PIECES ARE IN PLACE
FIRE LOOK LIKE A CONTENDER AFTER SOLID OFFSEASON, BUT NOW THEY NEED TO GO OUT AND PROVE IT
By any metric, the Fire had a productive offseason. They’ve remade their backline, gotten rid of expensive mistakes, added impact players with Major League Soccer experience, signed a legitimate striker and even returned to the traditional red home uniforms to fully reverse their disastrous 2019 rebrand.
But they know they won’t be awarded any trophies for enjoying a good winter.
“We have many ingredients,” sporting director Georg Heitz said Tuesday, “but again, now we have to also prove it in the regular season in MLS games.”
The latter has been the troubling part for the Fire, who open the season Saturday night at the Philadelphia Union. They’ve entered previous seasons with legitimate reasons for optimism after making seemingly shrewd decisions, but the results have been poor.
Midfielder Kellyn Acosta, who along with designated player striker Hugo Cuypers was formally introduced Tuesday, has noticed the Fire’s struggles. A stalwart for the U.S. men’s national team, Acosta was arguably the best free agent available this winter and has been in MLS since the 2013 season.
In that time, Acosta has won four trophies, including the 2022 MLS Cup with Los Angeles FC, while the Fire have appeared in one playoff game. Last year, they finished three points out of an Eastern Conference playoff spot after firing coach Ezra Hendrickson in May.
“I’m going to be completely transparent, I think if we’re going to be honest, where the club has been in the last few years just hasn’t been where we want it to be,” Acosta said. “I mean, I think that was the initial and most transparent approach. But as I was going through the conversation with the coaching staff and front office, and seeing the additions that they are adding and how much ambition the club wants to go and where they want to be, this is a project that I wanted to be a part of, [to help] put the club back where it needs to be and should be.”
To do that, Heitz tweaked his team-building approach and parted with busts Jairo Torres, Kacper Przybylko and Miguel Navarro.
Though Cuypers and presumed new starting defenders Allan Arigoni and Tobias Salquist are new to MLS, Heitz seemed to prioritize players familiar with the league. New first-choice defender Andrew Gutman — a former Fire academy player — was brought in along with reserve forward Tom Barlow and left back Chase Gasper.
Combined with Acosta and the healthy return of attacker Chris Mueller, the Fire added players who won’t need an MLS education. Heitz, who controversially was retained by owner Joe Mansueto, also implied his MLS education took time.
“It is clear how the turnover takes a bit of time, when you make a mistake, and we’ve made a couple of mistakes. I’ve made a couple of mistakes,” Heitz said. “It takes time to correct the whole thing. But I am very confident that this year we will have a really strong side.”
So is coach Frank Klopas, whose interim tag was removed in December.
“I’m not here just to sneak into the playoffs,” Klopas said. “If that’s the case, I’d be on the sideline enjoying family time with my wife and summer times in the Greek islands. I came back. I love the club. I will do whatever it takes to help this club and I’m here because I want to win.”
Save for the part about the Greek islands, Fire players, coaches and executives have said the same things before. The Fire hope Tuesday’s words from Heitz, Klopas and Acosta aren’t proven hollow.