Friday Mailbag & Open Thread: Mum’s The Word

There’s no game this week, so naturally there are few questions, meaning this is a shorter mailbag then usual. But that doesn’t mean there’s no soccer in the area. The Red Stars start their campaign to finally get over the semi-final hump. You can read our season preview by Sandra Herrera here, and our preview of Sunday’s match with a Christian Press-less Houston Dash, written by Claire Watkins, here. This Red Stars season is going to be hella fun, so if the Fire got you down, give the Red Stars a look. I’ll be following along on Twitter. I hope to see you on the internet.

Let’s get to it.

The problem with asking “Did NRod only go after San Iker?” is that the Fire Front Office is extremely closed-door about who they’re going or not going after. That we only hear about rumored transfers is largely from the foreign press, says a lot. The same can be said for Guillermo Rivera, who always astounds me with the scoops he gets and how plugged in with the organization he is. The fact that he hasn’t said anything about what the organization is doing regarding the goalkeeper position reveals, to me at least, is that we’re stuck with Richard Sanchez for the foreseeable future.

In defense of Sanchez, he played better in game two then in game one. The goals given up were largely errors on behalf of the back four. Yes, he needs to be less adventurous and his positioning and communication need to get better faster. But he’s only 23, and we have to remind ourselves that he’s young, and was put into a difficult position by the organization. Is he ready for prime time? No. But he, his back line, and us are going to have to deal with it. Let’s hope the offense can start outscoring teams. If the Fire have to win every game 5-4, then they need to start scoring 5 goals a game.

This is tough... let’s see.... in an Ideal world... (looks at the roster for a second) it’s probably Brandt Bronico and Diago Campos, plus any Homegrown mid season signings. I don’t see those two getting a lot of minutes, especially with the (hopeful) returns of MdL and Djordje at some point in the summer. I almost want to have Bakero and Adams there for a short term loan, if only to get them minutes they’re probably not going to get this early in the season.

As for them getting minutes, that’s up to Tulsa. The problem with an arrangement like the Fire and Tulsa have is that the Fire are in no control of whether or not their loanees get playing time. One of the reason’s the Red Bulls are so good at the whole developing talent thing is that NYRBII can concentrate on developing talent over winning games, something Tulsa cannot do. Having your own development completely under organizational control will be key going forward in MLS, and the Fire are truly behind the curve again when it comes to club infrastructure. It’s disappointing.