USL Feature
Monday, January 9, 2012
By NICHOLAS MURRAY
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – With 13 players at the current MLS Combine, and more than 60 alumni playing professionally in MLS and beyond, the Chicago Fire Premier have continued to produce quality players since the club’s inception. Players in the current crop, which includes potential first-round selections Chris Estridge, Calum Mallace and Brendan King, believe the experience they received wil serve them well as they try to make the jump to the professional ranks.
“It was really good,” Estridge said. “Our practice started a little bit earlier than [the Fire’s MLS squad], so we could always catch a little bit of their practice after ours. I knew a couple of the guys on the Fire team already, so I knew some of their ability and then watching them stack up against some of the other guys on the first team was good. I got to see a lot of their habits, and it was good to watch them and see a lot of the guys that I used to play with that are in the pros and doing well.”
The Fire are among a handful of MLS teams that have either their own USL PDL team, with Portland and Vancouver playing in the Northwest Division, or have a PDL affiliate. For King, who grew up in the Chicago area, getting the chance to play for the Fire Premier and the opportunity to take his game to the next level was a great one.
“They do hold you to a higher standard, and that’s what you’re going to be faced with at the next level,” King said. “You can’t come to training and have a lax day, you can’t have a game where you’re making mistakes, it’s just being held to that higher standard is what separates the amateur level from the professional level.”
The Fire Premier got a taste of the professional level in the U.S. Open Cup last season. After qualifying for the tournament and advancing to the third round against a pair of amateur opponents, they faced Sporting Kansas City at LiveStrong Sporting Park. Going up against a side that included a number of Sporting regulars like Kei Kamara, the 3-0 defeat was a big learning experience, and an important one.
“I think the first thing we saw was that there was such a disparity in the speed of play,” Estridge said. “They knew everything they wanted to do with the ball before they had it, their passing was much more crisp and much more, I guess, thought out than some of the guys we had at the time. They were just moving around so easily against us and they unorganized us quite easily, so I think the speed of play is going to be the biggest part.”
Making that adjustment may be the crucial factor in whether players like King or Estridge make it at the next level. While they and others at the Combine appear to have the tools to make it at the next level, the mental aspect of the game and speeding up their pace of play will be key.
“Hopefully that’s something I’ll be able to adjust to,” King said. “It’s something that you can’t really create at the college level, it’s just not there, it can be hard to create at the PDL level as well because it’s not a full-professional league, so I’ll definitely have to adjust to that, but hopefully it will be a smooth transition. I just have to be sharp at every training session and make sure you’re thinking quickly.”
Before they try to make that transition, though, the Fire Premier players have been enjoying having the chance to get together again in Fort Lauderdale. With their professional futures ahead of them, having one final week together has been a fun experience.
“It’s actually a lot of fun to be down here and see all these guys you grew up playing with,” King said. “One of my best friends, Brian Gaul, actually lives in my neighborhood, I grew up playing with him since I was, like, 5 years old, so being able to play with those guys over the summer and then seeing those guys doing so well down here, it’s pretty special to be with your friends and to go through this experience with them as well.”
When they do move on, the likelihood is that most, if not all, of the 13 players won’t be back in Chicago next summer. But for Estridge, simply getting the opportunity to fulfill a life-long dream is as much as he could ask for.
“I definitely just want to be out there playing,” he said. “I don’t know if there’s any one team that I have a die-hard passion to be with, they’re all great organizations and it would be an honor to play for any of them, but I definitely want to go in to a situation where my style fits in well with the team and we can have as much success as possible.”