25'); Patrick Nyarko (Diego Chaves 66'), Dominic Oduro (Orr Barouch 77')

Substitutes not used: Jon Conway, Yamith Cuesta, Corben Bone, Daniel Paladini
New England Revolution: Matt Reis; Kevin Alston, Franco Coria, Darrius Barnes, Chris Tierney; Ryan Guy, Benny Feilhaber, Shalrie Joseph ©, Kenny Mansally (Kheli Dube 57'); Milton Caraglio, Zach Schilawski (Diego Fagundez 71')
Substitutes not used: Bobby Shuttleworth, Otto Loewy, Zak Boggs, Pat Phelan, Ryan Kinne
Scoring Summary
CHI - Sebastian Grazzini (penalty kick) 5'
CHI - Dominic Oduro (Sebastian Grazzini) 9'
CHI - Patrick Nyarko (unassisted) 30'
NE - Ryan Guy (unassisted) 90'
NE - Ryan Guy (Milton Caraglio, Diego Fagundez) 92'+
Misconduct Summary

NE - Franco Coria (Caution; Reckless Foul) 27'
NE - Darrius Barnes (Caution; Dissent) 46'+
CHI - Dan Gargan (Caution; Delaying a Restart) 76'

CHI - Baggio Husidic (Caution; Tactical Foul) 86'

Referee: Michael Kennedy

Referee's Assistants: Kermit Quisenberry, Paul Scott

4th Referee: Jasen Anno

Attendance: 14,567

Highlights and quotes after the break

Highlights

Quotes

Frank Klopas, Chicago Fire interim head coach
On the result:
"In the second half, being up 3-0 and tough stretch ahead of us, I had the opportunity to give some guys a break and get everyone involved in the game.

The Major League Soccer Players Union has released their end of summer update on players' salaries. If you have wondered how much Sebastian Grazzini and Pavel Pardo are making, we have the answer and a full update to the Chicago Fire salary picture below. At least, we kind of/probably do. Let me explain after the break.

Frank Klopas is rolling the dice a little bit by having a starting XI of the following:

Sean Johnson; Bratislav Ristic, Josip Mikulic, Dasan Robinson, Pari Pantazopoulos; Gabriel Ferrari, Michael Videira, Daniel Paladini, Corben Bone; Diego Chaves, Cristian Nazarit

I am sympathetic to injuries and rest but this is a lot of new parts that aren't used to each other.

Fire's Corben Bone (right) -- Getty ImagesBy Charlie Corr
ESPNChicago.com
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- The Chicago Fire have had moments this year where the bounces have not gone their way. But on Sunday, a beneficial bounce on a Marco Pappa goal paved the way for a 1-1 draw against the New York Red Bulls in front of 16,961 at Toyota Park.

The once and future kings of Major League Soccer, Real Salt Lake, enter today's game with a mortal 1-2-2 record over their last five games. The Chicago Fire's record of 1-0-4 over their last five is 2 points better for what it's worth. Marco Pappa is available for selection in tonight's game for the first time since May 28th when he started against the San Jose Earthquakes.

This article was sent to me by Daniel Casey of Notes of Subpar Footballer regarding Chicago's current, or possibly past, issues on the field. It was written about a week ago, but now has a further update at the end (you'll see it). Enjoy, and for all you readers who write your own material, know that we at the Offside are always happy to feature (good) reader submitted work.

The Chicago Fire and the Columbus Crew kick-off in less than half an hour. The action starts on MY50 Chicago at 3:00 PM CST. Over 400 Fire fans made the trip to the game and it will be interesting to see how far their voices carry.

The starting lineup for the Chicago Fire is a 4-4-2. Sean Johnson; Jalil Anibaba, Yamith Cuesta, Cory Gibbs, Gonzalo Segares; Dominic Oduro, Logan Pause, Baggio Husidic, Patrick Nyarko; Gaston Puerari, Diego Chaves.

Fire's Corben Bone (right) -- Getty ImagesTwo struggling teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference table clearly could not find some flow within their play on Thursday.
The Chicago Fire and last-place Sporting Kansas City played to a scoreless draw as K.C. opened up Livestrong Sporting Park in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,925 in Kansas City, Kan.

By JOSE M. ROMERO

Sporting Kansas City was out to show that on this night of nights, there indeed was no place like home. In Kansas, at the 10th and newest soccer-specific stadium in Major League Soccer.

It didn't quite work out the way the club hoped.

Welcome the first installment of The Equipment Room. Here we will get more in depth on what your favorite Chicago Fire players wear on, and maybe even, off the field. I'm hoping this will allow us to get to know each player's style a little bit better. This will include anything from the jerseys they wear to, like this edition, the type of boots each player wears on the pitch.

The Seattle Sounders had their opportunities and there was no results. The same goes for the Chicago Fire. There were some solid attempts and goal, and some solid saves. The "highlights" aren't amazing from either the offense or the defense, though Tyson Wahl did have a solid play that deserves recognition.

Weather: 61 degrees, 13 mph winds with light rain. Otherwise known as sucky.

