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The seven year drought is over and the Chicago Fire are back in the postseason. They got there in thrilling fashion, with goals from five different goal scorers – four of them pretty unlikely ones – with the eventual winner from Fire homegrown Justin Reynolds – his first MLS goal, as the Fire outgunned Inter Miami’s star-studded roster in a 5-3 decision.
Here’s five things we learned from the night that punched the Fire’s ticket into the postseason.
1) This team has belief in themselves
Other recent vintages of Chicago Fire teams have managed to score against difficult opponents but all too often, leads evaporated, and the team had made something of an art out of snatching a draw – or even a defeat – from the jaws of victory.
We’ve written and talked a lot this season about how the Fire now feature a better-constructed roster and how the tactics have improved, but we haven’t said enough about the change in mentality that the group has shown.
In the second half, Miami were running rampant over the Chicago Fire. When Luis Suárez scored his second goal in the 74th minute to get Miami level, the Fire had yet to register a shot since halftime. Exhaustion was clearly setting in on both sides in the hot, humid climate in South Florida, and it would have been all too easy for the Fire to let what looked like a sure victory slip away.
Then the Fire responded. Brian Gutiérrez got the ball to Mauricio Pineda, who then played a perfect pass to Reynolds at point-blank range who deflected it in for his first MLS goal.
That’s three Fire homegrowns who have been on the roster for over three years but let’s be honest: That game winner doesn’t come in prior seasons. What caused the shift?
Here’s what Justin Reynolds, the guy who scored the game winner said. “I think Coach has come in and instilled a culture in the locker room.... I think from the root up, he’s changed the club.” Gutiérrez also highlighted Gregg Berhalter’s influence, saying “I think the most important thing was the culture and having that bond with the whole team. I think in recent times, we didn't have that, and it showed on the field. You don't see that camaraderie. And I think that culture was a big asset to what we needed.”
That culture and belief can take the team – and individuals – through tough moments. Hugo Cuypers was so winded that he seemed barely able to walk in the final 20 minutes of the game, but still managed to press and make runs, helping secure the result for his team. Fighting through adversity? Getting contributions from star players in ways that don’t show up in a box score? Those are traits that are going to matter a lot in the playoffs.
2) The players really understand the system
Without trying to minimize, in any way, the team culture Berhalter and his staff helped create with the Fire, they haven’t just changed the team culture. The coaching staff have also done the work to make the players truly understand the team’s tactical principles, game model and structure.
To wit: When we saw the lineup that Gregg Berhalter put out Tuesday night, featuring Jonathan Dean, Jack Elliott, Andrew Gutman and Joel Waterman, we assumed that the Fire had returned to playing out of a 4-3-3, missing Sam Rogers due to a one-game suspension. That would make sense against an opponent that also played four in the back.
It would have been too natural: Maren Haile-Selassie would take Philip Zinckernagel’s spot in the starting lineup, Rominigue Kouamé would have slotted in for Brian Gutiérrez in the midfield.
But that’s not how the team played. Listed – and often playing – as a 3-4-3, Gutman was effectively the left center-back. Kouamé, not Haile-Selassie, played as a winger while the Swiss player played adjacent Dean at wingback.
Formations are fluid, and at times, the Fire did use more of a back four. Gutman did have incense to get forward, but overall? The Starting XI did not play in the positions that those that had watched every minute of the team this season – that includes yours truly – assumed.
And you know what? Gutman did a passable job at center back, two blocked shots, five clearances, a key interception and a tackle. Kouamé scored a key goal for the Fire.
Haile-Selassie, though, well, here’s what Berhalter, speaking unprompted about his performance, had to say about him last night. “He got the Man of the Match, the Coach's Man of the Match, and he's a guy that had to wait and wait and wait for opportunities but he always stayed positive. Always had a good mindset. Always came to training with the idea to keep getting better. He finally got a start. He's playing out of position and he performed extremely well. So really proud of him and his attitude.”
The performances that Haile-Selassie, Gutman and Kouamé were able to put in playing out of position is a testament to how well the players understand the system. That applies both to those playing out of their normal spots as well as the rest of the squad, who knew that their teammates would be in familiar places, even if it wasn’t the usual starter or player there.
3) The squad has even more depth than we realized
Just a few days ago, we talked about the Fire’s depth, saying that the Fire finally had good attacking options on the bench. We called out Maren Haile-Selassie as a “real attacking option” – we were right about that.
But we aren’t taking a victory lap here: We did not say that he could also play as a wingback. Nor that the team could use Andrew Gutman as a center back. Rominigue Kouamé could “provide stability in the defensive end of the midfield,” but we didn’t mention say anything about him starting on the wing and getting two goal contributions, including a response to Miami’s opener just four minutes later that ensured the team went into halftime with a two goal cushion.
