The Chicago Fire were in a great position to get their first win in Seattle against a slumping Sounders side that hadn’t beaten an MLS opponent since May – until Dejan Joveljić interrupted those plans with a brace in his Sounders debut.
The Fire were able to come back from being down a goal twice, getting a draw in the process, with Robert Lewandowski involved in both goals.
As a result, the Fire were able to salvage a point and are now on a five-game undefeated streak in MLS play, making it through nine games in August with the Leagues Cup loss to Monterrey as their only defeat.
Here’s what we learned in Seattle.
He’s still Robert Lewandowski
As long as he’s playing for the Fire, one of the big talking points around the team will be the play of Robert Lewandowski.
Over the past couple games, that discussion was centered around the fact that he hasn’t been involved enough in the play: On Tuesday against Monterrey, he went the full 90 minutes but didn’t have a single touch in the opposition box – the second game in a row where that’s been the case, after coming off the bench for about the final half hour against the New York Red Bulls.
In both of those games, it’s felt like Lewandowski was a non-factor, but in prior games, there have been moments that felt like they should have been highlight-reel moments for Lewy – but weren’t: Moments after coming on against New York City back in July, he had a header from about five yards from the goal, and somehow managed to send it, what felt like, eight yards wide of the target. Even the goals he has scored have felt, well, normal.
We still haven’t seen a lot of Lewandowski magic, but the header yesterday against Seattle? That was special. He managed to contort his body to connect with the ball.
It wasn’t the best goal you’ll see – even on that matchday – but it highlights the level of fitness that Lewandowski has, as well as the poise he can show in moments.
“I think the most important thing is we had nine passes inside the penalty box today,” Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter said after the match. “That shows that we're on track. We need to get the ball into the penalty box. Robert needs to get service, and when he does, you can see his quality.”
He may not ever get the level of service he’s used to. That isn’t a statement against the Fire or what they’re capable of, just a recognition of the fact that the league’s parity means that, unlike in Europe, the gap between the best teams in MLS and rest is much smaller than it is between teams like Bayern or Barcelona and almost all of their opponents.
The trick is going to be maximizing the amount of service and finding ways to ensure that the service he does get is quality, all while using his presence to make the rest of the Fire’s attack more dangerous. It’s all a work in progress. But the progress is working.
And the Fire are still learning how to use him
Lewandowski has a very different profile from Hugo Cuypers. Although the Fire never tried to use him as a like-for-like replacement for their departed striker, they also didn’t have a fixed plan for how to get the most out of the most expensive player in Fire history.
Still, Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhatler, as Andrew Claussen from Backheeled remarked to me yesterday, is a tinkerer: There was going to be an adaptation period, when both player and team figured things out, and that is still ongoing.
For much of the game, Lewandowski looked relatively anonymous. During the Sounders onslaught in the first half hour, he wasn’t even visible on the broadcast except in rare spurts.
Some of that was by design. When the Fire regained possession, by staying higher up the pitch, Lewandowski was the lone Fire player on an island – but he wasn’t alone, keeping two, and sometimes three, Seattle defenders with him.
In that early stretch, the Sounders were able to maintain pressure by staying compact, giving them position to jump on almost every loose ball. By stretching the pitch, the Sounders had to open some, giving the Fire midfield and attackers more space to operate.
That helped turn the tide for the Fire, even before the real opportunities started coming for the team.
The Fire’s attack wasn’t perfect, and the team is still struggling to find ways to get him involved in transition moments, which used to be one of the most dangerous parts of the Fire’s game, but it’s been getting better. It’s also telling that he was involved in both the Fire’s goals against Seattle, and had a part in other key moments, including on Zinckernagel’s shot in the 37th minute that went off the crossbar. Lewandowski’s back post run pulled Nouhou and Stuart Hawkins with him, creating space for Lewandowski to take the shot.
It’s a work in progress – but at this point, you can clearly see the progress.
Djé is taking the next step
The story arc for Djé D’Avilla’s time with the Fire has more or less been this: He started off looking hopelessly lost, then once he got his footing, he made remarkable progress in about a six month span in 2025, but in 2026 that progress has largely stalled.
At times, and in moments, you could still see the elite talent level. In others, he would look flat out bad, but when he was bad, it wouldn’t just be an individual play – it would be the rest of the game.
In recent weeks, it’s felt like D’Avilla was taking that next stride forward. Speaking to D’Avilla after he scored his first goal of the year against the Timbers, The Ivorian midfielder told us that the coaching staff had worked not just on his positioning, but also his confidence.
