Tuesday afternoon’s bumper-to-bumper traffic on Interstate 55 south of Chicago to Bridgeview, Illinois was neither unexpected nor welcome. But this time, his extra 20 minutes spent in a stalemate were also his extra 20 minutes for Frank Clopus to ponder everything that’s happened in the last half hour or so.
The previous morning, Klopus had arrived at work as an assistant coach for the Chicago Fire. He resigned as head coach. Chicago fired head coach Ezra Hendrickson and assistant Junior Gonzalez, leaving Cropus to manage until the end of the season.
Adaptability is a necessary requirement for coaching jobs, and Kropus is in some ways more prepared than most. He was fired twice as head coach in Chicago in 2013 and Montreal in 2015. Tuesday’s mid-season appointment marks the third time he’s been promoted to the Fire’s head coaching position mid-season.
Yet each case comes with its own costs.
“They’re people you’ve worked with for over a year and a half,” said Klopas, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel of the gray Mercedes G-Class. “When I walk into the coach’s office, there are two empty chairs. I don’t want to sit in those chairs.”
This particular switch also brought unique challenges. Cropus and the rest of the staff, including assistants CJ Brown and Zach Thornton, had little time to regroup. The day after Hendrickson’s dismissal was announced, the Fire played MLS expansion team St. Louis City in the US Open Cup Round of 32.
Forget about making massive personnel changes or tweaking tactics. Cropus postponed Monday morning’s video session because he thought the players were having trouble concentrating. Hendrickson and Gonzalez said goodbye to the team, and Clopus set up a few one-on-one meetings with the players before meeting with the Leadership Council, a group of veteran players who meet with the coaching staff on team issues. He added two players to the group: strikers Kay Kamara and Kacchipel Przybiuko. He also addressed the entire team. He had 24 games left in the MLS season and the Open Cup was his top priority.
“It was just giving the group faith,” Klopas said.
Klopas left SeatGeek Stadium on Monday night to go out to dinner with his wife, Sophia. Then he went home, tossed and turned in bed, then got up early to watch a movie in St. Louis in the living room.
Tuesday night’s game was an important chance to start the new era with a win that could help change the group’s mentality following Hendrickson’s exit. Former Leeds manager Jesse Marsh, former RBNY and Toronto FC coach Chris Armas, and club legend Logan Pause were present as the club honored the 2003 US Open Cup winning team. , added to the pressure.
Everything was swirling in Cropus’ head as he drove along Interstate 55. When he finally got to the stadium, he changed from his blue dress shirt and jeans into a Chicago Fire tracksuit, walked into his coach’s office, and sat down in the same chair he’d sat in all season to read through his notes.
There were two empty chairs at the top of the table.
Klopas oversaw the Fires Open Cup game against St. Louis City. (Jamie Sabaw – USA TODAY Sports)
Kropus will not only be called upon to turn this season around, but also reverse a decade of struggles with it.
fire broke out One of the worst teams in MLS in the last decade. In a league where more than half of teams make the playoffs, Chicago has made just one more postseason appearance (2017) since 2012, when Klopas led the team to the playoffs in his first managerial appointment.
Its 11 seasons included Kropus (2013), Frank Yallop (2014-15), Veljko Paunovic (2016-19), Rafael Wickie (2020-21) and Hendrickson (2021-22). Five permanent head coaches were appointed. The problem spans all these coaches, two owners and multiple sports directors.
The last four years under owner Joe Mansueto, sporting director Georg Heitz and technical director Sebastian Pelzer started off with high hopes but have so far been a huge disappointment. Despite spending a lot of money, Chicago has never finished better than his 11th-place finish in his Eastern Conference in the past three seasons. It is currently ranked 14th in the East Region.
For Kropus, who grew up in Chicago and has worked for the Fire as a player, technical director, coach and broadcaster in the club’s “Ring of Fire,” it’s personal to bring the Fire back to victory. (Full disclosure: the author worked with Kropus on Chicago Fire broadcasts in 2016 and 2017.) Both assistants, Brown and Thornton, who are still on staff, have also spent all or most of their professional playing careers. spent at Fire. Brown, who also appeared in the ‘Ring of Fire’, contributed to every trophy the club won, including one MLS Cup and four Open Cups.
“I think all three of us would do anything for the club,” said Klopus.
Klopas was born in Greece, but moved to Chicago as a child. He turned pro with his NASL Chicago Sting at the age of 17 and was known in the city as “The Kid”. He returned to Chicago with the Fire in 1998 and scored the club’s first home goal for the MLS expansion franchise, as well as scoring the winning goal in the US Open Cup win in his first season. Chicago would also win the MLS Cup that year.
