The Fire added Jonathan Bornstein and Micheal Azira, but the roster is largely the same after Wednesday’s deadline. Bastian Schweinsteiger remains, and scored the winner in the 88th minute.
On July 17, Fire president and general manager Nelson Rodriguez revealed that following their U.S. Open Cup loss, he told players and staff he needed to see changes within five games. The team responded by going 1-3-1, and with the summer transfer window open, Rodriguez sent a message to the rest of Major League Soccer: the Fire were open for business.
The Fire did some business before the window closed Wednesday, but the changes weren’t wholesale. If anything, the development that raised the most eyebrows was the team reportedly considering hiring former University of Louisville coach Ken Lolla as their chief culture officer.
But the way they played Saturday, the Fire didn’t look like a team that required major moves.
Bastian Schweinsteiger scored the game-winner in the 88th minute, Dax McCarty collected his first goal with the team, Nemanja Nikolic also tallied, and the Fire beat the Montreal Impact 3-2. The Fire (7-10-9) won their second straight and pulled within three points of Montreal for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Fire took a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute thanks to McCarty, who was playing in his 79th game with the club. Eleven minutes later, Nikolic scored for the second straight game when he tapped in an Aleksandar Katai cross.
Montreal cut into the Fire lead in the 34th minute when Saphir Taider beat Kenneth Kronholm on a penalty, after Taider was taken down by Kronholm. Bacary Sagna’s goal in the 76th minute appeared to cost the Fire a key win, but Schweinsteiger rose to meet a corner and give them a victory in their first game after the transfer window.
Perhaps the most notable on-field transaction was the addition of former United States national team defender Jonathan Bornstein. The Fire made a move Wednesday afternoon by trading defender Jorge Corrales to Montreal for veteran midfielder Micheal Azira. And before Rodriguez spoke on July 17, the team sent midfielder Mo Adams to Atlanta for $100,000 in 2020 General Allocation Money.
While Bornstein has been what the Fire needed and Azira will add experience, the moves didn’t shake the team. Corrales’ struggles were an early story, and Adams didn’t have a great fit on the roster.
How that roster will look going forward is another question, and things didn’t get much clearer during the window.
All three Designated Players (Schweinsteiger, Katai, Nikolic) are out of contract after the season. Nicolas Gaitan will be a Designated Player if he returns, and McCarty has a team option for 2020. There’s also the question of the impending move to Soldier Field and how that would impact team-building and recruiting.
But as the recent window shows, being “open for business” doesn’t always mean major moves.
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