Well, this probably isn't an objective statement, but the Chicago Fire really have started off 2012 well...just in the same way that Quaker Oats breakfast products are a great way to start the day!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

In all seriousness though, I can't remember a sponsorship providing such a boost to a club in general and to a fan base in particular.

Nery Castillo sigue siendo futbolista aunque muchos no lo crean. Obviamente sin el mismo nivel que alguna vez tuvo y demostró con creces en el Olympiakos donde ganó seis ligas griegas y destacó no sólo en la liga de ese país, sino también en la Champions League.

Hoy su carta ya no vale los 15 millones de euros que pagó el Shakhtar Donetsk en el verano de 2007 al Olympiakos, tras el declive de su carrera está tasado en sólo 2,5 millones de euros – y eso que en un momento valía todavía menos – a sus 27 años, edad dónde debería tener una madurez futbolística que lo hiciera estar en el mejor momento de su carrera, pero con él ha sucedido todo lo contrario.

Former Chicago Fire defender Wilman Conde wants back in Major League Soccer. This isn't news. It has been floating around for awhile now. What has changed is it now appears that a Major League Soccer team wants him back in the league as well. In fact, the New York Red Bulls have reportedly purchased his rights.

Chicago Fire head coach and technical director Frank Klopas recently traveled to Europe for his annual scouting trip. Earlier this week, the Fire posted a little story and a video of Klopas wrapping up his trip by visiting Atletico Madrid. Things have been fairly quiet on any European players that might but coming over to play for Chicago but the Greek press has the first morsel of information just before the European transfer window opens.

By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Dec 13, 2011) US Soccer Players -- In today's edition, Tony asks about the Galaxy's strategy in the Re-Entry Draft, an American getting a chance to coach aboard, and a big move for Herculez Gomez. Where's Omar Bravo playing next season? Not Kansas City. He's headed back to Mexico to play for Cruz Azul next season.

Once featuring USA internationals Freddy Adu and Eddie Johnson along with Mexico's Nery Castillo, Aris Football Club (Greek: .Α.Ε. Άρης), is a Greek soccer club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia. Aris currently competes in Superleague Greece, the top tier of the Greek professional football system and has won three Greek championships and one [.

Columbus hopes to remain on top this weekend in the Eastern Conference. (Getty Images)

What a wild night in Major League Soccer it was last night. Week 21 got off with a bang in some ways as the LA Galaxy saw their long unbeaten run come to an end at the hands of the Portland Timbers of all teams.

Carlos Tevez and Manchester City have become the subject of a Greek match-fixing scandal.

A Greek court is examining evidence that Manchester City's Europa League game against Greek club Aris Thessaloniki in February was the target of an illegal betting scandal.

Carlos Tevez and Manchester City have become the subject of a Greek match-fixing scandal.

A Greek court is examining evidence that Manchester City's Europa League game against Greek club Aris Thessaloniki in February was the target of an illegal betting scandal.

By Chris Wright

"HIYAAA!!"

First off, sincere apologies for any mental distress that the wording of that headline may have caused you. Just try and un-think the bad thoughts.

Any road up, a Greek court is examining evidence that City's Europa League clash with Aris Salonika back in February was the target of a betting scam, and that young Carlos Tevez was allegedly approached by an Aris player to help pull the whole farago off.

Going into the Gold Cup two years ago, Mexico was a team on the brink of disaster. Now, of course, they are not.
Amazingly, the player most closely associated with Mexico's revival wasn't even on the 2009 Gold Cup roster - yes, Mexico tuned us up 5-0 without Javier Hernandez. Something to think about when we say we started a B-team.

Preview: Union vs Chicago Fire " Unholy Union – The fan blog for Phi. Union
The only question left is "how," as in how in the heck will Union finally find a way to score some goals?!?!?!? They even tried sitting Carlos Ruiz last match, in favor of the normal starting forwards from last season, Danny Mwanga and Sebastien Le Toux, and it STILL didn't work.

