Set the House Ablaze - Chicago Fire - Statistical Data Included

Soccer Digest, Dec, 2000 by Joseph D'Hippolito

The once aged Chicago Fire threatened to be a one-season success, until Josh Wolff and the team's other young stars became burning sensations

TRANSITION CAN POSE AN intimidating challenge. As the familiar and the comfortable fade into the past, the new and the untested must bear an increasing burden of responsibility. Such transition defined the Chicago Fire in 2000.

The Fire entered its third season without veteran starters Jerzy Podbrozny, Roman Kosecki, and Francis Okaroh, all of who left the club. That trio had been among the Fire's top 10 in career games and minutes over the franchise's first two seasons, while Podbrozny and Kosecki placed first and third, respectively, in career assists.

As the season unfolded, the Fire lost other starters, too. Midfielder Chris Armas, defender Lubos Kubik, and forward Hristo Stoitchkov, arguably the team's three best players, missed a combined 49 regular-season games due to various injuries.

But four young players filled the breaches and kept the Fire among MLS's perennial powers. Josh Wolff, Carlos Bocanegra, Dema Kovalenko, and Evan Whitfield helped Chicago reach the MLS Cup for the second time in three seasons. In the process, the Fire won the Central Division championship and led the league with 67 regular-season goals.

Wolff and Kovalenko made crucial offensive contributions. Wolff, a forward who starred for the U.S. Olympics squad, started a career-high 20 games, registering seven goals and 19 points in his third professional season.

Kovalenko, meanwhile, improved dramatically as a second-year pro. After just three goals in 11 games for Chicago last year, the Ukrainian midfielder finished second on the team in goals (10) and tied for second in points (25) with Stoitchkov.

Defensively, Bocanegra assumed Okaroh's position at left back and played impressively enough to be named MLS Rookie of the Year. Whitfield, a reserve defender and midfielder, who also made the Olympic team, provided 11 points in 25 games and intense speed from the flank.

"We certainly believe that we have a very good group of young players," Fire coach Bob Bradley says. "We've always tried to have a good balance between some of our experienced players--especially some of our international guys--and the right kind of young Americans who are talented and who will develop in a good environment."

All four took different paths to Chicago. Bocanegra, 21, joined the club after his junior season at UCLA, where he was a second-team All American. "Concentrating for 90 minutes at this level is the biggest adjustment," Bocanegra says. "You take [the game] a lot more serious, and the guys prepare a lot harder. They watch a little more film, go over a little more strategy."

But Bocanegra, the Fire's first selection and the fourth overall in the 2000 SuperDraft, made the quickest transition of the four. After missing Chicago's first five games because of a training-camp injury, Bocanegra never left the starting lineup.

"For a young player, Carlos is very mature," Bradley says. "He's strong physically, and when he has the ball he is very clear about where it should go. The one place that we had was some consistency [this season was] in the back, and Carlos has been a big part of that."

Whitfield, 23, had professional experience overseas before coming to Chicago. A Parade All-American in high school, Whitfield played four years for Duke before joining the Belgian club KAA Gent, where he played for six months in 1999.

"It brought a little reality to soccer," Whitfield says of his experience in Belgium. "It was very competitive, not so friendly, and it was very physical. This is our livelihood. It made me grow up a little and it prepared me a lot more for MLS."

Whitfield joined the Fire during the middle of the 1999 season but saw no action. In 2000, however, he made 11 starts, scored two goals, and improved enough to make the United States' Olympic team.

"Evan is very fast and a very good competitor," Bradley says. "Last year, he was [just] getting used to things. This year, you could tell that he was ready to step up. He realizes that he has to get better with the ball and get to the point where he's more in control, but we feel he's made tremendous progress."

Wolff, who will turn 24 in February, is the most experienced of the four. He was the Georgia High School Player of the Year before going to South Carolina, where scored 21 goals in 43 games through three seasons. He also made the Academic All-America team as a junior in 1997.

That year, Wolff played for the United States in the FIFA Under-20 World Championships before signing with Project-40, MLS's development program. In 1998, his first professional season, Wolff scored 12 goals in 18 games for the Pro-40 Select Team in 1998, and then added eight goals in 14 matches for the Fire. Wolff's performance enabled him to become U.S. Soccer's first Youth Player of the Year.

"Project-40 gave me confidence," Wolff says. "More than anything, I wanted to be patient and give myself a chance. Bob brought me along at a good pace. I got into training sessions with everyone in Chicago and I had to get my feet wet and become comfortable."