Right around this time last season, Bastian Schweinsteiger left Manchester United and joined the Chicago Fire, giving the city its biggest sports news story this side of the Cubs winning the 2016 World Series.
The captain of the 2014 World Cup winning German National team, who accomplished the most on the club side of his career with Bayern Munich, arrived at O’Hare International Airport to a hero’s welcome.
He scored in his Major League Soccer debut, and led the Fire, a side that had finished dead last the previous two seasons, to the MLS playoffs. It was also their first postseason berth since 2012. Who could have seen that coming? Even those who make Premier League predictions for living probably would not have seen that coming.
Now a year later, Schweinsteiger is in his second season in the second city, and once again the Fire are struggling. They achieved their first point of the season last Saturday in a 2-2 draw with the Portland Timbers; with coach Veljko Paunovic admitting that this team is going to need time to get back to the level they were at last season.
The Fire take a 0-2-1 record into their home game against their rivals, Columbus Crew SC (3-1-1, 10 points), on Saturday.
You may see Schweinsteiger at a different spot, other than in his customary midfield role.
Last week, due to the Fire’s admitted issues in defense, the German icon was playing in the back line. He did a fine job too- completing a very high percentage of his passes, and registering assists on both of the Fire’s goals (scored by Nemanja Nikolic and Brandon Vincent).
“I think we didn’t start well and we struggled with the defensive line,” said Paunovic after the last game.
“After we switched to the different formation with Basti dropped in the line of three at the back, he did a fantastic job in organizing and giving proper instructions to our boys.”
“Again, our team struggles defensively. Struggles to understand, to switch from being the team that has the ball to the team that has to defend and to switch to that urgency that is required.”
Schweinsteiger described his role, and articulated how much he likes playing in the back line.
“I do like the position, it’s a position which is very important with the ball, against the ball,” the German said.
“It always depends on what’s best for the team. When we decide to play this, I play there. But also other players can play there and I always have to find the space where I can receive the ball if it’s on the right or left, so I try to hurry the game a little bit and depends always on the situation.”
Paunovic was pleased with his midfielder-turned-defender’s performance, and explained why the team badly needed Schweinsteiger to shift into this role.
It could also be the slot that where we see him the most moving forward.
“In the past, we showed that playing with Bastian in that role has functioned very well and today, not just today, we’re going to need him to be in this role until our defense gains confidence, order and the fluidity that we’re lacking,” said Pauno.
“I think today we’ve created opportunities that were clear goal-scoring opportunities and if you look at it again, in that role, Bastian has managed to provide two assists. His capacity is tremendous and we are conscious of what we have in our team and his capacity continues to help us. Truthfully, I see it as something very positive.”
Schweinsteiger discussed his making contributions to the offense from the back.
“That’s also the point, even from there, it doesn’t mean that you’re just watching the game from the back line,” he said.
“We also should take the responsibility from there, but not only me, also other players that are playing from the back line and take the ball and drive in and play the first pass.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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