Rekindle Fire tradition ... starting with Klopas
Tradition. Honor. Passion.
Those three words comprise the Fire’s club motto. They’re in the locker room, on the stadium facade — and sources say they might even be on the players’ jerseys next season.
Take away tradition, and the Fire is left with honor and passion.
Frank Klopas, the Fire’s interim head coach/technical director, and player personnel director Mike Jeffries are the club’s last link to its past. After going 8-5-10 since replacing Carlos de los Cobos as coach on Memorial Day, Klopas deserves to be named coach on a full-time basis.
Before the Fire hired de los Cobos as coach a year and a half ago, the expansion Philadelphia Union grabbed Peter Nowak — the Fire’s first captain from the legendary 1998 double-championship team that also included Klopas — to become coach. Now the Union is among the Eastern Conference’s best teams, and Nowak is established in Philadelphia, unlikely to abandon what he’s built.
He’s got company there. Fellow Fire Original Diego Gutierrez hired on with the Union as head of scouting and player development.
Tom Soehn is the director of player personnel for the Vancouver Whitecaps, and until Wednesday Soehn had former Fire coach Denis Hamlett on staff as an assistant coach. Jesse Marsch recently signed to coach the Montreal Impact, set to join MLS next year, and added Mike Sorber as an assistant.
Their old Fire coach, Bob Bradley, was available for a while this summer, having lost his job in July as U.S. national team coach. He had his greatest success with the Fire, but he’s off the market, coaching Egypt’s national team.
C.J. Brown retired as a player last year and almost immediately found a job as an assistant coach — with Real Salt Lake, which couldn’t sign him quickly enough.
They all played or coached in the Fire’s glory days. They helped form the Fire’s winning tradition.
U.S. legend Brian McBride retired as a Fire player last year also, and he still lives in Arlington Heights. He has no official link with his old club, however, and if he’s been to Toyota Park this season, he’s been very discreet about it.
It’s too bad. McBride would make a great goodwill ambassador for the Fire, much like Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull are now for the Blackhawks.
That none of these former Fire players and coaches except Klopas and Jeffries has a relationship with the Fire is a bad sign for a club that used to be seen as one of the most sought-after destinations in MLS.
Carlos Bocanegra, Bakary Soumare, DaMarcus Beasley and Chris Rolfe are still playing in Europe or Mexico, and they have their summers off for the most part. The Fire should bring them back for a game to wave to the fans and sign autographs.
It’s almost like the Fire has become allergic to its past. Under owner Andrew Hauptman and Andell Holdings’ Javier Leon the past four years, the club seems to have disowned its history. It seems to want to forge a new tradition, leaving the old one behind.
But in the last two seasons the club has lost its most important tradition of all: winning. Never before had the Fire missed the playoffs two consecutive seasons. This year was just the third in the club’s history.
Take away winning, and there’s not going to be as much passion, which would explain this season’s drop in attendance from 2010.
Bring back the Fire’s tradition, starting with Klopas.
oschwarz@dailyherald.com
Follow Orrin Schwarz on Twitter @orrinsoccer.