The Chicago Fire after struggling the past four seasons and under manager Veljo Paunovic going into his third campaign in the helm of the Men in Red. in 2017 the Fire saw a notable improvement and finished in third place in the Eastern Conference. Finally, the Fire broke their four-year drought of making it into the postseason.
The unfortunate side for the Fire was their early elimination in the knockout rounds from the New York Red Bulls to a 4-0 final score and going home early in the 2017 league postseason.
However, for manager Vlejo Paunovic is business as usual and looking forward to tackle more challenges in this upcoming 2018 as well have return his squad to the grand fete of the postseason and make a possible run to the league finals. Still this squad has to focus on one challenge at a time and looking forward to return to its old glory days that netted them the league shield as an expansion team.
This campaign the clubs after last campaign getting all sorts of headlines after getting a monster deal in Bastian Schweinsteiger to contribute for the Fire and being an important piece of this club all around revival.
The good news is that the German international will make a return to the Fire in this 2018 as he stated to take care of some unfinished business.
As life goes on in the Fire camp after the news of former goalkeeper great and Real Madrid great Iker Casillas announcing his negative of joining them in this 2018 campaign as well Colombian midfielder Juan Quintero joining Argentinian side River Plate.
So far in the preseason the Windy City squad has been hard at work in recruiting the right players via draft or acquisition, as in tis past draft the Fire got a hold of Barcelona great son Jon Bakero as a forward. In addition, other two rookies are midfielder Mo Addams selected as Generation Adidas and defender Grant Lillard as Homegrown Player.
With last campaign roster returning in its majority, the arrivals of midfielder international in Serbian Aleksandor Katai from Spain La Liga Deportivo Alaves is to call Chicago home along with Portuguese defender Rafael Ramos coming from Orlando FC.
These two will join a constellation of returning starts in Luis Solignac, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Dax McCarty re-signed, Johan Kappelhof, Nemanja Nikolic and Michael De Leew to mention a few in the new 2018 Chicago Fire.
At the end, this club will be among the top headliners in the campaign with its returning firepower and newly acquired players to make front in what every campaign in Major League Soccer shows off a very heated competition.
Do not call this squad quitter as they are embracing a tough competition from their conference foes and once again renewing their rivalries with the Crew and the New York squads. As the opening of the 2018 campaign is 23 days away the Fire maybe can get a couple more players from Europe or South America to build on a contender.
Still the way this club can finish in the campaign if it keeps a healthy squad and especially with Schweinsteiger healthy we may see a notable campaign and trophies heading to Toyota Park. a finish in their conference will be around third or fourth places.
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Photos Credit and Property of Chicago Fire Football Club 2018
Photos Credit and Property of © 2018 Major League Soccer
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