It's Lewandowski. It's Messi. It's Suárez.
In the history of the game, 27 male players have scored 500 or more goals between club and country. Six of those are currently playing. Half of those – three of the top four active players, all of whom are amongst the top 12 all time – are slated to play in this game. It's the first time in MLS history that that many of the game's top goal scorers will ever meet in a match.
And it's happening tonight in what's sure to be a packed Soldier Field.
I think that this is the aim of Major League Soccer, is to play games like this in front of this many people at sold out stadiums with marquee players," Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter said at media availability Monday. "We always talk about Major League Soccer being the league of choice for top players, and this game is an example of this. We’ll see a lot of top players featured in this game."
This is not, however, an exhibition of no consequence: The game matters, pitting the Chicago Fire, third in MLS's Eastern Conference and with a game in hand on the visitors, against Inter Miami, in second. If the Fire emerge victorious on Wednesday and win that game in hand, they'll be above Miami in the standings.
The headliners of both clubs are in-form: Messi just became the first play in MLS history to record 30 goal contributions in three consecutive seasons – and he still has about a third of the season left to play. Both Lewandowski and Suárez are averaging more than a goal contribution per 90 minutes.
While the star-studded nature of the match is part of the narrative, don't expect anyone to be overawed. "Once the game is on, you know, you focus on the game," Philip Zinckernagel, himself a two-time MLS All-Star, said ahead of the game, noting that he – and most of his teammates – had faced Messi and Miami at Soldier Field before.
Still, he noted, "I'm just happy that we have one of the superstars on our team this time. It’s exciting, exciting times with the Club and you want to play those games with a full stadium. Those are the fun games."
Inter Miami
Particularly since Messi's arrival, there's been a spinning-plates element to Inter Miami – it just feels like the entire thing could come crashing down at any moment, but somehow, it all just keeps on going.
At the beginning of the year, Miami entering their second year with head coach Javier Mascherano, in what was the first club coaching job of any kind, at any level, for the former teammate of Messi's.
Through the course of 2025, Mascherano proved he wasn't just the nepo hire that many assumed he would be: He cannily navigated the team through the course of the season, adapting to player availability and finding ways to keep team winning games despite leaving acres of space for opposing attackers as Miami pushed forward with the ball.
It worked ‒ well enough for Miami to win MLS Cup for the first time.
Then, for reasons that still have not been made public, Mascherano abruptly left earlier this year, to be replaced by Guillermo Hoyos, who did not exactly display Mascherano's tactical acumen, saying at one point that "The best coach in the world is on the field, and it's Leo Messi."
Well, despite that, it still looked like Miami would be competitive in every competition they were in, if not win it outright.
Then, just under two weeks ago, the team announced that Kily González, another Messi associate, would be coming in as head coach, with Hoyos remaining as caretaker until the visa was process was sorted out.
All the changes come as Miami has hit a skid: After beating the Fire in their first game back from the World Cup, in a match Chicago still wishes they had back, the team is 2W-3D-4L in the nine games since. The only wins in that stretch were against against Atlético San Luis in the Leagues Cup and CF Montréal in league play, two teams at the bottom of their respective league tables.
Despite all of that: it's still Messi. And Suárez. And Rodrigo De Paul, and Casemiro. And a talented, deep squad around them. They can turn out a fantastic performance, whatever form they've been in.
Chicago Fire
The Fire have two players that they didn't the last time that the teams met: Johan Gómez and Noah Allen, a Miami homegrown who is the club's all-time appearance leader.
Berhalter said he was brought in for "the versatility between playing left back and center back, which we thinking is important."
With Mbekezeli Mbokazi, the South African who had turned heads at the position for the Fire this year, out, and Joel Waterman now playing in Portland, the position group is tasked with being the second-last line of defense between attacking players and the back of the net is notably thinner than it might be for a game featuring Miami's potent offense.
One thing that is a positive: Other than Mbokazi, the team is relatively healthy, with André Franco and Jonathan Bamba the only other Fire players unavailable for this match.
Berhalter expressed confidence in his center backs, saying "With Sam [Rogers] and Jack [Elliott], Sam is very good on the ball. Very good passing. Very good breaking lines. He gives us that element. Jack's very good in the air. Good 1v1 defender. Good defending in the penalty box. He has all the attributes as well, and very good on set pieces. So you know, a combination of those three [with Allen], we'll be able to get the job done.”
Still, it's a team that's allowed preventable goals that have cost the team points, even as they remain on an MLS unbeaten streak that now stretches to six games. That was evident on Saturday, when the team conceded four times.
What can the team do to keep preventable goals from happening against Miami, a team that has the talent to score the kinds of goal that can't readily be prevented?
“Well, we haven't really trained, right? We played [a match] on Saturday. It's Monday," Berhalter said at the team's media availability.
"We had a training with the solutions yesterday, so there hasn't been a ton of work but there's been a lot of video work – analyzing the goals in Toronto, analyzing some of our defensive shape stuff. I remember last year talking about this. It's always going to be a collection of things that happen that leads to goals. It's always going to be not just the defenders responsible, but the team shape, type of thing, that you want to talk about and discuss.
"And that was no different today in the video room. We looked at our team shape and looked at, ‘how can we be more compact, prevent central passes, close the spaces quicker?’ And we just have to do that. And it's a team effort. We score goals as a team. We scored a goal the other day where Brady starts the attack and we end up scoring but we also defend as a team."