As of 12:00 AM CST, Saturday, May 21st, 2011 the Nery Castillo Chicago Fire era officially came to an end. The reports that the Fire would not be exercising the option to complete a permanent transfer came out earlier this week but it was already a forgone conclusion. Castillo never fit into the organization.

Fully aware that Nery Castillo's option was declined. That isn't surprising news so the lead-off today in the Smolderings is profiles on the currently starting central midfielders: Corben Bone and Daniel Paladini.

Charlie Corr of ESPN's Chicago Fire Blog covered Corben Bone

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.

An 11th minute goal from newcomer Cristian Nazirit and a 40th minute equalizer from Chance Myers provided the scoring in the Fire's Reserve League match against Sporting Kansas City this morning at the Toyota Park practice field.

The Fire's starting eleven included Alec Dufty in goal and Dasan Robinson, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Josip Mikulic, and Bratislav Ristic in defense.

After the MLS Player's Union released information on 2011 player salaries last weekend many amateur capologists (myself included) began crunching numbers, analyzing data, and speculating as to the "salary cap" standing of each team in the league. It's an exercise that's rooted in educated guesses and assumptions based on the raw numbers presented by the union.

The Major League Soccer Player Union's release of 2011 MLS player salaries contains few surprises. David Beckham and Thierry Henry are the only players who earn more than $5 million a year and only six active players make more than $1 million.
Other highlights:
-- Only eight of the 25 best-paid players (and 21 of the 50 best-paid players) are Americans.

The Major League Soccer Players Union has released their latest update on Major League Soccer player salaries. David Beckham remains the highest paid player in Major League Soccer. As iron81 pointed out, Marko Maric is the highest paid player on the Chicago Fire. Thierry Henry, Rafael Marquez, Landon Donovan and Julian de Guzman round out the top 5 current MLS players.

Mexican national team striker (and former Chicago Fire player) Nery Castillo has been on loan to Aris FC in Greece since the beginning of the year. He is still Shakhtar Donetsk's player, although it is clear that he will never play for Mircea Lucescu again after his antics in a league match several seasons ago.

Mexican national team striker (and former Chicago Fire player) Nery Castillo has been on loan to Aris FC in Greece since the beginning of the year. He is still Shakhtar Donetsk's player, although it is clear that he will never play for Mircea Lucescu again after his antics in a league match several seasons ago.

Fire owner Andrew Hauptman -- Getty ImagesA losing season changes the tone of how a team conducts its business and weighs its values heading into the next campaign.
That is not to say that the Chicago Fire lost sight of the ultimate goal of attempting to put together a winning club during their sub-par 2010 season.

Photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com

By THOMAS FLOYD

As Sporting Kansas City ushers in what could be a defining era for soccer in the American heartland this season, the club's overhaul won't stop at its polarizing re-branding or new soccer-specific venue.

Chris Savino writes of the rising pay scale in Major League Soccer.

Major League Soccer has come a long way since the 2004 let alone 1996. The league's introduction of Freddy Adu brought about significant change to the scale of player salaries and compensation. The fourteen year old was the highest paid player at the time, prior to Landon Donovan returning to the league the following season.

A list of unique unibrows In an age of metrosexual footballers who spend more time at the salon than the training ground, OTP celebrates 10 players who snubbed plucking and waxing to maintain their magnificent monobrows. 1. Jose Bosingwa Think footballer with monobrow and you think Jose Bosingwa. Despite the amount of time he spends [.

One of Illinois' biggest industries has always been the coal industry. While never a big part of Chicago's direct business, coal has been a part of the state's economy since the early 1800's. My fellow Chicago historians should check out the history of coal mining in Braidwood near Joliet, but the main reason for bringing this up is the canaries.

Chicago, IL On January 20, 2011, the Chicago Fire reported that Nery Castillo would be joining Greek club Aris FC. Apparently, Castillo wasn't all that Aris received from the Fire. The Fire also provided Aris with a memorandum containing sample press conference responses. According to team sources, the Fire received this memorandum from officials at Manchester City and they apparently received a copy from Shaktar Donetsk and paid to translate it into English.

