For the second week in a row, the Fire scored just one goal and walked away with a victory, earning their fourth clean sheet of the year seven games into the season – a tally the team didn’t hit last year until their final game in July.
Even if the scorelines were identical, Fire’s 1-0 win over Atlanta, though, the games played really differently. Here’s five things we learned last night at Soldier Field.
1. Some streaks are made to continue
“Streaks are made to be broken” has kind of been a theme around here this year, starting with the 0-0 draw in Columbus that marked the first time since 2019 that the Crew’s first home game across all competitions didn’t end in a win for the team in yellow.
The run continued two weeks ago, the Fire beat the Union on the road and ended a 13-year-long winless streak in Chester, Penn. in the process. A week later at home, the Fire sent Nashville SC to their first defeat of 2026 across all competitions when getting their second-ever win over Nashville SC. The victory not only ended a streak of futility against a team that seemed to always have the Fire’s number and was a measure of revenge for Chicago after the ‘Yotes smacked the Fire in a 7-2 victory in the first game between the sides last year.
Now, however, the Fire continued a streak of their own, extending their undefeated run at home against Atlanta United to eight games, including every game the teams have contested in the city limits (Atlanta’s only victory came at SeatGeek Stadium back in 2018). That was one of just two games where the Five Stripes scored multiple goals when visiting. The other came in 2023, when Atlanta went up a man after Miguel Ángel Navarro was sent off early, scored three goals (starting with one by now-Fire player Andrew Gutman) but also conceded three times while being a man down.
Continuing positive runs while ending some ugly ones is fun and everything, but behind that is a truth: the team is finding ways to win in ways the team just hasn’t in years and years. It hasn’t always been gorgeous, and the victories haven’t always been the most convincing, but the difference, at the end of the year, between a good-to-great team and one that’s just OK is that the good team finds its way to results consistently.
The Fire are doing that now.
2. The Fire are allowed to play the same XI twice
Heading into the Fire’s seventh game of the season, the Fire had yet to play the same starting XI more than once. Over that stretch, the team has shuffled through five different formations, and had only played the same formation two weeks in a row when they played out of a 4-2-3-1 for two games.
Even that run was snapped last week, when an injury to Hugo Cuypers meant that the Fire were without a true striker they trusted to go 90 minutes, with Gregg Berhalter saying the coaching staff didn’t feel Jason Shokalook, the nominal no. 2 at the position, wasn’t quite ready for starts.
Without a trusted person to fill the role, Berhalter went for quantity, playing Robin Lod and Maren Haile-Selassie in a role where both played more like false nines than true strikers. That put the Fire in a 4-4-2, which in effect played more like a 4-2-4 a lot of the time, with Djé D’Avilla and Anton Salétros functioning as a double pivot and Jonathan Bamba and Philip Zinckernagel as attackers who’d tuck in from the wing in moment.
This time out, Gregg Berhalter rolled with the same lineup, proving that, well, the team could. Even then, there was a bit of an asterisk here – Jack Elliott had his second start in a row, but that comes only because Joel Waterman had to be a late scratch last week– and it obviously worked as the Fire got a second 1-0 win in a row, but I really don’t know if I’d fancy the Fire’s chances of continuing the streak if they keep this XI.
That’s because….
3. The Fire need a backup striker (they have one of those at home)
Sure: The players got the result last night, and in a roundabout way, I’m glad that Maren Haile-Selassie, who, on top of being a versatile, smart, technical player, is just a fun player to watch, is getting minutes (he’s already had as many starts, and more than half the minutes that he had last year).
However: The lack of a backup striker the team trusts with minutes is clearly an issue that will limit the team’s ceiling. The team missed several great chances for a second goal and at that point, they could have really had the visitors on the ropes.
I still think the lack of a no. 9 the team trusts is not the biggest issue on the roster. The lack of a high-end chance creator, at least in André Franco’s absence, is the biggest problem, and the team’s reliance on long balls and crosses in from the wings, as they have in the past two games, ultimately limits the team’s ceiling pretty significantly, but it’s still a significant issue. (I really hope that this isn’t a preview of how the Fire plan to play if they add a certain striker from Europe this summer, however good Robert Lewandowski is as a player.)
Last night, Robin Lod missed a clear tap in, which sure, happens, but that was just one of several great chances for a second goal and put away none of them.
With a defense this strong, it’s increasingly feeling like this could be a special year in Chicago, but if the team has to shift formations to cover up the lack of a no. 9 in the starting lineup and can’t get the production they need as a result. While Andrew Gutman was quick to praise the team’s “next man up mentality,” saying Haile-Selassie and Robin Lod are “doing amazing stuff for us,” it’s just an obvious gap that changes how the team plays. Against Nashville, it was something new, and it worked against a beleaguered Atlanta side.
But now there’s 180 minutes of tape on the team playing in the formation, and a better team than Atlanta could have figured out how to score – they looked close! – and had more success shutting down the Fire’s relatively predictable attack.
The thing is, the Fire actually do have another proven goal-scoring center forward on their roster in Jason Shokalook, the 2025 MLS Next Pro Golden Boot winner. His play earned him a first-team deal, and as Matt Doyle of Tactics Free Zone has pointed out repeatedly, goal scoring from Next Pro has translated well to MLS level.
After the win over Nashville last week, Berhalter said that the coaching staff “didn’t think Jason Shokalook was quite ready to start the game,” and every one of them forgot more about soccer between full time and bedtime last night than I’ll ever know, but you still have to think that
Look: Every member of the Fire’s front office and coaching staff forgot more about soccer between the final kick last night and the time they went to bed than I’ll ever know, and I have no reason to doubt their assessment that he’s not ready. At the same time, necessity more or less forced the team to give Dylan Borso his MLS debut a few weeks ago, and he put in a shift.
