Chicago Fire head coach Fotios "Frank" Klopas knows a thing or two about his Montreal counterpart.
Klopas, a striker, and Marsch,a midfielder both featured prominently in the Fire’s expansion season in 1998, when the team won its first MLS Cup.
And his experiences with the Impact head coach and the expansion process may give him insights into the type of team he’s going to face come Saturday.
BE THERE : Open House at Olympic Stadium
“Definitely it’s going to be a team that’s going to look to play, to possess the ball,” he said. “It’s going to be very well organized and disciplined team. I know that in every game they’re going to put forth not only a good performance, but to get the victory.”
“We don’t look at it as an expansion team because they have a lot of experienced players, guys that have been very good players in this league along with some good additions. It’s a difficult match and I know that they’ll get better with every game, but we need to focus on ourselves and we’ll do what we do best.”
From Greece to the Fire
Klopas immigrated to Chicago when he was eight years old from Prosimna, Greece in 1966.
His love for soccer was cultivated through his cultural ties to Greece, but his skills were developed while playing at Mather High School, winning the Chicago Public League championship in his senior year. So it was only natural that soccer took him back and forth from his homeland to his native land throughout his playing career.
At 18, he became a U.S. citizen, and signed with the Chicago Sting of the North American Soccer League right out of high school. After four seasons, Klopas moved to Greece in 1988 and played four seasons with AEK Athens FC in Greece’s first division. Then, in 1996, Klopas joined MLS with the Kansas City Wizards. After two years with the club, he was dealt to the expansion Chicago Fire. He would play two years for Chicago before retiring, helping them to the MLS Cup in 1998 and the U.S. Open Cup, playing alongside Impact head coach Jesse Marsch.
Looking forward to record-breaking crowd
The 21st century saw Klopas join the Fire in a number of administrative capacities, and as the club’s current head coach, he will lead the Fire into Montreal as the teams will meet in the Impact’s historical first home opener in MLS at Olympic Stadium in front of possibly 50,000 plus supporters.
“Obviously looking forward to it,” said the former U.S international that played in the 1994 World Cup. “The last time I saw a crowd like that was when I was younger and I was watching the Sting against the Montreal Manic play there, I think it was something like 58,000 fans in 1981, so hopefully we can break that record.”
