Jonathan Bamba

I just don't think that in this particular game they have the squad available to do what they want.

Bamba is out injured.

He's just been snakebit.

He's been good.

He has not been productive.

And those are two different things.

And so, you know, if Bamba was playing the way that we had hoped that he would play at the beginning of the season, the way that he has played in moments when you've seen him...

he would have possibly started.

Kuypers was one of the other DPs.

So that left us with Lewandowski and Jonathan Bamba as our two designated players.

Really, the Zinkernagel DP move was, at the end of the day, a roster compliance kind of a move to make sure that they could fit all the new signings in the right roster slots and designations and be compliant to be able to go from that 2DP4U22 to a 3DP3U22 roster.

Noah Allen still occupies a U-22 spot for the fire.

He could be the guy.

The other player, Puso de Tejan, if you see him starting on the wing, he's starting to get a little bit more of a following around MLS, another bright, young South African player.

He's a guy that some fans are saying is going to push Jonathan Bamba to the bench despite his DP tag because he's a much more aggressive winger.

Now, that aggressiveness and that willingness to take on guys one-on-one could work centrally as well.

If it's going to stay Haile Selassie, if it's going to flip to Robin Lutt at some point, maybe he starts subbing in for Haile Selassie.

Is it going to be DeTajon, depending on his rotation with Jonathan Bamba? Whoever that third guy is behind Lewandowski and Zinkernagel, If they're scoring, if they're active, if they're involved, and if Zinkernagel is getting them involved, and if the wingbacks are getting them involved, then the fire offense is going to be clicking.

And it was clicking in this match against TFC.

So I wanted to focus on the defense then in this particular matchup.

Maybe they can slot Saletros forward and get him involved more and kind of unlock some of his creativity, assuming Anzor and Gomez are the two starting defensive backs.

or defensive midfielders, excuse me, and that way they can continue to use some of Soletro's experience, continue to have him either wear the captain's armband, take those free kicks, or maybe he'll be able to link up a little bit better with Lewandowski, Zinkernagel, and whoever's going to be playing out on that left-hand side, whether it's Detejan, Bamba, Solace, whoever it may be.

So that was the first big position of need for the Fire, was attacking midfielder and then just improvements on the midfield overall, and I do think With Gomez and with McVabishvili coming in, you do have an improved midfield.

Now, not so much on the attack, but I think overall you're going to have an improved midfield and therefore you're going to have a better offense.

Interesting to note that they call him a winger.

in this announcement.

Does that hint at the future of Jonathan Bamba and Marin Haile Selassie? Now, Haile Selassie, from a salary perspective, is a great move, and I didn't pull up his numbers because the thought just popped into my head now, but I think he's on a pretty friendly salary hit, or he might be approaching that weird middle where, you know, he's approaching TAM level, so maybe they want to move him before he gets to whatever guaranteed minimums the league is going to make if he hasn't already hit it.

So you'll have to watch the Haile Selassie salary cap move over the next year or two, though the speculation is that after the spring season, there's going to be a lot of new spending allowances and salary cap increases and roster restrictions lifted, especially under new commissioner Larry Berg at that time.

We saw great performances from Jay Davila and Sam Rogers in defense.

Martin Haile-Selassie and Robin Ludd also entered the starting 11, which was... we may talk about a little bit with the Jonathan Bamba of it all.

But hey, Tim, I think last night the story was, you know, Big Bob was the spark, right? Lewandowski key on both goals.

I'm curious, you told me, I think right after the game, like that was a good performance and just kind of 30,000 feet.