With Veljko Paunovic and Bastian Schweinsteiger back ... the Chicago Fire will hope 2019 looks a lot more like two years ago than last season.
If injuries stay away and the defense holds up, the Fire will be expecting a playoff game come October. With Schweinsteiger and Dax McCarty holding down the base of midfield behind Aleksandar Katai, Djordje Mihailovic, Przemyslaw Frankowski and Nemanja Nikolic, the club boast a mighty strong front six.
Star players
Key acquisitions and departures
- IN: Przemyslaw Frankowski
- IN: Marcelo
- IN: David Ousted
- OUT: Brandon Vincent
- OUT: Matt Polster
- OUT: Michael de Leeuw
Projected Starting XI
Team strengths and weaknesses
- Strength: The front six. The midfield has everything: World Cup winner, legendary MLS No. 6 and an upstart Homegrown No. 10 pushing his way into the USMNT. The attack has a former Golden Boot winner, frequent scorer of golazos and new face with great promise.
- Weakness: The back five. The starting fullbacks from a heady 2017 are gone. They signed a new center back and re-signed another one. New goalkeeper, too. It may not fix their issues. If they give up 60+ goals like last year, forget about the playoffs.
Predictions
- Ben Baer: 8th in East
- Calen Carr: 10th in East
- Charlie Davies: 11th in East
- Matt Doyle: 6th in East
- Bobby Warshaw: 5th in East
- Andrew Wiebe: 8th in East
