BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – How do you build on finishing “second place in America”?
That’s what the Chicago Fire’s Bastian Schweinsteiger was contemplating as he met the local media for the first time ahead of his second season in MLS on Wednesday. The Men in Red capped a season of ambitions, excitement and rejuvenation with a deserved third-place finish in the Supporters’ Shield, behind eventual MLS Cup winners Toronto FC and New York City FC.
In strictly geographical terms, as the German correctly noted, that was good enough for second spot in the US, which means Veljko Paunovic’s men face a tall order to improve on last season’s achievements.
“I always combine my personal goals with the goals of the club and the team,” Schweinsteiger said when asked of his expectations for the year. “I would like our team to improve our game, so it makes it easier for everyone on the field, and of course to reach the playoffs. Last season we were third, we were second in America actually, so it was a great season, and now we know each other, it’s going to be better, but still we have to do our work first.”
The former Bayern Munich and Manchester United midfielder was in relaxed mood on his return to the city, and admitted he turned down offers from Europe and Asia to continue the work he started at Toyota Park.
“Of course I had some offers from Europe and Asia,” he said. “But for me it was more important to extend the work that we were doing here last season and that’s why I always spoke first with Chicago Fire. I want to contribute as much as I can this season.”
Fellow second-year Fire midfielder Dax McCarty also stressed the importance of building on the improvements that saw the team rise from bottom to third in just 12 months.
And while Chicago made the playoffs in 2017 for the first time since 2012, they seriously stumbled at the first hurdle, falling 4-0 at home to the New York Red Bulls at Toyota Park last October.
“We’ve had a good season last year and I think the mentality from the whole group is that we want to build off that and get even better,” McCarty said. “So, while we had a good season, and I harped on this at the end of last year, it was an incomplete season. I would say that it was an improvement from years past, but we didn’t win any silverware, we didn’t win any trophies, we didn’t even win a playoff game. So you can’t look at that season last year and say that it was a bona fide success. There’s still ways to improve and get better.
“The good thing is you can take the experience from last year, how well we played and how poorly we played toward the end of the season, kind of limping into the playoffs, and use that as motivation and fuel to get better.”
Another man hoping to build on his success last year is striker Nemanja Nikolic, who claimed the MLS Golden Boot with 24 goals in his debut season in Chicago. For the fourth season running, the prolific marksman finished atop the scoring charts in whatever league he played. The Hungarian international is anxious to continue that impressive run, even if he won’t have David Accam – who the Fire traded to Philadelphia last week – around to help him out.
“Yeah, if I can improve it will be great for me,” Nikolic said. “But what I do last season, it was nothing special for me because the last four seasons from 2013 I was the Golden Boot [winner] in every league where I played, so I was very happy that in my very first year I got this MLS [Golden] Boot in competition with players like [David] Villa, [Sebastian] Giovinco, [Jozy] Altidore, [Clint] Dempsey, such good players.”
