With two games remaining this season, the Fire are playing out the string on a colossally disappointing 2018 campaign. They were mathematically eliminated from postseason play in late September, although their absence from the playoffs has been a foregone conclusion for some time. They continue to struggle with relevance in the market, have exacerbated a public spat with supporters over safety concerns, and have squandered the buzz created last season by the arrival of Bastian Schweinsteiger and a return to competitiveness.



While the failings of 2018 will likely result in a very busy offseason, not all of this season’s developments can be taken as a sign that the club is in full regression to pre-2017 levels of misery. While general manager Nelson Rodriguez has plenty of work to do to restore the team’s standing within the league, this season has provided a few building blocks.



Here are the Fire’s top five on-field success stories of 2018.