Blue Collar Guys: Chicago Fire vs Philadelphia Union Match 21 Preview

The Fire are back home for the first time since the start of June in one of two home matches in the first of just two matches at Soldier Field in July.  Their opponent is the Philadelphia Union, a team that had long been the toast of the league but whose results have fallen hard, leaving the team just two points ahead of the Fire in the standings and on the outside of the postseason looking in.

The Fire have announced that there will be fireworks after the match, but the players and fans will hope that the real fireworks happen during the match, on the pitch.

Series History

All time: 10W94D-16LLast Match: February 24, 2024: Fire 2-2 Philadelphia at Subaru Park, Chester, Pa.Last Home Match: April 15, 2023: Fire 2-2 Philadelphia at Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill.

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Philadelphia Union

The Union have had a rough 2024 season after years of being the league’s model of consistency. Their last victory came back on May 18 against the then-hapless New England Revolution, one of just four on the year. Since then, the Union tallied three draws followed by four losses. Before their last match, they could take some solace in the fact that two of those were closely run affairs against Inter Miami and FC Cincinnati, but the team has also lost to Charlotte at home and on Saturday, lost to CF Montréal, a team which has had more than its fair share of struggles in recent weeks.

Fire

The Fire went to Seattle, took the lead in the 30th minute off a beautiful Maren Haile-Selassie goal but two penalty calls against the team – one deep in second half stoppage time – sank the team as Albert Rusnák earned a brace from the spot. The team outplayed Seattle throughout the first half, but with just 18 points after 20 matches, the time for moral victories is long past.

After two losses in a row, the Fire’s unbeaten four game stretch now seems firmly in the rearview mirror, and instead, the eight points the team accrued in those four matches seems better situated as the run of decent form sandwiched by losses. It’s now been just eight points in the last 10 games for the Fire, and to paraphrase the great American philosopher Yogi Berra, it’s getting late early for the team.

The Storyline

The Fire remain stuck in last place in MLS’s Eastern Conference, and the 18 points to their credit is tied with the fewest points in team history after 20 matches, alongside 2011 and the wooden-spoon winning 2016 season.

Fans’ pain in those years was assuaged somewhat by successful runs in the U.S. Open Cup in both of those years. By the time the team had played 20 matches in both of those years, the team had already qualified for the semifinal of the U.S. Open Cup. They went on to lose in the semis in 2016, but in 2011, they made it all the way to the final before falling to the Seattle Sounders.

This year, with participation in the U.S. Open Cup taken away from the Fire’s first team, fans don’t even have that to celebrate, and it seems that the upcoming Leagues Cup won’t have the palliative effect that those prior Cup runs did.

A postseason appearance isn’t an impossibility, but it’s becoming an increasingly distant hope. Coming into Saturday’s game, the team was three points out; now they’re six. The notion that the team, currently in last place, can pull ahead of six other teams in the conference seems unlikely, to say the least.

Adding salt to the wound, the team’s two most recent losses have come against teams that, themselves, are also on the outside of the postseason.

The Fire get another crack at the whip against a team below the line Wednesday against the Philadelphia Union, who until this year had been the paragon of consistency in the league: The team has made the playoffs every year since 2018, and since 2019 had never finished below fourth. They’ve done it all while competing on a budget under Head Coach Jim Curtin, who started and spent most of his professional career as a player with the Fire.

The match between the two teams gives fans from both teams the opportunity to ponder the color of the grass on the other side: Curtin’s Union teams have neared – but seldom reached – the paragon of the sport, having competed in, and lost, four finals including three U.S. Open Cups as well as the 2022 MLS Cup.

The team’s done it on a shoestring budget, and fans, commentators, and even players have called for ownership to loosen the purse strings and bring in that extra piece or two that could be the difference from making it to a cup final and winning it.

The Fire, meanwhile, have been free spending over the past five years but success hasn’t followed. What Union fans want their team to do, the Fire have done, and yet they’ve got precious little to show for it.

