It’s very early, and the Major League Soccer season is definitely a marathon, not a sprint, but the Chicago Fire FC are off to a very solid start under new head coach Ezra Hendrickson. Led by midfield maestro and off-season splash signing Xherdan Shaqiri, and extremely young, but very talented goalkeeper Gaga Slonina (otherwise known as Gabriel Slonina, the Fire are currently off to their best four-game start since 2009.
You’ll recall that season as the last time that the Fire made a good postseason run, as they reached the MLS Cup semifinals that term.
They haven’t made the playoffs since 2017, the first season of the Bastian Schweinsteiger era.
While the final third hasn’t exactly been exhilarating, the overall product has been much better lately than what we’ve come to expect from the Chicago Fire FC lately. This is especially so in the backline where newly-arrived center back Rafael Czichos is receiving whole lot of praise for helping to keep things steady these.
With the fewest goals allowed (1) in the league, the Men in Red are getting it done with defense. Three clean sheets in four games, it marks the first time they’ve had back-to-back shut outs since September of 2020.
With two wins and two draws in four games, the Fire are currently third in the MLS Eastern Conference.
Slonina, the home grown 17-year-old who is wanted by several of the richest and biggest clubs in the world, including Chelsea FC, is a big reason for the turnaround. Of course, don’t expect Slonina, who is still eligible to play for both the United States and the Poland national youth teams, to leaving anytime soon.
And of course, given what’s currently going on with Chelsea, signing anybody new is going to be pretty difficult for them.
“We don’t really talk about it much with my agent,” Slonina said to the MLS in house podcast earlier this month when asked about transfer rumors.
“I’m usually just telling him how I’m feeling every single day. We have such a good connection about that type of stuff. I know he’s working his hardest for me and I’m working my hardest to continue to get those offers. … I like to keep all that stuff out and just focus on the next game because obviously the next one’s the most important.”
With the next big thing in goal, and a defense that seemingly has improved, and this time we mean it, perhaps the turnaround is actually for real this time. Now they’ve just got to figure out how to take’s Shaqiri’s creativity and threats to the opposition in the attacking third and turn those into goals.
The next chance to do so will come on Saturday, April 2 when they host FC Dallas.
Led by USMNT players Paul Arriola and Jesus Ferreira (both of whom just scored in the USA’s 5-1 drubbing of Panama which all but clinched World Cup qualification), FC Dallas (2-1-1, 7 points) is off to a solid start as well.
So it should be an exciting one this weekend.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.