5 Things We Learned: Chicago Fire vs New England Revolution

The Chicago Fire completed their regular-season series at SeatGeek with an undefeated record, going 2W-1D-0L following their 3-2 victory over the New England Revolution. The win puts the Fire back in a postseason spot and in control of a destiny that will see the team into the playoffs for the first time since 2017 as summer window signing André Franco showed the kind of impact he can make with the team. Still, a comfortable 3-0 victory became a testy 3-2 win thanks to some of the issues that have dogged the team all season.

Here's five things we learned from a beautiful cool night in Bridgeview.

1. Andre Franco can play

André Franco’s arrival in Chicago this summer certainly raised some eyebrows. Not only were the Fire getting a guy who was the best player on a team that finished in the top half of Primeira Liga in Portugal and earned a reported €4 million move to European giant FC Porto, but also a player who saw the Berhalter project from afar and wanted in after first experiencing playing in the United States during that team’s Club World Cup campaign.

After a quiet 20 minute debut against Philadelphia in a game that was largely over, it didn’t take long for Franco to make an impact in his first start with the Men In Red.

Franco logged two assists on the night: The first started with a clever first touch before laying the ball to Zinckernagel who finished from distance, the second followed on a nice feed from D’Avilla before setting it off for Cuypers to finish.

Franco wasn’t just a presence in the final third as he routinely dropped deep into the midfield, even joining the back line to orchestrate play at times adding another name to the list of Fire players willing to do the dirty work.

His field vision was clear immediately, Franco completed the most passes on the evening (60) with 92% of his attempts finding their man. He also led the team in chance creation. His confidence and technical ability with the ball at his feet is what you would expect from a player coming from the one of the highest levels in Europe, but maybe more important was his motor and intensity.

We’ve talked at length about the ups and downs of the Fire’s mentality throughout the season and last night looked like the exact response you’d hope for after a 4-0 loss against Philadelphia, and Franco seemed to lead the charge. Playing free kicks quickly, being involved in all three phases up and down the pitch, Franco’s focus and intensity can’t be overstated for a team that has - at times - lacked that motor.

The Fire seem to have struck gold when they signed Philip Zinckernagel this winter, getting high-level DP production from a player on a TAM contract and if this performance is any indicator, they may have once again found the motherlode with André Franco on a similar deal.

Not only was it a great start for the Portuguese midfielder, but his play seems to have unlocked something for his counterparts in the middle of the pitch, improving the whole more by its sum than just the parts that he brings.

2. The midfield has a gear we didn’t know about

Brian Gutierrez added his fourth assist in Bridgeview last night, setting a new mark for his career high of goal contributions in a single season (12), and Djé D’Avilla played arguably his best game since landing in Chicago this spring, making the key pass that led to Hugo Cuypers’s deciding goal, although he wasn’t was robbed of the secondary assist by the league’s scorekeepers.

The 2025 season has been up and down for both U-22 Initiative midfielders, with Gutiérrez adjusting to a new role in Berhalter’s system and at times being marred with disciplinary issues. D’Avilla, meanwhile, has had to adjust to life in the United States while adapting to getting regular minutes in the top flight for the first time in his career. If last night was any indication, the turbulence was more than worth it.

D’Avilla’s play on the ball stood out in particular, playing confidently against New England’s press, and carrying the ball forward to progress play when the opportunity presented itself. The Ivorian completed 87% of his passes including seven into the final third, while also winning the most duels in the game on the defensive end.  D’Avilla seems to have fully arrived in MLS, looking in sync between Franco and Gutiérrez.

Gutiérrez built upon his recent run of strong form with one of his strongest games of the year, completing four of seven long balls, including the assist to Jonathan Bamba to open the scoring early.

His runs were timely and he looked like he belonged in one of the best attacks in MLS, playing more of the connector and facilitator role we had grown accustomed to seeing in recent years. The Fire homegrown reportedly had options to leave Chicago for another MLS club this summer but chose to stay in Chicago as the club geared up for a playoff push and the renewed commitment is showing in the performance on the field.

