After a long courtship, the Chicago Fire have hired their new coach for the 2010 season: Carlos de los Cobos. The former Mexican international defender has experience at the highest level, representing his country in the 1986 World Cup, along with coaching in Mexico with Club America and at the national team level with El Salvador. The hire is a bold move by the team’s ownership.

Those with knowledge of the Fire’s search for the new head coach confirmed today that the team is not down to only two candidates which were previously reported by Soccer America as former Fire players Tom Soehn and Jesse Marsch.

The Chicago Fire announced that Guatemalan winger Marco Pappa, will be staying with the team through the 2012 season after agreeing to terms with CSD Municipal.

Though his seven goals led the Chicago Fire, Brian McBride was unable to will his team to victory at key moments in the season–primarily the lost Eastern Conference final. McBride is hardly mentioned in this retrospective. To find out who is, read on here.

ASN had the chance to speak with Chicago Fire technical director Frank Klopas to talk about some of the recent departures from the Fire as well as the realities of the soccer business.

A nifty second half goal by Cuauhtemoc Blanco gave the Chicago Fire the goal it needed to advance past the New England Revolution in a hard fought Eastern Conference semifinal at Toyota Park Saturday. With the victory Chicago advances to the Eastern Conference final for the second straight year where they will host Real Salt Lake next week. Skip right to the Fire player ratings.

A late own goal by Eduardo Lillingston was enough to give the Chicago Fire a 1-0 win over Chivas USA at Toyota Park Thursday night. The defense held strong for the entire match and allowed Jon Busch to have an easy night. Chicago qualifies for the 2009 postseason with the win. Match report and Fire player ratings.

The Chicago Fire and Best Buy helped launch the anticipated release of FIFA 2010 on Monday night with hundreds of soccer, Fire, and Blanco fans in attendance.
A line of patient fans snaked out the door at 875 N. Michigan Avenue on a perfect Monday night. Fans were able to meet Cuathemoc Blanco, Baggio [...]

The Chicago Fire and Columbus Crew battled for 90 minutes but it took just a split second decision by referee Mark Geiger to provide the Crew with the competitive advantage to draw 2-2 at Toyota Park. Coach Hamlett was visibly upset at the decision by Geiger citing not only the dubious PK call as the referee justified pointing to the spot because “Conde knicked him,” but also a reckless tackle by Gino Padula in the first half.

There is plenty of blame to go around after the U.S. Men’s National Team’s 3-0 loss to Brazil, much of it directed against Bob Bradley. Time for cooler heads to prevail. The U.S. has one more match at the Confederations Cup tourney before returning stateside for Gold Cup action and World Cup qualifiers. ASN’s Jeff Tobin provides his takeaways from the match.