Chicago Fire vs. Chivas USA & Player Salaries

For those of you dying to see some video footage from the Fire's preseason match against Chivas USA, wait no more. Here's a quick little video that captured both Chicago goals from the first half. McBride's goal is really nice and it shows that his presence this year will be very crucial in Chicago's run at the MLS CUP.



An updated list of the 2009 Chicago Fire Player Salaries can be seen below. Currently it only shows 21 salaries because the final roster is slowly coming together. Not listed is Stefan Dimitrov, who officially signed last week. That leaves two open spots. One of them will probably go to Tim Ward, mostly due to the fact that he's been getting a serious amount of playing time. That leaves one spot open, but according to Roman Kashuba(Chicago Fire Examiner), there's a couple more options that some might not expect:

"My money is on Tim Ward making the final roster based on his playing time in the last couple of matches, but don’t rule out the possibility of Peter Lowry being cut in favor of Richard Jata. And don’t be too surprised to see the out-of-left-field waiver of the ageing Brandon Prideaux’s relatively expensive contract ($72K) for a bargain like Austin Washington ($12.9K)."

2009 Base Salary - 2009 Guaranteed Compensation

1. Cuauhtemoc Blanco - M ($2,769,240.00 - $2,943,702.00)
2. Brian McBride - F ($360,000.00 - $385,333.33)
3. Justin Mapp - M ($220,000.00 - $255,000.00)
4. Wilman Conde - D ($168,000.00 - $188,000.00)
5. Patrick Nyarko - F ($80,000.00 - $160,000.00)
6. Bakary Soumare - D ($105,000.00 - $138,000.00)
7. Jon Busch - GK ($105,000.00 - $106,250.00)
8. Chris Rolfe - F ($95,550.00 - $100,250.00)
9. Logan Pause - M ($95,403.00 - $97,903.00)
10. Baggio Husidic - M ($55,000.00 - $97,000.00)
11. C.J. Brown - D ($91,200.00 - $96,000.00)
12. Brandon Prideaux - D ($75,600.00 - $75,600.00)
13. Calen Carr - F ($58,410.00 - $70,910.00)
14. John Thorrington - M ($63,000.00 - $64,875.00)
15. Gonzalo Segares - D ($61,519.50 - $64,019.50)
16. Dasan Robinson - D ($46,856.25 - $46,856.25)
17. Marco Pappa - M ($42,000.00 - $42,000.00)
18. Daniel Woolard - D ($34,000.00 - $34,000.00)
19. Michael Banner - D ($34,000.00 - $34,000.00)
20. Nick Noble - GK ($34,000.00 - $34,000.00)
21. Peter Lowry - M ($20,100.00 - $20,100.00)
22. Still Open
23. Still Open
24. Still Open

* Players in Red - Do Not Affect The Salary Cap