Blogging Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry

Marco Pappa is staying with the Chicago Fire. I read this on both Soccer By Ives and Fire Confidential. This is on the heels of Chicago also keeping Brian McBride and C.J. Brown in the fold for 2010.

This may come as a surprise to some of you. Why? Well, here's Ives on the Fire's post-Denis Hamlett era:

With the club likely to endure a rebuilding season in 2010, the Fire had better find the right coach or next season could be a flop.

And here's Sam at Fire Confidential, criticizing what he saw as a Pollyanna-ish outlook from Fire owner Andrew Hauptman:

Well, if this offseason plays out like anything we expect it to (i.e. with the Fire unable to retain Blanco, Rolfe, Prideaux, Segares, Conde and possibly McBride, Brown and Pappa) than in no way the season will "be one of the Fire's best yet" - at least on the field that is.

Ives didn't say it was a done deal, but it's still as close as you're likely to see on the record. And I'll cut Sam a tiny bit of slack for classifying the three returnees as "possible" departures, but will take it away for considering Brandon Prideaux a big offseason loss. Good, serviceable player, and I thank him for his contribution, but if replacing Prideaux is a big part of our "rebuilding year," then I think we'll survive.

As for the rest of this narrative, yes, the Fire will be without Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Chris Rolfe for sure, and Gonzalo Segares is almost certain to leave. But Rolfe was odd man out in the Fire lineup already, all anyone ever seemed to talk about with Blanco was how he refused to defend or run, and while we may not have another left back of Sega's caliber, we've got options that will certainly pass muster for MLS.

Which is to say, the notion of a bare cupboard and a massive rebuilding was a totally made-up story by lazy, pessimistic bloggers and fans at worst, and maybe a 50/50 possibility at best. Except that it was never really portrayed as the latter. If Conde splits, then yeah, the Fire ends up on the shorter end of the stick as far as player retention goes -- although a certain former head coach did a good job of patching together a back four without him. But if he stays, I suspect Ives and Sam and whoever else has been all but guaranteeing a starting squad devoid of any experience or talent will conveniently ignore what they predicted in the last month or so.

The bigger point I'm getting to here is a little bit convoluted, but the problem I'm starting to see is that, with major media not terribly interested in the sport, soccer has turned largely to amateurs and/or fans for their coverage, and there doesn't seem to be a shred of accountability. Or, sometimes, quality. As a result, the "reporting" is all over the place, and very susceptible to influence from all sorts of sources, from message board groupthink to insiders with grudges or agendas. I've already given up on soccer message boards due to the signal to noise ratio going to hell, and now it looks like the blogosphere is rapidly following suit.