An afterthought from the Chicago Fire's 1-0 loss to Real Salt Lake on Saturday was the debut of their newest arrival, Serbian midfielder Bratislav Ristic.
There were not a whole lot of positives within Chicago's play in the match, but Ristic had a relatively fluid performance as far as debuts go.
"It was good," Ristic said following training on Wednesday. "My first game I felt good and I'm training with the team every day. I feel ready to play, but I need a little bit of time. I need more games to be 100 percent."
Ristic's signing and debut took some time to come to fruition. Back in June, Fire technical director Frank Klopas took a look at Ristic's footage and called him in to train for a few days. At the time, Chicago's roster was full. But in late August, when the Fire released forward Stefan Dimitrov, Ristic was back under the training microscope until he finally secured a contract last week.
Ristic is playing for the remainder of the 2010 season, and he said he has options to extend his stay beyond this year.
While he only has one MLS match under his belt, Ristic's play against RSL showed that he wants to play possession soccer and distribute the ball. Ristic was the Ukrainian First Division's assists leader with 19 during his 2005-06 season with Metalurh Donetsk, so the supporting role is something that has come naturally to him.
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