A year ago, the Chicago Fire hosted FC Cincinnati on April 19th at Soldier Field in the ninth game of their season and the Gregg Berhalter era in Chicago. One day shy of a year later, the Fire meet the same opponent on the road in their eighth game of the season.
The spring 2025 matchup between the two teams ended in a 3-2 loss for the Fire. With that matchup coming off the heels of a promising 0-0 draw against Inter Miami at Soldier Field a week earlier, it was a demoralizing result for the Men In Red.
The home team dominated possession and peppered Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano's net with 18 shots, with 2.3 xG to the visitor's xG 1.0 — were trailing for all but 20 minutes of the game. As a result, the Fire knew that their first win of the year in front of a home crowd would come no earlier than May.
The Fire had 12 points going into to that matchup, combining three wins on the road with three draws at home. A year later and a game earlier in the schedule, the Fire have 13 points, a point more and a game earlier.
Last year, FC Cincinnati were off to a flying start with six winds and a draw in their first eight matches. This year, it's been a rocky campaign for the Garys, but even if Cincinnati don't have the fearsome form they did a year ago, getting a win (which could propel the Fire to top of the conference if Nashville get a loss) over a team they couldn't beat would be a sign of progress for the Fire — as would making it to 16 points, something that took them 12 games last year.
Getting a win that eluded the team last year and staying ahead of last year's trajectory: Two ways to show the Fire have taken a step forward in 2026.
What to Expect
FC Cincinnati
FC Cincinnati had developed a reputation under Head Coach Pat Noonan as one of the toughest teams to beat in the league. In his first year, he took FC Cincinnati to the playoffs for the first time, on a massive 29 point jump on their previous season. A year later, the team jumped another 20 points and won the Supporters Shield.
Last year, they finished second in both the conference and league, finishing a single point behind the Philadelphia Union.
This year? None of the things that really made FC Cincinnati click have been working nearly as well. Their two league victories so far came against Atlanta and CF Montréal, both of whom are having rough seasons of their own.
Before getting into why keep in mind: It's early — not super early, but look at it this way: FC Cincinnati have 7 points, good for 10th in the East. The Fire are in 2nd with 13. If Cincinnati earns a win, the two teams will be separated by just three points. If the Fire put in a couple bad shifts ‒ or even get a couple bad bounces here and there ‒ and things go right for FC Cincinnati, they could close the gap next week.
Still: I don't think that's likely. As Matt Doyle pointed out at Tactics Free Zone, FC Cincinnati have some real structural issues with their roster build, and last year they outperformed their xG differential by 18 goals.
For the past two years, they've won an uncanny number of 1-0 games, and there were real questions about whether it was sustainable. Well: Two years was a long time to sustain it, but in the end it really depended on best-in-class center backs and singular talents (first Lucho Acosta, now Evander and Kévin Denkey) at the other end of the pitch.
Now the center backs have taken a step back (an issue for the USMNT this summer, given that two of them are Matt Miazga and Miles Robinson), Evander, despite a great season last year, ultimately isn't the player Lucho was, and they haven't really improved the other parts of the game.
Having said that: Evander is still a singular talent, and Denkey is very, very good. They can be dangerous, but overall the whole has fallen back to around where the sum of the parts says it should be.
And Denkey won't be very good ‒ or anything else ‒ on Saturday, with a one-game suspension after earning a red card last week.
Chicago Fire
Last week against Atlanta, the Chicago Fire finally played the same Starting XI two weeks in a row for the first time in 2026. We talked about it.
Part of it was borne out of necessity, with Hugo Cuypers unavailable for both games. He was seen back in training on Thursday, which is great news. Berhalter said that he was in limited training, "and then tomorrow [Friday] we'll see how we can ramp it up and get him going. It's still a bit unclear."
At Chicago Fire training earlier. Hugo Cuypers was back with the group, but didn't see Jo Bamba or Leo Barroso. #cf97 #VamosFire
— Tim Hotze (@timhotze.com) Apr 16, 2026 at 11:30 AM
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Even if Cuypers isn't ready (or fit to start), we won't be seeing a three-peat of that lineup. When asked about availability for Saturday, Berhalter revealed that Bamba is back in France to attend to a personal issue and won't be available for this match.
Issues that keep a player away from the game are seldom happy news, and we wish the best for him and those close to him, but Bamba's absence is also a loss for the Fire. He's quietly been a great performer for the team this year. Even if that hasn't necessarily translated to an explosion of production that shows up on the boxscore, it's felt felt like that dam could be about to burst and we could be seeing a lot more goals and assists from him.
Bamba was key to making the 4-2-2-2 for the Fire work effectively in the attack, with Maren Haile-Selassie and Robin Lod up top, Bamba and Philip Zinckernagel providing width not far behind. Haile-Selassie could slit in for Bamba — but that'd mean taking him away from the forward role that he scored from last week.
Berhalter could elect to maintain that formation and slot in Jason Shokalook, who we've talked about not once, not twice, but three times this week (more if you include on The Bonfire).
Instead, it's likely that Shokalook will start. Berhalter had previously said he didn't think that the reigning MLS Next Pro Golden Boot winner was ready for starting responsibilities two weeks ago, with Cuypers unavailable. He gave him the nod against Detroit City from the USL Championship on Tuesday, and he scored a Brace.
On Thursday, he said that although that he thought "some of the guys did quite well [on Tuesday] and it's good to know we can call on them when needed." If your starting winger is gone and the backup has been taking the place of the starting striker, it's needed.
And there's a good chance that if called upon, Shokalook will perform. He looks like he's ready for the next step.
Predicted Lineup and How to Watch
