Sam Tillman

Central Defender - Chicago Fire U18
18 Mar 2028
Saturday
Process

Marked for Sam Tillman

46 Edition

The Chicago Fire Post

14 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Anton Salétros breaks a bone — 19 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Tempers go at Chicago Fire

Philip Zinckernagel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Player ratings

Maren Haile-Selassie runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

One of our own: Sam Tillman joins the Chicago Fire first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sam Tillman is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Squad

Dean Boltz falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Market

Talks stall between Chicago Fire and Dean Boltz

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

The dugout

Luca Ferreira on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Luca Ferreira after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

The dugout

Logan Farrington left out for tactical reasons at Chicago Fire

The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

The dugout

André Franco gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say André Franco is on it.

In brief