Surface: Natural Grass

Location: At a monument to the dominant Japanese automaker in Bridgeview, IL

Referee: Abiodun Okulaja

Line Judges: Brian Poeschel; Peter Balciunas

4th Official: Allen Chapman

Attendance: 11,926

Lineups:

Chicago Fire

Coach: Carlos de los Cobos

GK: Sean Johnson

D: Gonzalo Segares

D: Cory Gibbs

D: Yamith Cuesta

D: Bratislav Ristic

LM: Marco Pappa

RM: Dominic Oduro

CM: Logan Pause (C)

CM: Daniel Paladini

F: Diego Chaves

F: Cristian Nazarit

Bench:

F: Orr Barouch

M/F: Gaston Puerari

M: Baggio Husidic

M: Corben Bone

D: Pari Pantazopoulos

D: Dasan Robinson

GK: Jon Conway

San Jose Earthquakes

Coach: Frank Yallop

GK: Jon Busch

D: Steven Beitashour

D: Ike Opara

D: Jason Hernandez

D: Bobby Convey

M: Joey Gjertsen

M: Brad Ring

M: Khari Stephenson

M: Ramiro Corrales (C)

F: Steven Lenhart

F: Chris Wondolowski

Bench:

M: Anthony Ampaipitakwong

M: Sam Cronin

M: Brandon McDonald

D: Bobby Burling,

F: Ellis McLoughlin

D/M: Justin Morrow

GK Andrew Weber

1. Lenhart gets lose down the left side but Cuesta is there to take the ball away and kick it long towards Nazarit.

It looked like the story was going to be more dreary gloom and doom as the Chicago Fire and San Jose Earthquakes entered the halftime locker rooms with San Jose up 2-0. Instead the Chicago Fire showed their best lead this year is being down 0-2. Led by goals from Orr Barouch (61') and Yamith Cuesta (76'), the Fire took San Jose into overtime and then to penalty kicks.

The combined winless streak for the Chicago Fire and the Philadelphia Union is 10 games: seven games for Chicago, three for Philadelphia. Both teams enter the game hungry to taste victory again. The Union are desperate to score more than one goal in a game for the first time this year. The Fire will look to become the second team to score two or more goals on Philadelphia after FC Dallas beat Philly 2-0 last week.

Landon Donovan was at it again last week, finding the net and helping the Los Angeles Galaxy record another victory.

Donovan moved into first place on the MLS goal-scoring charts with his latest performance, and he also took up what has become a regular place on the SBI MLS Best XI.

Heading into the Philadelphia match on Saturday Carlos De Los Cobos isn't anticipating many changes to the line up that has won approximately 65% of the possesssion battle over the last two games. De Los Cobos seemed enthusiastic about the performance of midfielders Corben Bone and Daniel Paladini.

Corben Bone -- Getty ImagesChicago Fire midfielder and 2010 first-round draft pick Corben Bone spent all of last season waiting for a moment to prove his worth.
Bone saw his fellow draft teammates getting significant playing time, as goalkeeper Sean Johnson and defenders Steven Kinney and Kwame Watson-Siriboe each logged 10 or more games last season.

Fire's Corben Bone -- Getty ImagesThe Chicago Fire have been kings of the draw of late, posting their fourth straight stalemate with a 2-2 decision against Toronto FC on Saturday at BMO Field.
While the Fire (1-3-5) are in the midst of a seven-game winless streak, Chicago had to feel positive with coming away with a road point.

The Chicago Fire have 30 players on the 30 man roster with the signing of Cristian Nazarit. The Major League Soccer Players Union just released the salaries for every player including those on our very own Chicago Fire. MLS' website has recently been upgraded to provide a better looking 2011 Roster Rules page.

Daniel Paladini (right) -- Getty ImagesBRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- When Chicago Fire captain and defensive midfielder Logan Pause injured his hamstring on Wednesday of last week, it caused head coach Carlos de los Cobos to rethink his strategy heading into their game against the defending MLS champion Colorado Rapids.

The Chicago Fire look to break their four game winless streak tonight against the Colorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Carlos de los Cobos is returning to the 4-1-4-1 lineup we saw last year:

Jon Conway; Jalil Anibaba, Josip Mikulic, Yamith Cuesta, Gonzalo Segares; Daniel Paladini; Dominic Oduro, Corben Bone, Gaston Puerari, Marco Pappa; Diego Chaves

Daniel Paladini and Corben Bone will get their first starts of the season.

Late last night, while we were all in bed,

Juninho and David Beckham went for shins instead,

When the players tipped over, the referee winked his eye and said,

It will be a Hot Time in Old Town tonight.

So yes, long story short, David Beckham received his fifth yellow card in six games last night.

Check it out below. This includes only the last college a player attended (if he attended more than one). It also counts the colleges of pro player who were drafted (which happened in the early days of the Superdraft).
UCLA 16 Maryland 11 Wake Forest 11 Virginia 10 Indiana 9 North Carolina 7 SMU 7 Clemson 6 Connecticut 6 Santa Clara 5 Duke 4 Portland 4 Stanford 4 Akron 3 California 3 Creighton 3 FIU 3 Notre Dame 3 Saint Louis 3 South Florida 3 UC Santa Barbara 3 Washington 3 William & Mary 3 Furman 2 San Jose State 2 South Carolina 2 UAB 2 UNC Charlotte 2 Belhaven 1 Boston College 1 Coastal Carolina 1 CS Dominguez 1 CS Fullerton 1 CS Northridge 1 Fordham 1 Fort Lewis 1 Fresno State 1 George Mason 1 Hartford 1 Lehigh 1 Lynn 1 Michigan 1 New Mexico 1 Ohio State 1 Old Dominion 1 Oregon State 1 Pasadena 1 Rutgers 1 San Diego 1 San Francisco 1 Seton Hall 1 Southern Conn State 1 Tampa 1 Tulsa 1 Virginia Tech 1 Wisconsin 1
none 14
This year, an astounding five Akron players have been signed through the Generation Adidas program.

More photos » Victor Decolongon - Getty Images

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It's now official. Freddie Ljungberg will not be a part of the Chicago Fire next season.