Do the Chicago Fire regret their offseason strategy stressing continuity? ‘Not at all,’ sporting director Georg Heitz says. ‘I told the players I still strongly believe in them.’

“It’s very difficult to get young talented players in the league,” he said. “That’s really very, very difficult. And we felt strongly we had experienced players: (Bobby) Shuttleworth, (Kenneth) Kronholm, (Jonathan) Bornstein, (Francisco) Calvo, even (Przemysław) Frankowski is quite experienced, (Fabian) Herbers, (Johan) Kappelhof. We really have a couple of players who are clearly more than 25 years old. So now we focus a little bit on young players. It’s a bit easier to get them on the international market.”