For the first time in 70 days, the Chicago Fire are back at home, and Chicago will finally get a chance to meet Robert Lewandowski. The Polish superstar is finally set to play in front of the Chicago Fire's home fans two and a half after the planned debut was postponed due to air quality concerns caused by smoke from distant wildfires when the team takes on Charlotte FC this Saturday.
The Fire are still looking for their first win after the break, having suffered two losses on the road since their return from the World Cup break, and Robert Lewandowski is still looking for his first goal in Fire red.
There's reason to think he'll find it: For the first time since joining the Fire, the squad had a full week to prepare for a single opponent. "This week was certainly helpful," having the whole week to train, Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter said on Thursday.
"You could see Robert [Lewandowski] is getting his legs underneath him. A creidt to him, the guy's first out on the field, the last to leave the field, doing extra sessions. Came in Sunday [a day after the Fire's loss to New York City] to train. He's doing everything he can. It's just a race against time.... but we're getting there."
Charlotte, one point behind the Fire and riding a four game undefeated streak, will be a good test for how much progress the Fire have made this year.
Charlotte FC
The Fire aren't the only team to have made changes since before the World Cup: Wilfred Zaha, the team's highest-profile player, was shown the door. Technically on a loan from Galatasaray but with an understanding that, if things went out, a permanent move to Charlotte was in the cards, the team instead allowed the loan to expire after a disappointing season and a half that saw Zaha score 13 goals in just under 4,000 minutes in Charlotte.
Replacing him in the Charlotte lineup? Allan Saint-Maximin, the 29-year-old French forward whose name is probably best known from his time playing for Newcastle in the Premier League as part of a career that already spanned three continents before he joined Charlotte. Saint-Maximin is due to arrive in Charlotte Sunday, however, and won't be available for this one.
With forward Kerwin Vargas's moving to Athletico Paranaense, former Fire defender Carlos Terán's current club, that will leave Charlotte somewhat short-handed in the attack, though leading scorer Pep Biel and Idan Toklomati, no. 2 on that list, are both set to play.
Chicago Fire
The Fire, meanwhile, are shorthanded at the other end of the pitch: Mbekezeli Mbokazi remains out with a leg injury, and Christopher Cupps remains with the U.S. U-20 youth national team as they try to secure a World Cup berth. That's been one of the factors leading to the team's two losses, with Berhalter mincing no words, saying that "looking at the last two games, we're not where we need to be right now."
"The depth is, we have three center backs right now," Berhalter said in media availability Thursday, "potentially [Jack] Sandmeyer from the second team," should the Fire give him a short term call-up. The position group, which seemed such a source of strength for much of the season, has been "challenged," according to their head coach. "But I think they're guys that will respond."
It will have to be a team response: Although Jack Elliott and Joel Waterman are experienced, high-quality players who have been starters on multiple MLS teams, the duo hasn't looked convincing in the Fire's two matches since the break. Part of the reason? Mbokazi's ability to cover a lot of ground and get into place to make a defensive play, even if he was out of position.
"Some of the luxury we had with Mbokazi was putting out fires," Berhalter said, "if you lose some of that., now the margins are a little bit smaller. We just have to be good, we have to be balanced, we have to be in the right position."
When asked about how Mbokazi's absence changed things for the Fire, Berhalter started his response by saying that defending "is a team game." When Hugo Cuypers was in the lineup and the team lost possession, he'd become the team's first defender, pressing, using positioning to direct the opponent to parts of the pitch where promising attacks were less likely to occur.
Lewandowski has done a lot of that for most of his career, but at 37, that work was largely taken up by others. That changes the game responsibilities, particularly in transition moments, for other players. That's something Berhalter brought up, noting that Lewandowski changes the team's plan "not only [in the attack] attack but also defend[ing]," saying the team has a "lot of work to do," and "candidly, we're still figuring it out. That's the reality."
"But," the Fire coach noted, "we're doing it and the guys have been working hard and been into it. So it's also kind of fun to be having to work through this and solve the puzzle. Hopefully on Saturday we'll start to see that come to fruition.”
Lineup and Match Information
