Fire II “Creating a Standard” in third season

With the Chicago Fire already eliminated from MLS postseason contention, Decision Day later this month will mean very little. However, Chicago Fire II’s regular season finale tomorrow will have a rather different tone.

In stark contrast to the first team, the second team has been one of the most exciting and fun to watch teams in MLS Next Pro. With a youthful core filled with teenage academy players and potential first team prospects, Fire II find themselves in a great position to qualify for the playoffs on Decision Day – but they likely need a win over the league’s leading attraction, first-placed Philadelphia Union II.

“Number one, we serve the first team, and that's our objective,” Fire II general manager Alex Boler told MIR97 Media in an interview this week. “But then, of course, it's to win. We wouldn't be in this business without winning. When it comes to Decision Day, it's exciting.”

Creating a standard

Even as the Fire’s first team has failed to deliver any sort of meaningful results in the last several seasons, the past few years have still been excellent for the club’s developmental teams. Fire II’s relative success under head coach Ludovic Taillandier is just the tip of the iceberg, with the U-15s recently winning the MLS Next Cup under academy technical director Gary Lewis.

Fire II itself is also a young team; unlike many MLS teams, the Fire did not have a professional second team until the foundation of MLS Next Pro in 2022, so this season represents just the third year of the team’s existence.

“This year we took steps forward. We are identifying players who fit the profile of the Chicago Fire, but who also that have the tools to be successful at the next level. We are also giving the high-potential academy players in our system valuable game minutes this year to experience that level.”

“We develop the players, we create a professional environment for our second team players and we want to instill the Chicago Fire culture of what it means to play for the Chicago Fire, for this city, and for this owner… we also want to create a standard of what the Chicago Fire is about.”

As the Next Pro project is still young, only a few players have made the transition to the Fire first team yet. Chris Brady got consistent minutes at the reserve team level in 2022 before Gaga Slonina’s departure, and Justin Reynolds played two full seasons for Fire II before his steady integration into the first team this summer. However, more could come through that pathway in the near future.

Playing the kids

For many Fire II games this season, Taillandier has fielded staggeringly young lineups. At times, this was the result of limited player availability. At others, it was by design.

To get an idea of how young the Fire II core has been in 2024, 19-year-old Sergio Oregel, born in 2005, is one of the older players in some lineups. Patrick Los (2007), Christopher Cupps (2008), and Vitaliy Hlyut (2008) have had good seasons and shown growth over the course of the year.

“We know the pathway always starts with the academy kids,” Boler said. “They grow within our academy system until they reach a point that we think they are ready.”

“We try to find the high potential academy players, and we want to make sure we utilize this new league, new platform to maximize everything to get these players real games at a higher level. It's a great stepping stool for them, but it also helps us to measure if they're ready.”

This inevitably raises the question of who will be the next player to take the next step and receive a homegrown contract. The Fire haven’t handed a first team contract to an academy player since Justin Reynolds received one in May 2022, shortly after Sergio Oregel and Missael Rodríguez ahead of that season.

The performances of Cupps, in particular, have caught the attention of observers both in Chicago and around the country. He has long been considered the best U.S. center back prospect in his age group and has performed very well with the opportunities he’s had this season, including chances to train with the first team.

https://twitter.com/ProspectsUsmnt/status/1830693230113103918

It is difficult to say what the next step will be for any of the young players. There is a considerable gap between the MLS and MLS Next Pro levels. However, 2025 will be a big year for all of that young group as they look to establish themselves as dominant players at the reserve level, something that could quickly translate into first team involvement.

The college path

Every player’s pathway is different, and in the United States, the NCAA route remains present despite the declining prominence of college soccer year after year. From a technical standpoint, even the highest D1 level is a step behind MLS Next Pro, however, physically, it is more demanding, particularly with an intense schedule that packs an entire season into just four months.

The Fire academy graduates currently playing college soccer are of varying levels. Some almost certainly have professional careers in the future, while others likely do not. Regardless, the staff at the Fire have encouraged those players to come back to Chicago to train during the summer – a practice that Boler feels will help both the returning students and the young players whole path has not yet been determined.

“I think it's very valuable to have those ex-academy kids that are still in our umbrella come back and be around our current academy kids. Every experience could be different. Maybe a player is having a bad experience because he's not playing at the university he picked, and then he comes back, and he's excited to be back with us because this is all he knew. That’s why I always say that the door is always open to come back and train with us in the summer.”

Boler also said that the Fire’s scouting team is closely monitoring every game that top academy graduates are playing in college, and this season, several have burst to great starts. Dylan Borso, the Fire’s top 2006 prospect and a contender for a homegrown deal this offseason, recently broke out with a man of the match performance at Syracuse, providing a goal and an assist off the bench to hand Wake Forest a late 2-1 win. After battling injuries for a good part of 2024, his near-perfect outing showcased his talent and demonstrated that he is already one of the top midfielders in college soccer as a freshman.

https://twitter.com/amcalabrese12/status/1840948300851077176

Others who transitioned from the Fire to the NCAA have had great starts, too. Trip Fleming III, who played a season and a half with Fire II between 2022 and 2023, quickly established himself as Wisconsin’s best player during his freshman season and already has eight goal contributions this season, including a man of the match performance against UCLA and a hat trick against UIC. Max Viera and Noeh Hernández have started every Big East game for Georgetown and DePaul, respectively, standing out in one of the NCAA’s strongest conferences. Mitar Mitrović, a junior at Marquette, has been the team’s top player this season and, despite playing as a defensive midfielder, leads the Golden Eagles in scoring with five goals.

An eye toward the future

In tomorrow’s season finale, the Fire could face off against globally-touted wunderkind Cavan Sullivan, who has been a key player in the second half of the season for Philadelphia Union II. Sullivan is a unique prospect who currently has levels of hype not seen for any American player in 20 years, but one of the next best prospects in his age bracket is Chicago’s Robert Turdean.

The 14-year-old burst into the Fire conversation in the spring when he was a crucial player in the U-15s’ victory in the MLS Next Cup. The attacking midfielder, born in 2010, provided assists in the semifinal and final before being named to the tournament’s best XI… all while playing up an age group.

Prospects of Turdean’s talent level don’t come along that often, so his development is key. He has yet to be involved with the second team and is now playing up with the Fire U-16s as the academy season kicks off, but his progress is also being closely monitored.

“Robert is the big name not only in Chicago but in the United States, of course,” Boler said. “He's very young, and there's kind of the two sides (of this coin). You don't ever want to rush a player into something if we collectively think he's not ready for it.”

“Of course, all the high-potential academy players are going to get an opportunity to be in the second team environment and train… but it's about when they're ready and when they have earned it.”

Decision Day

Tomorrow’s game will draw more eyeballs than most MLS Next Pro games, partly because of the star prospect that may appear for the visitors. However, as mentioned previously, the playoff implications are also huge. A win for Fire II would guarantee passage to the postseason for the second straight season, but a shootout or loss might still be enough, depending on results elsewhere in the league.

“Decision Day is there for a reason, and it could go any direction for us,” Boler said. “We could be in the playoffs, we could be out of the playoffs, but that's what football and sports are about.”

“And yes, it would be great for us to make the playoffs back-to-back years. Of course, it would be great for everyone here at the Fire.”