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Fire Front Office: Yallop To Hire Clint Mathis?

Rumors are surfacing that Frank Yallop has found the final piece to his coaching puzzle.

By Mark O'Rourke
Ronald Martinez

Last night, Ives Galarcep from Soccer By Ives sent out the following tweet:

Ives is one of the more reliable names in the world of American soccer journalism,  but a tweet is just a tweet. A few hours later, however, Jack McCarthy wrote a short article for the Chicago Tribune that added a little more weight to Ives' tweet.

Fire coach Frank Yallop is expected to complete his staff this week with the addition of retired midfielder Clint Mathis, a club source confirmed late Monday.

The appointment is expected to be announced later this week as the team prepares to gather at Toyota Park for physicals and the official start of the 2014 preseason.

So it appears that the former USMNT midfielder will be joining the Fire's coaching staff. This seems to be a little out of left field as Yallop never coached or played with Mathis, so how they are connected is not immediately apparent. Mathis and C.J. Brown should be familiar with each other as they were teammates on the USMNT together from 1998 to 2003.

This hiring would make sense in the fact that Yallop and Brown were both defenders during their playing days. Being a midfielder and a forward back in his playing days, Mathis would add a more offensive perspective to the team's coaching staff.

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