Soehn enjoys expansion club challenge in MLS
When Tom Soehn's team returns to Chicago, “It's always a major reunion for me.”
On Saturday the Arlington Heights native and former Fire player and assistant coach came back with his new pro soccer club, the expansion Vancouver Whitecaps. The Whitecaps earned their first road point in club history in a 0-0 draw.
“It's been good,” Soehn said in the Toyota Park press box before Saturday's game. “Obviously, being an expansion franchise, there's a lot to do, like getting ready for MLS. It's a lot of fun building it, putting your handprint on something.”
As director of soccer operations, Soehn's handprints are all over the Whitecaps. It's his job to build the club from the ground up and try to win an MLS Cup.
“Mainly assessing where our roster was and advancing to this point and so many other things internally, like the salary cap, which is so difficult,” Soehn said. “There's no manual to get you through that. I'm kind of educating our office on how to deal with all that. It's been a lot of fun.”
Off to a tough start, Vancouver has a long way to go to win the Cup this season. But Soehn has seen it done before, way back in 1998 when he was a player in Chicago.
“You always have high expectations when you build something,” he said. “Everyone's looking for success early. But you also have to be realistic about being new. It's not every year like the Chicago franchise won the double in its first year as an expansion franchise. That's kind of the bar, so you try to live up to that. I was part of that.”
Soehn came to the Fire from the Dallas Burn in 1998, the season the expansion Fire won the MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup double. He retired after the 2000 season, becoming an assistant coach.
After leaving the Fire, Soehn, 45, became the D.C. United coach in 2007 but was let go after the 2009 season. He was available when the Fire looked to replace Denis Hamlett, but he took the Vancouver job.
“Yeah, there was some talk about (becoming the Fire coach),” Soehn said. “There's a couple of things you always want to accomplish, and I think starting a franchise was something I always wanted to do. You always have a feeling of coming back home here too. Being a part of the Fire organization, you just never know.”
Now he's not only making the transition to living in Canada but to being in the front office.
“It's been so busy that I don't know that I've even had time to reflect,” Soehn said of that transition. “It's helped me become stronger in the field because I've learned another area. It's been a challenge, but I've really enjoyed the challenge.”
Whether he'll ever return to the sidelines, he doesn't know.
“I think you always keep your options open, but I've truly enjoyed it,” he said. “I think Vancouver, the organization's fantastic, from ownership to the people you work with day in and day out. It's a first-class organization, so from that standpoint I've really enjoyed myself.”