5 Things We Learned: Chicago Fire vs. Philadelphia Union

The Chicago Fire’s home misery in 2025 continued last night against Philadelphia as they suffered a 1-0 loss at the hands of the first-placed Union. It was a truly hapless performance, as the Fire failed to take advantage of Philly’s heavily short-handed roster and never grew into the game.

Here are five things we learned from Wednesday’s Chicago defeat.

1. The Fire can’t win at Soldier Field?

It remains explicable that the Fire just don’t seem to know how to win games at home. In eight attempts, they have just one victory, and have now lost two on the bounce at Soldier Field. Philadelphia is a good team, yes, and sit atop the Eastern Conference even if they are punching above their weight, but with the number of players they had missing, this should have been a game that the Fire won.

This is something that Gregg Berhalter needs to figure out. There is surely a psychological obstacle of some sort for the team, but what exactly it is has not yet been pinpointed by anyone. In recent seasons, the average MLS team wins about 50% of their home matches, a rate that is typically good enough to qualify for the postseason. To reach that marker the Fire would need to effectively win out the rest of their home games.

The silver lining is that so far, they’ve made up for it on the road. Away from home, they’re the third best team in MLS, just trailing 1st placed Philadelphia and 2nd placed Cincinnati by a point. Unfortunately, that won’t mean anything if they don’t exceed par at home for the rest of the season.

2. Bamba’s confidence is low

Wednesday night was a tough one for Bamba, who consistently found himself in good positions in the final third but was shy in front of goal. The Fire’s top earner has yet to score at Soldier Field, with all three of his MLS goals and all but one of his four assists coming on the road.

Bamba’s quality and intelligence off the ball were on display against Philadelphia, but his incisiveness and killer instinct that he started the year with appear to be missing. The DP did not look to take on defenders one-on-one, despite going up against an out-of-position 38-year-old Alejandro Bedoya. The Fire’s biggest chance of the game also fell to Bamba, but he skied the shot from inside the penalty box in the 52nd minute.

There isn’t an easy fix for this, especially with a continually difficult schedule coming up, but one game coming off the bench for Maren Haile-Selassie wouldn’t hurt for Bamba. Just one goal could be a turning point, and for someone who’s played nearly every minute since joining the team in January (and has played continuously since the start of the last European season in August), a more relaxed stretch could help him immensely.

3. Gutiérrez still lacks dominance in the final third

It was a weird game for Gutiérrez, who played in a more advanced #10 role than he has in many of the games this season. At times, the 22-year-old looked confident progressing the ball through the midfield, but he also struggled in the final third as has been a consistent issue over the last few months.

A common thread was the final ball. An overhit pass to an Bamba at the end of the first half ended a great attacking sequence after Guti had done the hard part at progressing the ball through the midfield, while a cross that was too high at the beginning of the second also wasted a great opportunity in the final third.

The good news is all of these are fixable things. Many of the errors were not technical issues but decision-making faults, and a lack of seeing the whole play through. Once he can connect more with the front three, his assist production will increase further, and that will mean more effective and accurate passes in behind the back line.

4. Midfield needs some new ideas

Much was made of the all-homegrown, all-American midfield trio of Gutiérrez, Sergio Oregel, and Mauricio Pineda at the start of the season. The latter two have had their best MLS seasons to date in 2025, but the Wednesday night match was not the finest performance of the year for either of them.

A key area where Philadelphia were prepared and dominant was in the middle of the park. The Union’s talented Serbian youth international Jovan Lukić was arguably the man of the match, and eliminated Oregel from large parts of the game. The wear and tear of a first MLS season for the 19-year-old Fire academy product is setting in as he plays 60 to 70 minutes every single game, and it’s no fault of his own.

While the trio of Gutiérrez, Oregel, and Pineda may still be the Fire’s best three, what we learned on Wednesday is that it won’t be productive every single week. On the bench, there’s a $5 million top prospect in Djé D’Avilla and a 58-time U.S. international in Kellyn Acosta, with Rominigue Kouamé also working his way back from injury; expect to see some changes this weekend, which will help to get the most out of the Fire’s whole midfield core over the course of the next few months.

5. Decision-making is a key issue

Ultimately, midfield battle aside, the decision-making in the final third was what hurt the Fire the most. Practically every attack ended with an incorrect decision, whether it be the wrong pass or the wrong shot, and that hurt the Fire the most. The players underneath Hugo Cuypers also failed to get the most out of their number nine, because even as he was marked tightly by the Union’s center backs, they constantly tried to play him balls in the air – not Cuypers’ strong suit.

Philip Zinckernagel, despite his All-Star credentials as announced yesterday, also did not have his best outing. He looked confident, sure, but took shots from outside the box that were unnecessary, sometimes with Bamba or others making runs out wide.

Some of this comes down to Bradley Carnell’s effective game-planning for the Union, which clearly frustrated the Fire’s front four. But ultimately, they mustered just 0.03 xGOT (Expected Goals on Target) – a poor return given their 57% possession number and the expectations that this was a game they should win against a weakened Philadelphia team.