The Chicago Fire have re-signed Dasan Robinson. Frank Klopas said:

"We value Dasan's commitment to the Fire and are very excited to have him back for his sixth season with the club," said Fire Technical Director Frank Klopas. "Dasan is a hard working, versatile defender who brings a keen understanding of the game and a strong defensive mindset to our back line.

Guillermo Rivera has an outstanding piece up on Julian Posada - Posada Has A Full Plate Going Into 2011 Season. Rivera breaks out a list of things that should be implemented like a team store at Toyota Park, honoring the team's history, jersey sponsor and much more. I'd call this a 'must-read'.

Soccer by Ives had a couple of must read Tweets today - first one:

Chicago Fire finally announces Nery Castillo loan to Aris (MLS paperwork slowed announcement).

More photos » Jonathan Daniel - Getty Images

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I was very hesitant to report that Nery Castillo had been loaned out to Aris FC by the Chicago Fire when the news broke yesterday because it seemed like every new day brought a new story about Nery Castillo going to a new Greek team.

Update

It's official, the Union have signed Faryd Mondragon and Carlos Valdes. From the announcement on the Union website:

"We are very happy to have agreed to deals with both Faryd and Carlos," said Team Manager Peter Nowak. "It is great to have an experienced player, such as Faryd, show his desire and commitment to become a member of the Philadelphia Union family.

Update

It's official, the Union have signed Faryd Mondragon and Carlos Valdes. From the announcement on the Union website:

"We are very happy to have agreed to deals with both Faryd and Carlos," said Team Manager Peter Nowak. "It is great to have an experienced player, such as Faryd, show his desire and commitment to become a member of the Philadelphia Union family.

Some jackoff, a couple of days ago:
Quote: I would assume the short answer is no. Angel was an early example of a Production DP as opposed to a Publicity DP, and the Galaxy exclusively specialize in the latter. I would be shocked if Angel got Designated Player money. MLS, like WWE, tends to use the word "superstar" fairly freely, but I don't think JPA qualifies in this context.

MLS has undergone a pretty drastic transformation right before our very eyes this offseason, one that has left me asking, "Where have all the stars gone?" alla Hershey's Cookies and Cream commercials circa 1998. Many of the league's big name stars have hit the road for various reasons, leaving behind an opportunity for many of the leagues budding young talents to take their place.

Nery Castillo's time with the Fire appears to be over

News just hitting that Castillo has been loaned out to Greek side Aris FC. It looks like the loan will take him through his loan contract with the Fire. Which leaves us even shorter at forward. I hope Frank plans on making some signings very soon.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

After parting ways with Freddie Ljungberg earlier in the off-season, it appears the Chicago Fire will begin the 2011 season without either of its 2010 Designated Players.

According to reports in Mexico and Greece, Mexican striker Nery Castillo is set to join Greek club Aris FC on a loan for the rest of the European season.

Reports surfaced last week that Nery Castillo was attempting to engineer a loan deal back to Greek club Aris FC. A post on Castillo's Facebook page mentioned a possible move but Aris' manager Hector Cuper quickly shot down the suggestion a few days later saying

"The road has not opened. Castillo is neither close nor far from Aris.

Brian Phillips of the Run of Play wrote a wonderful portrait about Pato a few years back, focusing on the fine line between potential and accomplishment. He articulated the "Lolita theory of fanlove" we as fans project dreams and hopes upon a talented youthful player, long before we've seen proof or evidence to support our assertions.

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.

Charlie Corr has a great draft primer with some quotes from Frank Klopas. The quotes from Klopas are not really anything new but I did take special notice of the quote at the end from Carlos de los Cobos.

Carlos is in a different place from the beginning," Klopas said. "He knows the league and the players now, and we're trying to bring in good soccer players to help on the field.

There are a couple of good stories on the Chicago Fire, Section 8, and everything Chicago soccer that should not be missed. Let's start with Guillermo Rivera of Fire Confidential with some quotes from Frank Klopas. On the players taking part in the MLS SuperDraft Combine right now, Klopas had this to say:

These players have been off for a few months so it's tough to judge guys on these games, we've seen most of them before now so we're looking for the best fit based on who's available when we pick.