That is clearly paying off. Early on, D’Avilla was not playing well, and Dejan Joveljić’s first goal happened in no small part because of D’Avilla. Last year? That would have been it for him: it might not be downhill from there, but his performance certainly wouldn’t improve throughout the day.
This time, however, his play continued to improve over the course of the game – exactly what his coach has been asking for. “That's what we've been working on with D'Avilla,” Berhalter said postmatch. “If the game isn't perfect or you make a play that you don't love, how do you keep going? Today was a perfect example of D'Avilla not having a great start to the game, but just growing into the game and he became a force as the game went on.”
If he can keep that up, he will come a lot closer to reaching his potential.
Sam Rogers is having a moment
In 2025, Sam Rogers was a regular starter on a team that ended up allowing 60 goals over the course of the regular season, more than any other team that made the playoffs. In times when the team played two center backs, his starts largely dried up after the team acquired Joel Waterman.
In 2026, with Jack Elliott unavailable and the team playing three center backs, he started against Houston, left with a leg injury that sidelined him for months and didn’t play a minute for the team until the Fire’s Leagues Cup opener against Necaxa, an opportunity that came because Joel Waterman was suspended after being sent off in Montréal’s final Leagues Cup match last year.
Since then, he’s really made the most of it, starting and playing well against the Portland Timbers and decently against the Red Bulls.
Against the Sounders, the Washington native who came up through the Sounders system had what was arguably his best game for the Fire, leading both teams with 119 touches, making key defensive plays and showing an impressive passing ability that we haven’t consistently seen from Rogers.
It hasn’t always been easy on the defender: “Sometimes you're not playing for stretches of time,” Rogers said postmatch, “and you don't get the rhythm of a weekly game or like this month where you're playing every few days. So it's even more of a responsibility on me and whoever else is going through those stretches to stay mentally checked, stay focused and above all else, being ready for the opportunity because when you get smaller sample sizes, you got to take those as best as you can.”
He has been taking advantage of that opportunity, and down the stretch, having another center back that the team can trust with key minutes will be a big asset.
Other thoughts
- We’ve talked about Maren Haile-Selassie’s versatility a lot, but it was on full display in Seattle, with the attacker playing four different positions across the midfield and wings. After the game, Berhalter said “Maren is our Swiss Army Knife, and it's ironic that he's actually Swiss because he can play any position and he's versatile and he can do any job. Really happy with his performance and he means a lot to this group."
New nickname unlocked, Maren.
- Puso Dithejane continues his strong run of form for the Fire. Playing just under a half hour plus stoppage time, he set up Lewandowski’s goal, one of the only times so far where the Fire have managed to turn a cross into a real opportunity for the Polish striker.
- Jonathan Bamba needs a goal. Badly. He deserves one, too, with a great shot to the top right corner in the final play of the game that should have gone in and given the Fire the win. In a trying 2026 for the French attacker, he hasn’t been living up to the expectations placed on him as one of the Fire’s two DPs.
Despite that, when he has been on the field, he has often played well. The issues have largely been in his head, with a lack of confidence making Bamba take one (or three) too many touches.
This time, it was bad luck. As Alex Calabrese remarked when we were talking about it yesterday, “he just needs one.” One goal to restore some of his confidence. Maybe Dithejane has permanently passed him in the Fire’s depth chart. Maybe not. Ultimately, though, some of that doesn’t matter: The Fire are a better, more dangerous team, if both are clicking. It feels close. But man, it really feels like he’s just been snakebit this year. - The Fire are one of just two Eastern Conference teams to face all three Cascadia-based MLS squads this year, alongside CF Montréal. Both Eastern Conference squads still have a chance to go undefeated against the Pacific Northwest trio, with the Fire having now won against the Timbers and had a draw against Seattle, and Montréal getting a draw against Portland back in May, with games against Seattle and Vancouver coming up this fall.
- The transfer window is open in MLS until 7 PM CT this Wednesday. So far, acquiring Lewandowski and selling Cuypers have been the only moves for the Fire, with the team having a possibility to add a Designated Player if they want. The Fire are still looking to add pieces.
The team has one open roster slot. Adding additional else means sending someone away, either on loan or sale, or deciding to not roster either André Franco or Mbekezli Mbokazi for the remainder of the season. “We're going to have to assess after the game, assess where we're at,” Berhalter said, ironically, after the game. “We're working on a number of things and we'll be able to share more information soon.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if one question the front office has been pondering is whether they needed to reinforce at center back. The answer to that is feeling a lot more like a “no” than it did just a couple weeks ago given Rogers’s strong play and the possibility that Mbekezli could be back before the end of the year.
