The Chicago Fire are back in action one more time before the World Cup break this Saturday night at Soldier Field. With excitement around the world's biggest sporting event brewing as teams announce their preliminary rosters, the question of focus was at the forefront for the Fire.
"At the end of the day, you know, our focus is on Saturday," Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter said at media availability on Thursday, "and it's not on, you know, the World Cup right now. It's not on the World Cup rosters. It's not on any players we're going to bring in. It's on our squad and how we can perform on Saturday."
“We know we have a difficult opponent. We know that they have had their share of adversity," Berhalter said, referring to Toronto's lengthy list of injuries, "also, this year and they are going to be hungry to get a win, and for us, it's about focus four 90-plus minutes to try to have a very good performance."
Those themes were also shared by team captain Jack Elliott. "Just staying focused for 90 minutes for us is going to be a crucial part of the game," the center back said, "and trying to, again, enforce our way on the game and not get sucked into the way another team is playing and the way they want us to play. So it's certainly a challenge. Those teams that are doing everything but not quite getting the result is always a difficult game to play in because they are hungry and want to do everything to get a result."
The Fire are hoping to turn two wins on the road into a three-game winning streak at home. Toronto, meanwhile, are looking for their first since a 3-2 victory over Colorado on April 4th, a stretch of eight games that includes a loss to Atlético Ottawa in the Canadian Premier League.
Toronto FC
This was always going to be a rebuilding year for Toronto. In 2025, in the first year under Head Coach Robin Fraser, who has a long history with the club, the Canadian side pulled the plug on an expensive, and highly underperforming roster and hit the reset button.
That summer, they brought in Chicago Fire academy product Djordje Mihailović as a Designated Player to be one of the cornerstones of their rebuild. This spring, they brought in Josh Sargent from Norwich City as another DP, as well as fellow USMNT player Walker Zimmerman and winger Dániel Sallói.
Early on, the squad appeared to be outperforming expectations — and then injuries hit. Both Sargent and Mihailović have been injured for weeks. They are a small fraction of the list that stretched to 12 players in last week's report.
With few experienced players available, results haven't gone Toronto's way.
Expect Fraser, never a idealogue when it comes to tactics, to have his team sit back and try to Sallói, who leads the team in both goals and assists, on the counter in this one.
Chicago Fire
The Fire, meanwhile, have slowly been getting the squad back together. After a week where the midfield corps was so depleted that they had to press center back Joel Waterman into service, the team now has, comparatively, a luxury of options, with Robin Lod and Sergio Oregel Jr. both participating in training this week.
The Fire have continued to use a 4-4-2, and with just one game left before what is essentially a second chance at a preseason, wholesale changes shouldn't be expected.
The 4-4-2 has had its issues, but the Fire have found ways to get results – including against a D.C. team that, like Toronto, was playing in a way that was difficult to break down.
