SuperDraft 2013 Aftermath

So on Thursday the SuperDraft came and went and here is a little recap of the action that we saw the past couple days:

• Fire traded pick #11, allocation money, and international slot to Colorado for Jeff Larentowicz and pick #30 on Wednesday.
• The Fire in turn selected Yazid Atouba Emane with pick #30. Good pick because we are thin on the wing position. Various reports say he is still rough and needs time to develop, but at 20 years old he possesses good speed and technical ability. He apparently had a good week at the combine. You can read up on the Cameroonian youth player here.
• Rumblings at the draft had Columbus and the Fire talking trade potentially involing Oduro from the Fire and Duka from the Crew.
• Other rumblings from the Fire camp is that Pardo is contemplating retiring within the next couple weeks. This makes the Larentowicz trade make sense. Pardo being 36 and Jeff L.(yeah I'm not used to his last name so I'm going to call him Jeff L.) only 29, makes Jeff a capable replacement. I hope that Jeff does well and we can forget about his history with the Revolution.
• With the trade that brought Jeff L. and the trade that brought us Lindpere we gave up 2 of our international slots. The Fire currently have 6 international slots and 5 are filled with Tornaghi, Macdonald, Alex, Friedrich, and Pardo. If our draft pick makes the team, which it sounds like he may, then he will also occupy an international slot.

Well that's all for now, stay tuned for more musing here and over at Hot Time in Old Town in the coming weeks as training camps begin league wide and the possibility of more trades and signings.

Squad Depth????

So I'll make this really quick. Thanks to Guillermo Rivera for pointing it out over at Fire Confidential, apparently the Fire are sending Alvaro Fernandez to Al Rayyan of the Qatar Stars League. To make a long story short if true, this leaves the Fire with 1 true winger in Patrick Nyarko. Frank and company better have something up their sleeve because that leaves an opening in the starting line up on the wing. With the current roster we have, in my opinion, we do not have someone that can fill that position. Some will say put Oduro out wide and I say no, he is in no way a winger that can cross effectively and create chances like Nyarko. Maybe put Pause out there? No thanks, he does not have the pace to match some of the outside backs in this league. Rolfe? Well we already tried that when Hamlett was around and that worked to a point and we are better off with Rolfe up top period. So what do the Fire do? What ever it is they now have another open international slot open and a mess of cap space freed up. Fire it is now your move and hopefully you get something done before the season starts on March 3rd. Well keep looking here and over at HTIOT for more of my musings.

The Fire Makes a Move and Some Other Stuff

So the Fire made their first roster move of 2013. They traded a international roster spot to New Jersey for their Estonian midfielder Joel Lindpere. You can read all about it here. To me this is a good move. I'm not going to use the term "great" because we still have to wait and see how it actually works on the field. In the meantime I'll explain why it is a good move. Lindpere gives that box to box mid that could work well with either Pause or Pardo. He is a definite work horse that has experience in the league and also plenty of international experience with the Estonian national team. With this move he gives us more depth in the middle of the park so possibly we can move away from that 2 defensive mid formation. He also has a green card which is a definite bonus. Hopefully this works out for the team and pushes us into a better position than last year.

Well one thing that I have to point out with this club is their ambition. When Javier Leon talked about the acquisition of Lindpere here, his quote was:

"Joel is a versatile, dependable player that has proven himself in MLS,” said Fire President of Soccer Operations Javier Leon. “He will provide a dynamic presence to our team in 2013 as we look to return to the MLS Cup Playoffs.”

Now this quote is coming from the president of soccer operations and my thing is are the goals of the Fire remaining the same as last season? Last season's goal was to make the playoffs and they did by limping in and then crashing out. Leon says they look to return to the playoffs? Why not look into winning back the Open Cup or challenging for the supporters shied? Why is just getting into the playoffs good enough? Is this a case of setting your goals low so they are easier to achieve? Enough about that.

Now that the Fire have made a move they still have to add depth along the back line. I'm guessing they will be adding this depth through the draft and also hoping that those that were drafted last year are ready to become capable backups to the starters. We will see as the Fire look to start camp in a couple weeks.

One more thing, while I was watching the United vs. West Ham FA Cup tie earlier in the afternoon, I wondered to myself, why the Fire did not throw an offer towards Joe Cole? At 31 and still capable of playing at a high level he could have been that DP to take the Fire's midfield and make it one of the strongest on the league. Plus he was available on a free transfer non the less. Then I remembered he is not #keanelikemoney or #puppolikemoney.

Well that's all from me tonight, keep looking for musings from me here and also over at HTIOT.