Marked for Ivan Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Jul 2041
Viktor Radojević damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match6 Jul 2041
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market8 Jul 2041
Michael Howard has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chicago Fire they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Jul 2041
Words at Chicago Fire training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nazareno Kihm is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match6 Jul 2041
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Chicago Fire can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad8 Jul 2041
Louay Labidi 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 ratings8 Jul 2041
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Jul 2041
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Ramirez and Chicago Fire agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom8 Jul 2041
Chicago Fire sign 7 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 May 2041
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad20 May 2041
Ivan Ramirez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chicago Fire have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 May 2041
Puso Dithejane 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 ratings20 May 2041
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 May 2041
Nazareno Kihm 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.
Match18 May 2041
0‑2 to Columbus Crew, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Apr 2041
Houston Dynamo are out and Chicago Fire go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match3 Apr 2041
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Houston Dynamo spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings8 Apr 2041
A brace, and Aaron Morris takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aaron Morris provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings8 Apr 2041
Walker Bradley could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.25
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.25, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Squad8 Apr 2041
363 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Chicago Fire know what they have.
Player ratings8 Apr 2041
Age has not caught Puso Dithejane yet — 8.02
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market8 Apr 2041
Only the photograph left for Carlos Borda
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlos Borda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chicago Fire the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Apr 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chicago Fire this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Apr 2041
Words at Chicago Fire training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nazareno Kihm is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Feb 2041
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chicago Fire, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Feb 2041
Puso Dithejane 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.