For the second year in a row, the Chicago Fire are in south Florida for the first part of their preseason, with a scrimmage against B.J. Callaghan’s Nashville SC – a squad that vexed the Fire last season – happening today as part of the team’s first preseason trip to West Palm Beach in Florida. 

Although the team’s first minutes against an opponent won’t be broadcast, MIR97 Media has been told that the later games in Coachella will likely be available via streaming, though the details have yet to be announced.

Regardless of if – or how – we can watch the games, here’s five things we’re looking for as the Fire are set to face off against opponents for the first time this year. 

1. How does the team look in the 4-3-3?

The broader question is “what formation will the Fire play?” – but let’s be honest. The question is essentially if we’ll see the team revert to the 4-3-3 that was used for most of the season, or a system with three center backs and one fewer midfielder that saw the team string together the wins in last September that sealed the team’s first postseason berth this decade.

Gregg Berhalter has favored the 4-3-3 throughout his time as a head coach, and the smart money is that that will be the formation that the Fire most utilize most frequently in 2026, just as it was in 2025. Especially with Joel Waterman unavailable for the time being (more on this in a second), the 4-3-3 is likely going to be the formation we see the most of over the next week – but how does the team look playing out of that formation? 

2. … and how does the team look in a 3-5-2?

We may not see a 3-5-2 (or 5-3-2, or 5-4-1 or any variation where the team plays three center backs with two fullback-cum-wingbacks and two midfielders) at all in the preseason: Joel Waterman is currently with the CanMNT (and apparently suffered a minor knock), Mbekezeli Mbokazi is a late arrival to camp, meaning it may be some time before Berhalter wants to throw him into the squad, even in a non competitive match, and Christopher Cupps is still 17. 

Playing three center backs with the current available players not only potentially strains the corps, but it also won’t look much like the group that would likely be in that formation not that long from now.

If we see it, though, the question is if the midfielders – in any combination of personnel – can still essentially take on the role that it did when the team used the formation successfully last fall.

If it can, it means that it’s a more powerful arrow in Berhalter’s quiver. If it can’t, then we’ll likely see more of the 4-3-3 as the default template in the early going.

3. How fast can the new guys integrate?

Even if the turnover hasn’t been nearly as great this offseason as it was ahead of 2025, when Gregg Berhalter and the rest of the Fire front office had to drastically rework the squad, the team that takes to the field in the season opener in Houston next month will have real changes from the one that fell to the Philadelphia Union in November.

While it’s important not to over-index preseason, where players are working back into form and we’ll likely see players from the bottom half of the roster get minutes they wouldn’t during competitive matches, we’ll be keeping an eye on how the Fire’s new additions fit in with the rest of the squad.

The midfield, in particular, has been significantly worked over, and it’s likely that none of the Fire’s starters on opening day will have been playing for the team a year ago (including Djé D’Avilla, who arrived in the spring, after preseason and the team’s opening matches).

Both Robin Lod and Anton Salétros are veteran players, which should help smooth their way into the squad. Lod, of course, has been in the MLS for years, arriving from Minnesota United – and has frankly been one of the better players at his position in a league where the end of the scale is a diminutive Argentinian World Cup winner. His level plus his positional flexibility should make it easy for him to fully integrate.

Salétros may also integrate quickly: We’ve seen players have relatively smooth entries from Nordic leagues to MLS – Philip Zinckernagel played around Europe before joining the Fire last year, but spent several stints at FC Bodø/Glimpt in Norway, including the year prior to his arrival.

Mbokazi and Puso Dithejane, however, are more wildcards: Although Mbokazi's most recent minutes were at a high level with South Africa in the recently-completed Afcon tournament, national team and club team are different, and the South African Premiership simply isn’t MLS’s level when evaluated top to bottom.

Both are also later arrivals, and there is a real question whether Dithejane will make it in time for preseason last year.

4. Who looks ready to take a step forward?

Last season, the Chicago Fire had a number of players who exceeded any realistic expectations based on previous performance..

Sergio Oregel Jr. leads the list – the Fire homegrown made his debut in 2022, making an 11 minute cameo off the bench late in the season, but didn’t get another opportunity to play with the first team until last season.

You’d excuse him if he looked rusty but no: He played over 2,000 minutes last season, including 25 in the regular season. He also started in the team’s last victory of the year, playing 81 minutes as the team earned their first playoff win since 20-year-old Oregel was in preschool.

It isn’t just Oregel, though: Sam Rogers returned to MLS and exceeded any reasonable expectations for his performance. Jonathan Dean once again broke through a supposed limit on his game and showed offensive acumen he hadn’t previously displayed. Djé D’Avilla went from a liability wandering the pitch to a hungry, ball-winning midfielder that could be trusted in key minutes.

And Christopher Cupps made his MLS debut just shy of his 17th birthday and helped the team keep a point in a 0-0 draw despite playing down a man for most of the match. And just to reiterate: At 16 years of age.

Who – if anyone – will take a similar step forward this year? The most likely suspects at this point are David Poreba, finally ready to play as a full member of the first team after an injury almost a year ago derailed that plan, Jason Shokalook, who won the MLS Next Pro Golden Boot a year after Poreba, and Robert Turdean, who could well be in line for his first team debut at some point this season.

A year ago, Oregel was flashing signs that he was going to shatter expectations placed on him. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if we saw someone else do the same this year.

5. So, how’s the team look against Nashville?

It is important not to over-index preseason. As MIR97’s own DJ Hagenwald has discussed on The Bonfire, there is basically absolutely no correlation between the team’s preseason performance and what happens later, when there’s points on the line. 

Still: Nashville gave the Fire what was arguably their most embarrassing result in history – even though the 2025 team was not anywhere near the worst version of the team assembled. In fact, by all measures, last year’s Fire team was the best to ever play Nashville: It had the most points, the most goals, it made the postseason, which all the others failed to do. 

Despite all of that – and the friendship between Berhalter and Nashville Head Coach BJ Callaghan, his former assistant with the USMNT – there is a real curiosity of how the team looks against a team that beat them 7-2 away and 2-0 at home last year, and a team against whom the Fire are 1W-2D-6L, having been outscored 22-5 over that stretch.

As Vince Lombardi said, “if it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?” They don’t actually keep score in all preseason scrimmages. If they do in this one (they will), it matters – even if it's just a little.