posted by kidpurple
July 30, 2008
The rumors were true. Brian McBride is going to join the Chicago Fire. Toronto FC had the right to McBride, but McBride made it known that he wanted to play near his hometown which is right near Chicago. The Fire sent forward Chad Barrett to TFC along with future considerations in order to get McBride.
McBride spent several years playing for Fulham FC in England after a long and very successful career in Major League Soccer playing for the Columbus Crew. At the league’s 10th anniversary they named the all time best XI team which included Brian McBride.
Any team should be happy to have a player like McBride, but Toronto doesn’t come out of this deal in a bad way at all. Chad Barrett has played with both the US Olympic team and the full men’s national team. He should be a welcome addition at Toronto.
posted by kidpurple
May 29, 2008
Brian McBride recently announced that he would not be returning to Fulham for another season in the English Premiership, and that he wants to return to the United States. Right now Toronto FC would have the rights to get McBride because they have the highest allocation ranking due to their last place finish in the league last year.
So would McBride be coming back to play in Toronto? A more likely situation would be that he ends up at the Chicago Fire. McBride grew up near Chicago and has said that he’d like to return to his home. So Chicago would likely have to make a deal with TFC to get the rights to McBride unless TFC wanted to pass on him in order to keep the top allocation spot open in case someone better comes around. I can’t imagine they’d see someone better than McBride coming into MLS this season.
The Chicago Fire are currently tied at the top of the league and looking pretty good. With the addition of Brian McBride they could be a very dangerous team looking for another MLS Championship. What do you Fire fans think? I’d be quite happy to see McBride joining my team.
Is there any chance that McBride would end up anywhere other than Chicago? Would he go back to his former team – Columbus Crew?
posted by kidpurple
January 15, 2008
Is Eddie Johnson on his way out of Kansas City to play for Fulham?
The Daily Mail reports that Eddie “the Juice” Johnson has left the US National team training camp which is a sign that a deal with Fulham is near. Johnson has had an up and down career recently with the Kansas City Wizards. Right now he’s on the up side of that roller-coaster.
If this does happen and Johnson does end up playing at Fulham, he will be the 5th American to join the team. Brian McBride, Carlos Bocanegra, Clint Dempsey and Kasey Keller currently play for the London club.
There has been lots of talk about Americans playing in Major League Soccer to be moving to Europe recently. If Taylor Twellman and Eddie Johnson both go to play in England, will that be good for the US Nationals? Will it increase their chances of getting more time with the National Team? I think it they did make the move and got significant playing time it would have to help them.
The rumors were true. Brian McBride is going to join the Chicago Fire. Toronto FC had the right to McBride, but McBride made it known that he wanted to play near his hometown which is right near Chicago. The Fire sent forward Chad Barrett to TFC along with future considerations in order to get McBride.