Friday, February 27, 2009

Chicago Fire Return Home (Bonus Video)

The Chicago Fire returned home yesterday, where they will stay, until departing for California on March 2nd. I've been hearing some rumors about who is "in" and who is "out", but I don't want to say anything until it's official. However, if you asked me to name the 24 players who will be on the 2009 Fire roster, I could probably name 23 right now, with the final spot still up for grabs. With very little being advertised on the Fire website and En Fuego Blog, I thought I'd take a little time to talk about the lack of media coverage for several teams throughout the MLS.

It seems like there are a lot of people out there who want to know more about the players, the clubs and the recent draftees, but for some reason the MLS is slacking in the media department. I've been following the Fire website and Blog a lot this preseason, and for the most part, its been somewhat disappointing. I was looking at the Seattle Sounders website the other day, and for a team that just started this year, they really have their s**t together. The site looks great, they interview several players, show several video clips and they also have their own analyst constantly giving updates. The quality of the footage is the best I've seen yet. For a fan and a big follower of the MLS, I really hope they start putting some more effort into preseason footage down the road. Some teams are so secretive about what they are doing, but it's really not helping them gain exposure. It's also a huge turnoff to supporters. Hopefully coverage throughout the entire league picks up quickly because it's really getting annoying looking at the same updates for days and days.

While we're waiting for something new to read about, I thought I'd show you one of my favorite clips of Richard Jata from his time at Campbell. This clip is also in the Highlight Video I put together, but it shows a lot in a very little amount of time and that's why I wanted to show it on it's own. Notice his quickness, the use of his left foot and his ability to find the open player with very little effort.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely agree re: Seattle's website, and wish the Fire would provide similar pre-season coverage. As for how little information they've been putting on the site and En Fuego this year, the sad thing is this year is more than they've done the past three years combined.

Have really enjoyed your blog so far. Keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

En Fuego could use your help. We all would like to know more about what's going on with Jata and the rest of the team. Good job, Ben.

Anonymous said...

I took a few of the Fire rookies out today for lunch at La Madia in Chicago; one just happened to be Richard Jata (the other Baggio Husidic). I will say that both looked like they had been an incredible pre-season in terms of looking fit.