Fire to name de los Cobos as its fifth head coach

The Fire is expected to introduce Carlos de los Cobos on Monday as the club's fifth head coach, according to several team sources.

De los Cobos, 51, is a former Mexico national team player who coached the El Salvador national team through World Cup qualifying, resigning in December. El Salvador placed fifth in CONCACAF, missing a bid to next summer's World Cup.

De los Cobos is rumored to be bringing one of his Salvadoran players, Julio Martinez, with him to Chicago. Martinez, 24, is a right-sided midfielder at Mexican club Leon who would fill the spot left by Chris Rolfe's departure.

The new coach will be busy. The MLS Draft combine started Friday. De los Cobos will leave after Monday's press conference for the end of the combine and Thursday's draft, where technical director Frank Klopas hopes to find some good young players for the new coach.

The team's Designated Player spot remains open with forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco's move to Veracruz. The team also is hoping to find a left back to replace Gonzalo Segares.

De los Cobos also will have to fight MLS history. Coaches with no experience in American soccer have had virtually no success in MLS. De los Cobos will have to lean heavily on Klopas when it comes to the draft and dealing with the league's salary cap, both of which are foreign concepts to coaches outside the United States. He'll likely want to hire assistant coaches familiar with MLS players the way soccer is played in MLS.

De los Cobos beat out former Fire players Tom Soehn and Jesse Marsch for the job. It's not known if any of former coach Denis Hamlett's assistants will return.

Preseason training begins at the end of January. The season opener is March 27 at New York.