The Chicago Fire are back at Soldier Field on Saturday when they host Sporting Kansas City.

The MLS original was a frequent foe of the Fire's in the team's early years. The teams have notable history, including the 2000 MLS Cup where Tony Meola stood on his head to deny the Fire their second trophy in the competition and a 7-0 revenge win for the Fire a year later on July 4 — a game that Fire's largest margin of victory (and SKC's largest margin of defeat) a quarter century later. More recently, however, the league's growth has made them less familiar to each other.

The Fire's last two meetups against SKC were at Children's Mercy Park, and the last time they met in Chicago was back in the 2022 season. At the time of that meetup, Kansas City were a near-perennial playoff team, a miss in 2019 the only blemish on a run of postseason appearances dating back to 2011 that included an MLS Cup victory in 2013.

Since then, the team has hit the rocks, making the postseason only once and in the earliest stages of a rebuilding year after dismissing longtime Peter Vermes, the team's long-term manager, last year.

Even if the teams haven't met on the pitch, there are still links between the two squads: As part of that rebuilding, Kansas City brought in some names familiar to Fire fans, naming Raphaël Wicky the first head coach of the post-Vermes era and bringing in former Fire homegrown Justin Reynolds in a trade with the Fire in the offseason. This match will be the first tim either have returned to Soldier Field since leaving Chicago.

Both are connected to Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter. On his former player, he had this to say: "For Justin, in particular, we see a ton of talent. He's a talented player. For us, it was really about a change of scenery for him, and then, you know, going out into the real world, so to speak, where you don't have the comforts that you have when it's your hometown. I think he needs that to continue to grow. He's a fantastic talent. You know, I think he has a ton of attributes to be a player for a long time in this league. It's really nice to see him starting, doing well."

He also called Wicky, who was one of the coaches in the US Youth Team setup while Berhalter was overseeing the program at the US Soccer Federation, "friend," continuing "I've known Rapha a long time. I think when you sign up for these jobs, you're thinking about everything. You're thinking about the training ground, you're thinking about the fans, the stadium, the squad, the ownership, and I believe Rapha is in a good spot. I think it may take longer than some people will have thought but he's at a great club in Kansas City."

So far, because of the slow speed of that rebuild, results have been few and far between for SKC, who sit last place in the Western Conference.

What to Expect

Sporting KC

We went back and forth on whether the results table should show all results or just league results. We ultimately went with the latter, partly because, if we're also talking about a team's position in the table and their record, then it makes sense that the table at the right shows (part of) how they got there.

It's games like this, though, that make me almost regret that, because it means that we don't get to show SKC's 3-0 loss to the Colorado Switchbacks of the USL Championship in the U.S. Open Cup on April 14.

Cupsets happen, but this didn't really feel like a cupset. Despite Wicky fielding a strong XI, including Dejan Jovelić, one of only two truly standout players on the roster (along with Manu García, who wasn't in the lineup), SKC was outplayed throughout the match. They conceded early, they were down by two goals at half. They picked up a red – late, when the game already felt decided – then conceded again. The Switchbcks had as many shots on target as Kansas City had total shots (7).

As a result, Kansas City is on a five game losing streak across all competitions, and during that stretch, they've been outscored 16-3 over that stretch.

How bad are things in SKC? Bad enough that Drew VanderPloeg (friend of The Bonfire) wrote about it at Backheeled.

It's a great read, especially for fans who started paying attention to MLS in the past decade — before that, Sporting Kansas City were truly one of MLS's model clubs, at the forefront of developing domestic talent and scouting globally, building facilities on par with the best in the world, and adopting new, more engaging soccer tactics.

Right now, though? Sporting Kansas City are in a bad spot ‒ but they can still be dangerous. “I think it's a little bit misleading where they are in the table," Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter said in media availability Thursday. "They have played better at times than the results show, and they pose some problems. For us it's being really focused on what we're trying to do, being aggressive and trying to set the team up for success.”

They do have dangerous players on the roster, including Dejan Jovelić. Having played in the Western Conference for seven seasons, facing Sporting Kansas City a lot more often than the Fire, and familiar with Jovelić from his time with the LA Galaxy, Robin Lod was in an excellent position to give a scouting report for the Fire.

Jovelić, Lod said, "has been in the League and proved that he's one of the best goal scorers in the League and he has done it in LA and he showed last year that he can do it in KC even though they are struggling. It's a player that you have to be careful.”

Chicago Fire

Last week, Hugo Cuypers made a welcome return missing time with a head injury.

With their best best goalscoring threat back in the lineup, although the Fire nominally played out of a 4-4-2 but, it played in reality more like a 4-3-3, with Lod's role somewhere between a second striker and a midfielder (for what it's worth: Lod's average position was dead center, behind Cuypers and slightly ahead of Anton Salétros).

A quarter way through the season, even if the Fire have played seven different combinations of players in the Starting XI (Leo Barroso's injury meant it was never going to be a repeat of an XI last week), it's pretty clear who the preferred starters are in Berhalter's lineup: Chris Brady, Mbekezeli Mbokazi, Anton Salétros and Philip Zinckernagel have started in all eight of the Fire's games in league play. Barroso, Jonathan Bamba, Cuypers, Jack Elliott and Andrew Gutman have all started when available.

That's nine players. For the other two, Djé D'Avilla and Robin Lod have become regular starters after both were on the bench at kickoff for the Fire's home opener against CF Montréal and a week in Columbus. Other players have key roles — Maren Haile-Selassie has the sixth most minutes for the Fire, playing in virtually every spot outside of net for the team.

That means that others, including many that have shown quality with the squad, from Jonathan Dean to Joel Waterman, haven't had as much time on the pitch as we'd come to expect in 2025. Amongst those players is Sergio Oregel Jr, who has just two appearances for the Fire this year, including in the U.S. Open Cup.

With Berhalter confirming at media availability that both Bamba and Barroso will be out again, will we see more rotation against Sporting Kansas City on Saturday?

Berhalter was hinting that we won't — at least not yet, saying, "“I think the first half of the season, the first 14 games are tricky because we don't have that many midweek fixtures. But as we go into the World Cup break and the restart, we're going to be playing every couple days and that's where we're going to need these depth pieces and that’s where everyone is going to get game time."

It sounds we will be seeing more rotation — just maybe not yet.

Predicted Lineup and Match Information