Shok may not be ready for a start, but I still think he deserves more than a handful of late garbage minutes to show what he can do.
4. Mbokazi is getting noticed
When he joined the Fire, Mbekezeli Mbokazi had an unreal amount of hype for a center back, particularly one joining via the league’s U22 Initiative, which has so far resulted in a lot of spending but hasn’t brought a lot of quality players to the league. (I’ll have more on how the Fire are doing something unique with the designation in a way that looks like it’s actually getting the team results.)
A lot of that came because when Mbokazi signed, he brought a massive number of South African fans with him, giving the Fire more new followers on social media than Son Heung-Min’s arrival brought to LAFC but with seven starts and 628 minutes under his belt, it’s fair to say the hype has been justified.
Shortly after play resumed following Haile-Selassie’s goal, the young South African made a remarkable goal-line clearance, literally using his head to preserve the Fire’s lead.
They call him TLB for a reason 🇿🇦 #cf97 pic.twitter.com/7wBxSuYpd6
— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) April 12, 2026
Late in the game, he made a fantastic open-field tackle on Atlanta’s Saba Lobjanidze. You don’t see a highlight reel-worthy tackle often, but I mean, look at this:
Outstanding tackle from Mbokazi on Lobjanidze in the corner #cf97 https://t.co/njI6nepklN pic.twitter.com/gHfDe0cLi1
— Colin (@ufcolin) April 12, 2026
That’s why Gutman called him a “defensive monster” after the game.
His involvement wasn’t just defensive, however: In the 60th minute, he lobbed a fantastic ball towards Lod that looked like it was destined for a clear chance. Ultimately, nothing came of it, but a center back that can ask those kinds of questions is going to complicate things for the attacking team.
If Mbokazi was ever a secret around the league, the secret is getting out.
Not many times in my career (as a player or analyst) would I describe a centerback as must watch, but Mbekezeli Mbokazi is phenomenal. Just oozes quality, but defensively he’s so strong. Exactly what’s led to the defensive turnaround from the Fire. 5 goals conceded in 7 games 🔥
— Dax McCarty (@DaxMcCarty11) April 12, 2026
When I said this is starting to look like it could be a special year in Chicago, Mbokazi is a big part of why. While there’s a chance that he could leave as soon as the summer – the World Cup will be a pretty big stage for him – I think more time in MLS would be valuable for him: The most important thing for his continued development is high-level minutes, which the league provides. While you can’t ignore the highlight-reel plays, he’s also misread plays occasionally and made the kind of small mistakes that would likely see him benched at the kinds of teams that could likely afford the transfer fee that the Fire would likely be looking for.
On the whole, though: There’s defenders who have the physical ability to dominate, and there’s defenders who are smart enough to read plays before they happen. Mbokazi is one of a handful who can do both. Captain Jack Elliott (who has been having a great season playing next to the South African defender) said “He can cover a lot of ground, he reads the game well. It’s great to play alongside him,” while noting that he’s still “raw, but an excellent player.”
If I had to guess, that means he’s here for 2026 and likely the sprint season in 2027, which would give Mbokazi a full preseason before the 2027-2028 campaign at his new club. But the clock is ticking, and it seems to be ticking faster, rather than slower the more we see of the guy.
That’s good, because while he’s here...
5. The Fire’s ceiling is higher than it was last year. Possibly much higher
One of the issues with MLS’s salary cap structure is that if and when the Fire do sell a player like Mbokazi on, whatever the team may want to do, they can’t readily replace him. There simply aren’t (m)any 20-year-old center backs that can do what he can, and of that small pool, only so many could consider joining MLS and some of those might not want to come to Chicago for one reason or another.
That means that teams in MLS often have windows of contention, when they’re able to unite a successful group of young, cap-friendly players with in-prime veterans. The windows are often only open for a short time, before the young players move on (even if it will increasingly be to other teams in the league, as cash transfers change the game internally) and the veterans start to hit the far side of “in-prime.”
It’s starting to feel like a window like that may be opening for the Fire. The team’s fourth clean sheet of the year – three of them in victories – improved the team to 4W-1D-2L and 13 points, good for second place in the Eastern Conference and part of a three-way tie for fourth in the 30 team league on points (the Fire would be behind Real Salt Lake and ahead of Seattle on tiebreakers, but that’s basically academic).
I still believe everything I wrote about the team’s issues: At times, have struggled to create offensively, and as great as it is that they’ve allowed just five goals in 630 minutes of competitive soccer, they need to find a way towards better chance creation.
Some of that may happen if Lod snaps back into something closer to the form he’s expected to have, and some of that may happen when Franco returns (or it may not, given the nature of ACL injuries). The team has time to figure that out, however, and an open DP slot in the first year in league history where the secondary window is open early enough for teams to make real changes that impact the course of their season.
In the meantime, even if I wouldn’t call them Shield contenders or one of the favorites for an MLS Cup appearance, they should feel like they can win any game in any competition they’re in.
I really hope that Berhalter and his staff have the U.S. Open Cup final dates written in pen somewhere on the team calendar, as the squad has to be one of, if not the, favorites for that competition and a win (or possibly even an appearance in the finals) could be enough to finally secure the team a continental birth for the first time in the competition’s modern history. (I also hope that the team takes care of business in their opening game of the competition against Detroit City on Tuesday. Cupsets happen every year, and the Fire have been on the losing end of more than their fair share of them.)
If they don’t get in that way? Given Berhalter’s knack for beating Mexican opponents (particularly on American soil), the Leagues Cup could be the way through for the Fire.
The team still needs a few things to snap together for that to work out, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen from this squad in one way or another. The Fire closer to being a top-level team they’ve been in a long, long time.
