Fire loses All-Star Conde as ’11 season takes shape

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

The Fire learned Monday where it would play its first two games of the 2011 season, but the club also lost another star player.

Major League Soccer announced that Wilman Conde, an All-Star defender the last two seasons, has signed with Atlas of the Mexican League. Conde’s contract with the Fire expired at the end of last season, but the club still put him on its protected list for last month’s expansion draft.

The Fire had lost two other veterans with the retirements of Brian McBride and C.J. Brown, but it pick­ed up one experienced backliner, Cory Gibbs, in last week’s re-entry draft to partially offset the loss. Gibbs, 30, has played for the U.S. ­national team and was with the Colorado Rapids the last two seasons after a three-year stint in the German Bundesliga.

Freddie Ljungberg, the Fire’s top offensive player, also might not return. His contract with the Fire expires in January, and he has received offers from several clubs in the English Premier League. Ljungberg, 33, had his best years with Arsenal and was with Aston Villa in the EPL before jumping to MLS with the Seattle Sounders in 2008. The Fire acquired him midway through last season and hoped to keep him.

With the roster in serious limbo, the Fire announced the first games of an expanded 34-game MLS schedule for next season. The home opener will be March 26 against Sporting Kansas City, a club previously known as the Kansas City Wizards. It will mark the first time in the Fire’s 14 seasons that it has played a home opener in March.

The first game of 2011 will be on the road — at FC Dallas on March 19. It will be the fifth time those clubs meet on First Kick Weekend — the most such meetings in league history. The Fire is 1-3-0 in such meetings, winning for the only time in the last one in 2009.

In its first 13 seasons, the Fire has played its first game at home only once (2007) but has a 5-4-4 record in season debuts.

The Fire will be the visiting team when two teams open new stadiums this season — April 14 at PGE Park when the expansion Portland Timbers make their home debut, and June 9 at the new Kansas City Soccer Stadium to take on Sporting Kansas City.

Last season, the Fire was the visitor in the New York Red Bulls’ first home game in its new facility.