Hey, soccer fans! Major League Soccer's summer transfer window has officially closed, and the Chicago Fire made eight moves on deadline day. They brought four new players in and moved four players out, not counting the prior loan of defender Christopher Cupps to Greenock Morton. Did the club meet their roster needs of improved midfield, attacking depth, and support on the backline? Nick breaks it all down, including how the transfers address those needs, concerns on the roster status, and how the revamped team will look on the pitch.

Players In: Johan Gomez, Andreas Hanche-Olsen, Anzor Mekvabishvili, Noah Allen
Players Out: Viktor Radojevic, Jason Shokalook, Dylan Borso, Joel Waterman

Also, congrats to winger Philip Zinckernagel and the club for renegotiating his contract and making him a Designated Player! It's a well-deserved and well-earned contract for Zinck, who has been a star for both the Men in Red and the league.

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Hey, soccer fans! Major League Soccer has proposed a new playoff format to coincide with its new calendar. The proposal moves away from the current single-elimination tournament to a double-elimination tournament seeing up to 20 teams qualifying for the post-season. The top eight teams in the league will face double-elimination with lower finishing teams battling it out in a lose-and-go-home scenario. Teams are also re-seeded after every round to ensure teams with the better regular season record maintain home field advantage.

This is a massive change to MLS's current format and a huge departure from anything in American sports. In fact, they consulted with the Australian Football Leaugue, who plays Aussie Rules Football, to come up with this format. Nick is extremely critical of this proposed change - there's no consistency within the league - this is perhaps the fifth or sixth playoff iteration in league history. The proposal also tries to incentivize the regular season but gives more worse teams the opportunity to make a post-season run. It's confusing to new fans of soccer and MLS, and looks purely like a business move to beef up a tv package offering.

What do you think of the new proposal? How would you fix the MLS Cup Playoffs - assuming it's even broken?

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Hey, soccer fans! The Chicago Fire have loaned homegrown centerback Christopher Cupps to Greenock Morton FC of the Scottish Championship - the second division in Scotland. While a seemingly underwhelming move, it could have its benefits for the 18 year old up-and-comer who has not seen many minutes with the Fire first team. Tune in as Nick explores the benefits of the move and the concerns he has.

Cupps' loan also got Nick thinking - with this loan, the downturn in minutes for Pineda and Oregel, the sale of Gutierrez last season, and the lack of a true back-up striker, has the Chicago Fire gotten away from one of its "bedrock" principles of developing local talent? Nick takes a look at how the Men in Red have handled players such as Chris Mueller, Andrew Gutman, Brian Gutierrez, Chris Brady, Mauricio Pineda, Sergio Oregel, Dean Boltz, Dylan Borso, Jason Shokalook, and Robert Turdean while increasing their international signings.

Tune in and join the conversation! Make sure you like & subscribe, rate & review, and keep growing the show.

Follow the Fire on SportSpyder.

Connect on social media: Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - YouTube

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