Who Will Actually Play for the Chicago Fire Against Charlotte FC?

It’s time for the international break, and once again, unlike most top-flight leagues around the world, Major League Soccer is playing through the pause. As a result, Saturday’s game against Charlotte FC will require Gregg Berhalter to get creative, and reach for his depth more than ever before.

“(We have to) deal with it,” Berhalter said Thursday. “Not making any excuses. We built this roster for a reason; that we’d still have a strong squad, and we’ve been playing shorthanded the last couple weeks, and that’s all part of it.”

“Now it’s another challenge for this group but it’s really about the next-man-up mentality and we’re going to see that on Saturday, I think for both teams.”

Here, we will seek to answer the key questions that will define if a new-look Chicago Fire – without Robert Lewandowski, Chris Brady, Robin Lod, Puso Dithejane, Noah Allen, Robert Turdean, and Anzor Mekvabishvili – can get the job done and end a seven-game winless run.

Goalkeeper Debut

With Brady’s call-up to the U.S. senior men’s national team confirmed, the 22-year-old is out for this game and will hope to feature for the USMNT mere hours before the Fire kick off in Charlotte. Unlike last season, when the Fire opted not to sign a classic #2 goalkeeper and instead used third-string Jeff Gal as the only backup, Berhalter added 34-year-old veteran Josh Cohen in December.

Brady has played every single minute for the Fire first team this season, including in cups. Cohen’s only minutes were a 90-minute runout against FC Cincinnati 2 in MLS Next Pro – which ended in a 7-2 win for Chicago Fire II. Now it’s almost a certainty that he will make his first team debut.

“When you wait for an opportunity and an opportunity comes, we expect him to perform well,” Berhalter said of Cohen. “He’s played well in training the last couple weeks, and he’s ready to play on Saturday.”

(photo: Barbara Calabrese/Chicago Fire FC)

While Cohen should be a clear upgrade on Gal as the backup keeper, his lack of minutes in 2026 means that exactly where he is at now is largely a mystery. The Israeli-American spent most of his professional career with Maccabi Haifa and featured 14 times in the UEFA Champions League during his time in Israel, a spell during which he earned his one and only USMNT call-up in 2023 under B.J. Callaghan.

Now, after having featured eight times in close to three years in MLS, he will make his debut for the Fire in North Carolina.

“I’m very excited to get out there,” Cohen said Thursday. “Getting that first touch just to get into the game and feel that confidence.”

Big Hole Up Front

Besides goalkeeper, the biggest positional urgency comes up front. Both starting striker Robert Lewandowski and nominal backup Robin Lod are with their national teams for the UEFA Nations League, and the only other natural striker to appear this season – Jason Shokalook – was traded to Real Salt Lake at the trade deadline earlier this month. That leaves the Fire with four options at striker, although none of them are what Berhalter would prefer.

“We have a number of attacking players that we can move into that position,” Berhalter said. “Will it be like Robert? No, of course not. It will be like Robin, who has a really good understanding of that.”

“When we have done that, it has looked like a hybrid-type striker but we’ll still ask similar things. You know, arriving in the penalty box, getting in on the end of crosses, stretching the back line. Those are all things that would be important, wouldn’t matter who plays there.”

August signing Johan Gómez is the most obvious: the 25-year-old former U.S. youth international came up as a center forward at FC Dallas, and regularly featured there early in his career. Although Gómez mainly played as a winger or wingback at Eintracht Braunschweig prior to joining the Fire, he made his first start two weeks ago as a nominal second striker behind Lewandowski.

In-form winger Maren Haile-Selassie has also played that role at times this season, though he may be called upon in any number of positions across the field. 2024 MLS Next Pro MVP David Poreba – who has one MLS appearance this season (a central midfield start at Orlando in which he notched one assist) – also seems well suited to the role, having won the Golden Boot playing up front in a 4-2-3-1.

2025 third-overall SuperDraft pick Dean Boltz may be an off-the-bench option. The Palatine native is the only rostered first team outfield player not to feature for the first team this season, and he has not even trained with the first team more than a handful of times since he joined the Fire as a Generation Adidas player almost two years ago. Boltz has 8 goals in 46 total Next Pro games, but is the only natural center forward available for this game.

Short-Term Call-Ups

Cohen and Boltz aren’t the only two players in line for a first team debut. Even with Anton Salétros expected to be back from injury, and Boltz included, the Fire still have just 17 first team players. The only way to get that number closer to a 20-man matchday squad is by calling up under-contract players from the second team, and Berhalter brought a plethora of them into first team training this week.

“We are going to call players up,” Berhalter said. “A lot of them have impressed. I think we’ll finalize that in the next couple days but the second team has been doing well. They played such a young average age this entire year, and that gives the guys experience. When they come up to our group, they are ready to play.”

On Thursday, Giorgi Gongazde, Jack Sandmeyer, Chase Nagle, Rafi Pineda, Brody Williams, and Milan Napoe made up the group that trained as full members of the first team. Gongazde, Nagle, and Napoe are not under contract, so they are not eligible to play, leaving Sandmeyer, Pineda, and Williams as possible options to make the trip.

Sandmeyer is the most obvious. The Fire’s 23-year-old defensive midfielder-turned-center back was selected out of North Carolina in this year’s SuperDraft, and is a realistic option at left center back if Mbekezeli Mbokazi is not available. Rafi Pineda, the younger brother of Mauricio Pineda, could also be a fifth-string option in central midfield, but would be slightly more important if Salétros is not yet fully fit.

The most intriguing potential call-up is Williams. The 16-year-old is the youngest of the whole group, and also the biggest prospect. Born in South Africa but a resident of Chicago for most of the last five years, Williams penned an MLS Next Pro contract with the Fire in early 2025 and emerged as the biggest revelation of the final stretch of the reserve team season. Although a central midfielder by trade, he would more likely feature as a left winger if he were to get on the field against Charlotte.

Because he is not yet a U.S. citizen, and is not a Green Card holder, Williams would require an international slot to be eligible for the first team. The Fire acquired such a slot from D.C. United today for a cut-rate $75,000 GAM total, indicating that it is a very strong possibility that Williams will play a role in Charlotte.

Mbokazi/Franco Update

South African international Mbekezeli Mbokazi has been missing for the Fire since an injury suffered in training on July 21st, and his absence has been the biggest factor behind the team’s recent struggles. Originally, he had been scheduled for a season-ending surgery, but that was called off with the hope that he could return to action by late September or early October.

Mbokazi rejoined team training this week for the first time since his thigh tear, and is even closer to a comeback than many thought.

“With Mbokazi and Anton (Salétros), they are both questionable,” Berhalter said. “We have to see how they come out of this training week. I think both of them at times have looked ready, and at times we’ve been a little bit cautious. We’re going to see how they end up tomorrow and we’ll make a decision tomorrow before we travel.”

Because of his injury, Mbokazi is missing the ongoing Bafana Bafana camp. Joining South Africa for this international window would have meant flying from Chicago to Johannesburg, then to Cairo, and back to Chicago; a round trip of roughly 19,000 miles (31,000 kilometers) in 11 days. Given his ongoing recovery, staying in Chicago is a smart decision, regardless of whether he is ready to play against Charlotte.

The Fire’s other long-term absence, André Franco, was an unsurprising absence from training, as he has been all season. The Portuguese midfielder tore his ACL on September 30th, 2025, and is yet to return to team training. The Fire now have roster flexibility to put him on the field this year if he is able, but there’s no indication that that will be anytime soon.

“We are still working to get André up to speed,” Berhalter said. “We want to make sure we bring him back in a safe way and he’s strong toward the end of the season.”