Season stoppage hasn’t paused Mauricio Pineda’s development

Back in March, Fire rookie Mauricio Pineda opened the season well. He started the Fire’s first two games and quickly showed he belonged in Major League Soccer.

Then the pandemic hit, and Pineda’s debut campaign was paused. Among many other concerns was how the stoppage would impact the development of young players, and Pineda admitted that did occur to him.

“A lot of those thoughts kind of went through my head,” Pineda said earlier this month. “Obviously it was nice starting the first two games of the season, got some playing time in those. I’m kind of just asking myself ‘why this all happens now? Why did it all have to stop?’ It was going so well.”

“But at a certain time, I just decided to put my head down and just keep working hard and be ready for when the time came.”

Based on his performances since the Fire reconvened, Pineda’s work is paying off.

Pineda’s game-winner Tuesday against the Sounders was his first as a professional, and marked another encouraging moment for the 22-year-old Homegrown signing from Bolingbrook. Coach Raphael Wicky has effusively praised the midfielder/defender during media availabilities, and Pineda’s 30-yard volley to score in a friendly against Minnesota United showed his pure ability. On Wednesday, the Fire officially picked up Pineda’s option for 2021, though that rather easy decision wasn’t made because of his performance against Seattle.

Clearly, he’s made an impression on Wicky, who saw Pineda’s talent and work ethic as early as training camp.

“He came back the same way after the pandemic, so he’s doing the same thing as before,” Wicky said Tuesday. “We are very happy to have him in our team. That gives us a big option. Obviously now he starts scoring goals which is helpful as well. He just needs to keep working and keep improving. There is a good future in front of him, but the most important thing is to keep (the) right mentality.”

When Pineda officially signed, it was recognized as an important moment for the Fire, who play San Jose on Sunday night in their second MLS is Back Tournament match. The franchise had not been able to ink other highly regarded Homegrown prospects such as midfielder Cameron Lindley, defender Andrew Gutman and goalkeeper Damian Las, and not bringing Pineda into the fold would have stung.

But Pineda joined the Fire on Jan. 17 after four collegiate seasons at North Carolina, and the returns have been promising. And it appears the stoppage hasn’t stunted his growth.

“I think it’s just a matter of coming into preseason and working as hard as I can,” Pineda said. “During the quarantine time especially, I think knowing that it was my rookie season I still kept working hard knowing at some point we’d be back and playing and I had to be ready for that.”