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Chicago Fire’s midweek training: 3 takeaways from Week 1

By John Carollo III

CARSON, CA - MARCH 2: C.J. Sapong #9 of Chicago Fire celebrates his goal during the Los Angeles Galaxy's MLS match against Chicago Fire at the Dignity Health Sports Park on March 2, 2019 in Carson, California. Los Angeles Galaxy won the match 2-1 (Photo by Shaun Clark/Getty Images)
CARSON, CA - MARCH 2: C.J. Sapong #9 of Chicago Fire celebrates his goal during the Los Angeles Galaxy's MLS match against Chicago Fire at the Dignity Health Sports Park on March 2, 2019 in Carson, California. Los Angeles Galaxy won the match 2-1 (Photo by Shaun Clark/Getty Images) /
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CARSON, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 02: Diego Campos #17 of Chicago Fire handles the ball in the game against the Los Angeles Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park on March 02, 2019 in Carson, California. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
CARSON, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 02: Diego Campos #17 of Chicago Fire handles the ball in the game against the Los Angeles Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park on March 02, 2019 in Carson, California. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images) /

1. Solving the foreign crisis

The Jorge Corrales calamity is compounded by the fact that the Chicago Fire actually have a starting-caliber left-back, but he was unable to play in the last game because he is technically loaned out to the USL League One club, Lansing United — I say ‘technically’ because I don’t think he’s going to play a single game for them. According to reports, Raheem Edwards took a knock late in the preseason. so it’s safe to assume that he wouldn’t be playing if he didn’t have to. He could have been on the bench, but the Fire have a different problem: There are not enough international slots.

According to league rules, each MLS team is allowed eight international slots, with the ability to trade them around if they want. The Fire currently have nine slots and 11 players who qualify as foreign. This means that they do not have US citizenship and/or an American green card. A lack of slots has been a thorn in the Fire’s side for a couple of seasons, as they wasted slots on plenty of players who never performed or even played.

Recently, further rumors of two brand new signings coming in for the Fire have surfaced, both of which are foreign, Nicolas Gaitan and Joakim Nilsson. How can the Fire keep bringing on new foreign players if they can barely handle the ones they have? Simple. Some players need to get green cards. There are a couple of players who have been in America long enough to be eligible for a green card, players like Mo Adams, Diego Campos, and Elliott Collier. Collier is already loaned out along with Edwards, but I think that in order to get the most out of this squad until the green cards come through, Mo should be sent down and Edwards called up. Whatever the case, the Fire have an international slot problem, one that needs to be solved.

Next. Chicago Fire: The Mo Adams connection, through his eyes. dark

That was this week’s midweek training session. Nothing to worry about at the moment, just a few minor tweaks. Time to get ready for Orlando City at SeatGeek Stadium on Saturday, March 9th at 12:00 PM CST.

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