And we didn’t mention Justin Reynolds, who hadn’t made an appearance since April 5th and went from May 17th to September 6th between being on the bench for the Fire, at all.
The Fire scored five goals without any goal contributions from Philip Zinckernagel, who leads the team in that department, or Hugo Cuypers, the team’s leading goal scorer. Tom Barlow, who scored the first hat trick for the Fire since 2017, did not make an appearance with his team out of substitutions due to André Franco's injury.
Depth is more than just bodies, it’s about having players who can be relied upon when called, and it’s pretty clear that we still haven’t found the bottom of the Fire’s depth this season.
4) That depth is about to be tested
For a game against a team that has long been firmly out of the playoff picture, Saturday’s matchup against Toronto always felt like it could be more difficult on the pitch than it appeared on paper.
It’s the Fire’s third game in a week and comes after Toronto have managed a seven game undefeated streak. All seven of those games have been draws, with six identical 1-1 scorelines along with a 0-0 draw against Atlanta. Those 1-1 games include results against the Philadelphia Union, Columbus (twice) and Inter Miami.
It’s also academy product Djordje Mihailović’s first game against the Fire since he left under less than amicable circumstances with the team’s former front office, possibly fueling the now-$8 million signing from Toronto.
More significantly, the Fire’s depth is about to be tested in other ways: André Franco left the game against Miami with an apparent injury, and it looks like it could be a significant one. Speaking after the game, Berhalter said “I'm fearful, but I think we're going to have some terrible news about André Franco, and we're going to have to get the medical report,” before saying “but it’s not looking good. You know, our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.”
Losing Franco would be a very significant blow for the Fire. The Portuguese midfielder has been excellent since joining the Fire since joining from Porto over the summer. In four of the five games he’s started, all in September, the Fire walked away with victory in four of them as Franco netted four assists to help the team. He has made the team’s attack significantly harder to plan and play against.
If Franco is out, whether for a short amount of time or a more extended period, that puts additional pressure on Brian Gutiérrez and the rest of the team’s midfield group to find a way to do the things that the summertime acquisition has been doing so effectively for the team.
5) This team can compete in the playoffs
All too often, answers in press conferences are clearly said for an audience: Using language so boilerplate that the clichés have become tropes, players and coaches across different leagues, different sports and different countries use almost identical wording to say almost nothing. The answers to questions are often so formulaic that they could have almost been transcribed before they’re uttered.
That’s why Berhalter’s response was so surprising when, after his introduction as head coach and director of football, he was asked if the team was going to be in the playoffs in 2025. Instead of something like “we’re here to compete and win,” or promising a playoff spot in a full calendar year from the time he was giving the quote, he said, simply, “we’re going to do our best.”
That kind of honesty was repeated just last night in Ft. Lauderdale. With the Fire back in postseason for the first time since 2017 – when Gregg Berhalter was still coaching the Columbus Crew – he said “And you know, I'm not going to sit here and tell you our new objective is to win it all but our objective is to compete, every series we're in, every game we're in because you know that can lead to an opportunity. That's all we're looking for is an opportunity to compete.”
Throughout 2025, it seemed like his squad’s ceiling for the year was making it back to the postseason, but competing once there? It seemed unlikely.
Coming off of a 3-1 loss to NYCFC on September 13 – which at the time looked like it might be a possible preview of the wildcard game – the Fire had a total of four wins against teams currently in a postseason spot, two against Charlotte, and one each against Orlando City and the Vancouver Whitecaps. The most recent of those victories was home against Charlotte on June 28th, in a game where the Fire were up by three goals before letting their opponent concede two.
That wasn’t an inspiring record against the teams that the Fire would be meeting in the games after the regular season ends.
Since then, the Fire have put together three wins in a row against playoff-bound teams, with victories against Minnesota and Columbus ahead before last night’s win over Miami. The two wins against Midwestern opponents were the team’s first clean sheet victories against postseason-bound teams this season, with the team’s only other result against a team heading to the playoffs coming in their 0-0 draw against Miami in April.
Yes, you could argue that there are mitigating circumstances: Minnesota had a rotated starting lineup after playing midweek. Columbus has been in a slump and their squad was missing a number of key starters to injury. And last night’s game was Miami’s sixth in 17 days.
Still: Teams aren’t perfect when they enter the postseason, either, and you can only face the teams in front of you.
Between the improved play in defense over the past few games to the team’s contributions from unlikely sources, this team really is peaking in the right place and is set looking like one that won’t bow out of the playoffs quietly.
