Chicago Fire FC are looking for a new manager, yet again, as Ezra Hendrickson has just been sacked. Sporting Director Georg Heitz released an official statement, minutes ago, announcing the dismissal. The Fire, currently the penultimate side in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference, got off to a 2-5-3 start this season.
Picked to finish dead last, or very close to it by most preseason prognostications, the Fire are indeed living down to expectations. They are, with or without Ezra Hendrickson, exactly what we all anticipated they would be.
Confidence is at an all time low for the Fire. #cf97 pic.twitter.com/97P8LL7n5g
— Matt Knight (@mjknight14) February 19, 2023
Right now, they currently sit in 14th place out of 15 teams. In a league where a majority of the clubs make the playoffs, they are on track to miss the postseason for the fourth straight season.
Club legend Frank Klopas has now assumed managerial duties in the interim.
Additionally, the Club also sacked assistant coach Junior González, but assistant coach C.J. Brown and goalkeeper coach Zach Thornton will stay on.
“This was a difficult decision, but after careful consideration, we felt that a change was necessary at this time as we work toward our goal of advancing to the playoffs and competing for trophies,” a press release boiler plate kind of statement, attributed to Heitz, reads.
This was Hendrickson’s first head coaching job, anywhere, and it did not go well. The 51-year-old took over in late November of 2021, and in his only full season in charge, 2022, the team finished 12th out of 14 clubs. Yes, the club was awful during the short time that Ezra Hendrickson was in charge, but it’s obvious that the actual problem with the Men in Red goes above his paygrade.
Heitz will now be on to his third managerial hire, as he badly whiffed on his first two.
Raphael Wicky was the other, and his “era” was also short, and devoid of any success. No matter who the manager is, the Fire still have a lot to do in terms of roster rebuild, and that is on Heitz, who has missed badly on all five of his designated players.
Sorry to say that about Xherdan Shaqiri, but it is true. He’s the biggest name and most expensive of all the DPs, and he’s fallen well short of expectations.
You can’t really point to a single specific individual player as being a big time star right now (because again, Shaqiri has been a bit of a flop), or to someone who will actually draw people to the stadium en masse. Or inspire people to buy kits with their name on it, for that matter.
Ezra Hendrickson won 15 trophies as a player and assistant coach in Major League Soccer before he came to CF97. He won nothing here, and it’s not hard to understand why- the roster he had to work with was a mess.
It’s not just the fault of Heitz either. The club’s Technical Director Sebastian Pelzer is failing in his role as well. His player scouting and evaluation body of work, as a whole, has greatly missed the park.
If Heitz and Pelzer aren’t on the hot seat now, to turn things around, then this club is a joke.
The pressure has to be on them to make things happen, especially so with Heitz, who has been given plenty of time to do so. If he isn’t on a short lease, then what is the club even doing? Are they even really trying? To paraphrase Monty Python, when will those responsible for the sackings be sacked?
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.