But he wasn’t the only Fire homegrown who stood out…

3. Chris Brady’s numbers don’t tell his story

Kicking off shortly after the U.S. Men’s National Team hosted Korea in a friendly, the goalkeepers in this match might have felt like they were under a bit of a microscope: The Revs’ Matt Turner is widely considered to be the best shot-stopper in the pool, his absence from the USMNT explained by USMNT Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino’s desire to allow him to reacclimate to his return to the Revolution. Chris Brady is a young prospect with the team, having been called into camp for the Gold Cup tournament over the summer but not for this window as he searches for his first senior cap.

Turner had been excellent in his first four matches going into his team’s game against the Fire, saving a full goal more than expected by the important PSxG metric. In Bridgeview, however, Chris Brady stole the show, earning the game ball from Berhalter after the game. (The excellent performance that Turner had shown, saving a full goal more than expected per Opta, was wiped away by his performance at SeatGeek).

Although the Fire were dominant in the first half, Brady’s performance was a critical reason that the team entered the tunnel up 2-0.

With the Fire playing with an early one-goal lead, the first real chance for the Revs came in the eighth minute when Illay Feingold headed a ball off a corner on target. Brady made the save from almost point-blank range to keep his team ahead, paving the way for the Fire’s second goal two minutes later.

Although the Revs put up precious little offensively for the remainder of the opening 45 minutes, in first half stoppage time, the Revs Peyton Miller and Alhassan Yusuf both tested Brady with shots on target from excellent locations inside the box.

A failure to make any of those saves would have given New England a lifeline, and might have changed the real tenor of the game.

Brady also was essential in seeing out the result for the Fire. Up by a 3-2 lead in the sixth minute of second half stoppage time, Brady safeguarded the three points for his team with a key save on Tomás Chancalay’s header from six yards out.

It’s easy to pick apart parts of Brady’s game. Statistically, he’s a middle-of-the-pack goalkeeper in the league, and his record stopping penalty kicks is bafflingly bad for a netminder of his athleticism and quality (and cost his team a goal on the night, once again – in second half stoppage time).

Those numbers, however, have come in front of an unstable defense that through the season has struggled with a rotating cast at the right center back positions as well as in the defensive midfield. With D’Avilla growing into the latter role and Waterman set to join the squad in the former, hopefully those days will soon be behind the Fire.

In the meantime, behind the statistics, Brady has been an excellent shot stopper, and more than any other single Fire player is the man responsible for the fact that the Fire woke up this morning three points ahead of where they were a day before, in ninth place and back in a postseason spot.

4. This is not your father’s Chicago Fire

Or… I guess maybe it is? The point being, this team does not feel like the Fire teams fans have seen for almost every one of the past 15 seasons. Which is to say, it feels like a playoff team.

That may seem like an odd point to make in a game where the Fire allowed two late goals in a game which they dominated for almost every minute, but the mission was ultimately accomplished: All three points at home in a game against a team below you in the table.

The result is one that just accentuates the gap between the haves and have-nots in the Eastern Conference. The win puts the Fire, in the ninth and final postseason spot, clear of the 11th-place Revolution by 11 points, with the 10th place Red Bulls two points behind the Fire and nine points above the Revs.

While you could attribute the difference between this edition of the team and those of recent seasons to recruiting, improved tactics or overall change in “vibes” around the club as evidence of the start of a new era of Fire football, the table speaks for itself.

In a highly-competitive Eastern Conference, the Fire can take control of either of the two play-in seeds, and currently sit on 42 points. That’s the most the team’s had since 2019, a year in which they needed a Decision Day win to reach that mark, with six games remaining for the Fire.

They’ve shown they have one of, if not the most potent attack in MLS outside of South Florida, on pace to break the 60 goal mark for the first time since 2017. The Fire also boast a Golden Boot contender in Hugo Cuypers, and if not for Anders Dreyer in San Diego, would likely have the favorite for Newcomer of the Year in Philip Zinckernagel.

