We don’t know yet whether Bastian Schweinsteiger will be around for the Joe Mansueto era of the Chicago Fire, but the German is fired up for what’s to come.
Yesterday saw the Fire officially eliminated from MLS Cup playoff contention, and the final game in Bridgeview. Now it’s back to the city and a return to Soldier Field. Although the Fire still have one game left, on the road at Orlando City, it has little to no meaning. Time to have 2020 vision with a new owner and new (sort of) home.
“I think, first of all, that the city of Chicago has a huge potential. I think it’s great that Joe [Mansueto] got in that position as well,” Schweinsteiger said after the Fire drew 2-2 with Toronto FC.
“He wants to change, for sure, some things and of course, at Soldier Field, we’re going to there next season. But you need to improve and for sure, not everything was ideal. I think that Joe is very smart and he will for sure make the right decisions.”
Mansueto, the founder and chairman of Chicago-based financial services company Morningstar, has said that he’s in awe of the 35-year-old Schweinsteiger, and naturally, would like the Deutschland football legend back for a fourth season.
However, Mansueto has also said that he he wants some young bucks and younger blood around Schweini as well. In terms of who is going to build and manage that roster, the new owner has said that he also wants GM Nelson Rodriguez and Coach Veljko Paunovic back as well.
That might change once he takes a deeper dive into what he has and what he doesn’t have in his new (sort of, he was 49% owner until purchasing the other 51% from Andrew Hauptman earlier this month) investment.
The arrival of Mansueto provides a breath of fresh air and a ray of hope in a club that suffered its second straight season of high hopes, big payroll and nothing to short for it. Like the Cubs, maybe if they could have found a way to get some wins over a less talented, lower paid team from Cincinnati, maybe they could have reached the postseason.
And while attendance was absolutely abysmal, almost all season long, the fans definitely came out, in spite of many reasons not to, for the Bridgeview finale.
Team Captain Dax McCarty, 32, always reliable for a great soundbite, summed it up best.
“The fans were unbelievable tonight, even with the Bears playing, we had, I don’t know the numbers, but probably one of the best turnouts of the season,” McCarty said.
“Weather was awful and they came out and it was probably the loudest I’ve heard the stadium all year.The fans wanted to send SeatGeek out on the right note and they did their jobs.”
“Unfortunately, the players, we just came up a little bit short, wanted to send this stadium off with a win and make sure that we have that good memory of the stadium even if we didn’t make the playoffs. But again, I think the story of the game is kind of the story of our season, right?”
Lot of opportunities kind of go by the wayside there and, you know, we can’t quite close it out. Disappointing for sure but extremely humbled and appreciative of just the turnout that our fans had tonight.”
The official match attendance was 17,748, despite a Bears home game taking place at the same time, and ugly weather conditions.
McCarty perfectly summated the disappointment, missed opportunities and talent squandered that defined the Chicago Fire’s 2019 season.
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.
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