Cropus has a kind of bouncy energy. In a profession where many can take themselves too seriously, Kropus has been loved by those around Fire for his openness and friendliness. He knows everyone: his longtime fans, front office employees, security guards, players, and players’ families. Trying to walk the stadium corridors with him on match day would take a while. He is stopped by everyone on his way. For the players, Kropas is like a male manager, gaining the players’ trust as an assistant. He can read locker rooms because locker rooms are essentially where he grew up.
Kropas also takes great care in preparation. He keeps himself organized by constant note-taking, and on a full working day on Tuesday, he pulled out his hand-scribbled notebook from that morning’s film studies and shared it with the entire coaching staff. Considered pre-game presentations for players.
In the coach’s office, the entire staff is making final preparations, and Kropus goes from idea to idea, notes running through his head at high speed, really too fast. I have very little time to prepare videos and whiteboard work for pre-game meetings with players. Kropus jumps up every time the video stops, points to a ruler, and talks about weaknesses in rotation and St. Louis’ transition defense. He knows that pre-match talks have to be concise, so he only has a few bullet points to structure his presentation.
“If you win, you have to go straight up,” says Klopas. “If you look vertically straight away, Maren[Haile Selassie]will have space behind this.”
Cropus was nearly out of breath by the time he had made it through. Video staff has no more than 45 minutes to make changes. The sudden change of coach made every schedule tighter. The video he shows the team ends with a 45-second edit of the last four times Fire has lifted the US Open Cup, ending with one image from 2023. Will they be the first team to win five times?
Cropus heads downstairs as the clock ticks towards kickoff.
The Fire advanced with a 2-1 victory (Jamie Sabaw-USA TODAY Sports)
Six and a half hours later, as the Clopus River joins the highway and the clock ticks past midnight, the Chicago skyline looms to the right of the car.
The adrenaline is finally starting to wear off with Fire’s 2-1 win. The pressure of the first match is gone. During the last two days, fatigue creeps in from the work ahead.
“Considering yesterday,[the graduates]were there today, so it’s really nice to win,” Klopas said.
It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was definitely something Fire could build on. Just two minutes into the game, a space was cleared behind St. Louis’ back line, which Klopas pointed out during an early morning filming session. The Swiss winger put the fire ahead as Haile-Sarashie hit the goal with a long defensive header.
Maren Haile-Selassie.
that’s it. That’s the tweet. pic.twitter.com/AAkoIx33G7
— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) May 10, 2023
The Fire extended their lead to two when home native Brian Gutierrez put pressure on the City goalkeeper to create an error in the 75th minute before Fabian Gerbers scored into an empty goal. A St. Louis goal in stoppage time made for a tense final few minutes, but when the final whistle blew, Klopus turned to the bench, clenched his fists and let out a scream, part of the stress he was carrying. released. Last day and a half. He hugged Brown, Thornton and performance director Nacho Torreño, then captain Xherdan Shaqiri, searching for player after player.
As he returned to the locker room, the crowd followed him. Marsh, Almas, and Pose also joined the room. Owners Joe Mansuet and Heitz watched from just outside the door. How meaningful it would be for Kropus to win the Open Cup with former Fire teammates Brown and Thornton next to him on the bench and Marsh, Almas and Pose returning, especially considering the difficult days of the last few days told the team what Both Mr. Marsh and Mr. Almas then spoke.
“I am very grateful to this club,” Almas told the group, encouraging them to build on the victory.
After the game, Kropus, Brown, Thornton and the Fire alumni gathered at a restaurant just outside the stadium. For the next hour and a half, they exchanged early stories of the fire. There was a lot of laughter, inside jokes, and stories that didn’t fit the print. Looking around the table reminded me of how good those teams were and how those members still had an impact on American football. Their experience is also a reminder of the whimsy of Chicago’s last two days. Every coach has been involved in layoffs of staff. Marsh and Almas are just months away from leaving Leeds.
Clopas found nothing lost on his way home.
These jobs are built to be temporary. But for Kropus, Fire feels like more than just a job. That’s why he said yes to every role he was offered. He is interested in football in the city where he was born and raised. He knows there will be an end to his recent tenure as manager, but will do his best to use it to get the club back on some sort of stable footing.
“So many people put so much effort into this club,” Klopas said.
his voice is fading. Until less than 48 hours ago, he was an assistant coach. Now he has four days to prepare for his next match. They face St. Louis City again in the league, this time on Saturday afternoon. There is no time to think about the big picture. The pressure is on again. Training starts in the morning.
(Photo: Jamie Sabaw – USA TODAY Sports)