The change in Chicago is as stark as it is fast. Gregg Berhalter has both remade the Fire roster, making 18 first-team signings since taking over as Director of Football and Head Coach in late 2024, and found new roles – and new levels – for many returning players.

From international signings like Zinckernagel and Bamba, all the way to the emergence of players like Sergio Oregel Jr., who went from having one 11-minute MLS appearance back in 2022 to becoming a regular contributor, playing just under 2000 minutes including 24 starts even as the team has gone from a basement dweller to a likely postseason entrant, the team is simply performing at a higher level than they have in a  long time.

While this final stretch will test the team as they face some of the best teams MLS has to offer, with games against Minnesota United, the Columbus Crew and Inter Miami on deck, the Fire have already proven they are a cut above where they have been in recent memory and now have the points total to prove it.

However…

5. The Fire still have a ways to go before they can join the elite

The Fire won and got three points against a team that they were better than but who were trying to make a case for pushing above the Fire into the postseason conversation. That is great.

But a storyline that developed early – that the team has an elite offense compared with a porous defense – continues to dog the team. To wit, here’s MLS National Reporter Charles Boehm’s take from the Fire’s performance.

To make the night a bit more surreal, Gregg Berhalter's Fire continue to be absolutely delightful chaos merchants in MLS, routinely torching opposing defenses while being persistently dodgy at the back.

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— Charles Boehm ⚽️ (@cboehm.bsky.social) Sep 6, 2025 at 9:49 PM

While it’s fair to push back against the line that the Fire have been “persistently dodgy” in the back – they did effectively contain the Revs for most of the game – overall, that narrative continues to ring true.

The team’s offense has been elite – only the two Florida teams and Western Conference-leading San Diego have scored more goals than the Fire’s 53 (each of them has scored 54 goals, although Miami has played 3 fewer matches than the Fire, and San Diego one more).

Orlando City, Inter Miami and San Diego are, if not all favorites, teams that are very much in the conversation as possible MLS Cup winners, with Miami and San Diego being two of the four teams, alongside Philadelphia and Vancouver, with a credible case for winning the Supporters Shield.

That’s pretty good company to be keeping. There is, however, one more team in that conversation – the San Jose Earthquakes have, like the Fire, scored 53 goals, and, like the Fire, they are in 9th place in their conference  and, like the Fire, they are not typically counted amongst the league’s elite.

Actually, turns out Boehm got there first:

Looking for #goalz above all? Tune in to the MLS teams led by former USMNT head coaches.

GGG's Chicago: Second with 103 total goals in their 28 matches; 46.1 xG, 46.5 xG conceded

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— Charles Boehm ⚽️ (@cboehm.bsky.social) Sep 6, 2025 at 10:05 PM

Look: The Fire currently sit in a postseason spot. They are likely – actually very likely – to make it to the postseason. That is a huge step forward from where this team was, finishing last in the conference and one spot out of the Wooden Spoon (“won,” naturally, by the San Jose Earthquakes).

And if they do make it to the postseason this year for the first time since 2017, it feels like they will be there because the team has been taking credible, sustainable steps forward, not because of a flash-in-the-pan result or two along the way, as would have been the case over the last few seasons when the Fire sometimes fell just short.

But until they can cut down on the mistakes, this Fire team will not have made much of a case that they should be considered a credible candidate for upsetting a higher-ranked opponent in the early rounds of the playoffs.

There are starting to be signs that that might be changing  – our review of this one on The Bonfire, coming out Monday we discussed several of them – and many of them are written above. Overall, however, until those early signs start to be borne out in actual results, it’s a fair assessment to say that the team has found its level in 2025. It’s a much higher level than the team was at previously, but still not one that puts it on a pedestal at the end of the season.

We will undoubtedly learn more about whether we might start to see those changes bear fruit next against New York City – the team immediately ahead of the Fire in the standings, with the points difference in the teams attributable to the Fire’s 3-1 loss away earlier this year, in a game where a careless red put the Fire down a man at a time when the team was leading and looked in control, and when we do, you can read about it here.