Last summer, the Chicago Fire had zero players named to the MLS All-Star game. The previous season, when the club hosted the exhibition, versus Real Madrid at Soldier Field, they had four. Bastian Schweinsteiger was one member of that quartet, and he will return to the Major League Soccer showcase this summer, when the MLS All-Stars take on Atletico Madrid in Orlando on July 31.
It’s the second ASG nod in three seasons for Schweinsteiger, who has started in 16 of the team’s first 17 matches in 2019.
It’s the sixth MLS All-Star game berth for the Fire since 2016, after a drought that saw them land zero players in the game from 2011-2015.
Schweinsteiger, a natural midfielder, has been forced into the back line due to the club’s severe issues in central defense. Sound familiar? Yes, both the current and most recent former team of Schweinsteiger have some real problems at centre back.
It hasn’t been the greatest of seasons for the Chicago Fire, who currently sit eighth in the MLS Eastern Conference table, just outside the playoff positions at the midway point of the campaign. Like Manchester United, they are a side that has spent handsomely on player personnel, has accumulated a lot of talent, but has also vastly under-achieved.
Stellar midfielder Dax McCarty, always good for a candid assessment of the situation, said the following Saturday night upon being asked to analyze the first half of the term.
“I think we’re all a little bit disappointed, a little bit frustrated with the first half of the season. We expect more,” McCarty said after the Fire drew 1-1 with lowly Real Salt Lake this past weekend.
“Let me put it as simple as I possibly can: we expect more out of ourselves in this locker room and I know that there’s more out there for us. Not the result we wanted tonight, definitely a frustrated locker room again, which has kind of been the little bit of the theme of the season.”
“Got a little bit of momentum there a couple weeks back and then it’s kind of, you know, it’s dissipated a little bit and now that big break and losing in the Open Cup and now drawing, it feels like we’ve got to get going again.”
“Look, I know that there’s frustration in the locker room, outside the locker room, you know, we expect more of ourselves and we have 17 games to make it better.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, also contributes to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.