SoccerBlogs

The US Soccer Soccer Federation has announced the possible third round pairings for all eight remaining MLS clubs still alive in the US Open Cup tournament. The Fire will play the winner of next Tuesday's match between the Rochester Rhinos and Harrisburg City Islanders to be held in Harrisburg, Penn.

Chicago-Fire.com announced the release of 6 more trialists (10 total) and added 8. Let's take a look at the players making their way to Florida for Phase 2 of preseason training:

Trialists from Phase 1 remaining:

Paraskevas Pantazopoulos - 22 year old forward, winner of the open tryout.

The silly season is mostly over even though MLS clubs can still sign players until April 15. But with clubs going into preseason mode it's time to take a gander at what each club did over the offseason months to prepare for the new season ahead.

Now this isn't a preseason look at each club and where they stand for the new season, this is merely a look at what clubs brought in going against what they lost from last year.

Chicago Fire select Yannick Salmon, midfielder, University of Maryland with the 27th overall pick in the 2011 MLS Supplemental Draft. Here is his college bio. Yannick was of course college teammates with Chicago Fire SuperDraft pick, Jason Herrick.

With the 51st pick in the MLS Draft, the Chicago Fire selected University of California forward, Davis Paul. According to the SB Nation MLS Mock Draft, the Fire might have gotten a steal here. Burgundy Wave writer Chris 'Uz' White selected Davis Paul with the 36th overall pick when his Colorado Rapids were on the clock.

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When the Chicago Fire entered the 2011 MLS Draft, the hope was that the rebuilding club would be able to find defensive help to make up for the losses of Wilman Conde and C.J. Brown.

The club's wishes were answered when North Carolina central defender Jalil Anibaba fell to the Fire at the No.

With the 9th pick in the 3rd round (45 overall) of MLSSuperDraft, the Chicago Fire select Jason Herrick, F, from University of Maryland.

From his bio, we got a local guy from Elmhurst, IL: Before Maryland: Played primarily with his club team, Sockers FC Chicago .

The Fire can't be too happy with a 2-2 draw with Florida Gulf Coast University on Thursday night. The game was played in three thirty minute halves and featured most of the trialists on the pitch as the Fire relinquished a two goal lead after the first sixty minutes.

Here's the Fire line-up:

Sean Johnson (Jon Conway 31', Alec Dufty 61')

Jalil Anibaba (Yoximar 31', Eric Ustruck 61', Yoximar 79')

Josip Mikulic (Kwame Watson-Siriboe 31')

Cory Gibbs (Pari Pantazopolous 31', Jalil Anibaba 61')

Gonzalo Segares (Michael Muniz 31', Evan Schwarz 61')

Patrick Nyarko (Bratislav Ristic 31', Jochian Bendu 61')

Baggio Husidic (Fabio Burbano 31', Martin Rivas 61', Shane Clark)

Logan Pause (Michael Videira 31', Corben Bone 61')

Daniel Paladini (Marco Pappa 31', Orr Barouch 61')

Gaston Puerari (Calen Carr 31', Amani Walker 61', Jason Herrick 82')

Gabriel Ferrari (Anderson Costa 31', Davis Paul 61')

As you can see subsitutions were very liberal while Marco Pappa and Kwame Watson-Siriboe scored the goals for the Fire.

The Fire announced their pre-season schedule today. Players are due to report to Toyota Park on Thursday before starting training next week at the Bridgeview Sports Dome. Among the players reporting will be new additions Cory Gibbs, Daniel Paladini, Josip Mikulic, Jalil Anibaba, Jason Herrick, Jon Conway, Davis Paul, Yannick Salmon, Amani Walker, Sam Arthur, and Open Try-Out winner Pari Pantazopoulos.

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The 2011 MLS Draft is set to kick off shortly and if you were wondering who the best players available were at each position, let us give you a guide.

Here is a rundown of the top players available by position. We'll be tweaking the board as we get closer to the start of the draft, but be sure to make this your place to see who is available.

The 2011 MLS Draft is less than 12 hours away, but it's never too late to project every single pick in the draft.

It took us some time, and plenty of travel, but we've come up with a full 54-player draft. Every team, every pick, every player.

No, we don't actually think we'll be right on all 54, or even most, but this Mock Draft should help give you a sense of how players are rated heading into Thursday's Draft.

With just a month to go till the combine the MLS has wasted no time in naming its list of invitees. The list is chosen by MLS coaches and scouts who see these players as potential draft picks. In total the MLS has announced 58 seniors on the list, who will later be joined by a cast of generation adidas prospects.

By FRANCO PANIZO

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The MLS Combine continued on Monday, and as expected, Day 2 saw marked improvements in terms of style of play.

Seven goals were scored in the two matches, but much of the day's more promising performances came in AdiZero's 3-2 triumph over AdiPower.

Photo by Tony Quinn/ISIphotos.com

By AVI CREDITOR

In the half a decade that Jason Herrick spent in College Park, Md., he experienced the ups of winning a national championship and the downs of a long-term injury. The one thing that never wavered in that time was his work rate or professional mindset.

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By JOHN BOSCHINI

It's the first full weekend of action the USL Pro as 18 teams take to the field.

Making their debut are the Rochester Rhinos, Los Angeles Blues, Harrisburg City Islanders, Dayton Dutch Lions, Wilmington Hammerheads and Antigua Barracuda FC.

From @samstejskal via Twitter:

Fire in 11 v. 11 scrimmage.

1st Team: Johnson; Segares, Gibbs, Mikulic, Anibaba; Ristic, Baggio, Pause, Pappa; Carr, Amani Walker

4-4-2 with Carr playing a little underneath Walker

Paladini (2nd team) looked good and Anibaba had a couple flashes.

Dave Clark asked me to put together a review of the action today for SAH since I was able to catch some of the games live. I also went back and re-watched the highlights and the game feed. You can see it all on the MLS site.

Overall, the games were pretty pedestrian. The pace was noticeably slower than in the MLS and it's clear that many of the players are having a hard time connecting up with their new teammates.