Both teams desperately need wins, and both would love to put themselves in a better position by the time the Leagues Cup pauses the regular season for a month starting in late July.

For what it’s worth – that 2011 season where the Fire also had 18 points after 20 matches? Frank Klopas was also behind the bench for the Fire, as an interim. The 21st match of the campaign was against the Philadelphia Union and ended in a 1-1 draw.

Philadelphia Players to Watch

Dániel Gazdag: Since joining the league in the middle of the 2021 season from Honvéd, his youth club in Hungary, Gazdag has made 76 goal contributions – including 50 goals – in 105 appearances for the Union. He’s grown to be a fringe part of the Hungarian national team setup, and earned a call up for the team’s Euro’s campaign, making one appearance for the squad before returning after they were eliminated. Despite his team’s struggles this year, he’s continued to score, with 10 goals to his account in just 1,330 minutes this season, but unlike previous years, he hasn’t been setting up others as much, with just one assist on the year. With Julián Carranza’s departure for the Netherlands, Gazdag will be even more of a focal point for the attack than he was previously, at least until (and unless) reinforcements come in the summer window.

Quinn Sullivan: The older brother of Cavan, currently the most heralded teenager to come out of the United States in a generation, Quinn Sullivan is finally stepping up to a starting role with the Union after rising through the academy ranks. He earned his first first-team minutes in 2021, and played in roughly half the team’s matches in subsequent seasons but is a full-time starter this year, playing in every one of Philadelphia’s first 20 matches this season (17 starts) and notching two goals (already tied for a career high) and five assists (easily a career high) so far in the campaign.

Fire Keys to Victory

• Play smarter, not harder: Chris Brady has faced three penalty shots in the past two games, and almost faced another before a VAR review overturned the decision in Seattle. Some penalty calls happen because of mistakes (I maintain it looked like Mauricio Pineda slipped on the wet turf in the play that gave Seattle their second shot from the spot last Saturday), but some are entirely avoidable. Twice in the past two matches, Jonathan Dean has tried hauling guys down from behind by grabbing their shirts. That’s a penalty every time in every league. Dean plays hard. No one doubts that. But there are also players in MLS that are faster than him and can outplay him. If that happens, Dean (and everyone else) needs to realize that’s what’s happening and let it happen, because nothing that happens after that is going to be more likely to result in a goal than a penalty kick.

• Test the back line: Two key factors behind the Union’s success in recent seasons: Rock-solid goalkeeping by Andre Blake and some of the best performances from center backs you’ll see in this league from Jack Elliot and Jakob Glesnes. The Union haven’t enjoyed either of those things this year. Blake has often been injured, and when he hasn’t been, he frankly hasn’t looked like the player we’ve grown used to. The same goes for Elliot and Glesnes, who have looked like something worse than average this year. In other words, the Fire need to try to get past them – they’ll likely succeed more than once, and when they do, backup goalkeeper Andrew Rick has been far from infallible.

Panel Predictions

Alex Calabrese

Philly aren't good right now, and Jim Curtin is making the wrong decisions in goal by keeping Oliver Semmle on the bench. If 18-year-old Andrew Rick starts again, he'll let one past, and the Fire will win.

Prediction: Fire 1-0 Philadelphia

Jiggly Carollo

"I am so empty/You're all I'm thinkin about"Let's be real, I think almost every Fire fan is obsessed with the idea that Philly loses, fires Curtin, and we get to take him immediately. But unfortunately, while they are on a massive slump, they still have a fairly talented team and a solid coach. And in a midweek game, I see the Fire going up early, something happening at halftime again, and Philly coming back to win it. Curtin stays for a while longer. Fire fans continue to wonder.

Prediction: Fire 3-2 Philadelphia

Tim Hotze

The Union are looing like a beatable team. The Fire already put two past them once. Tighten up the defense a bit and htat becomes a win.

Prediction: Fire 2-1 Philadelphia

Matt Shabelman

Prediction: Fire  3-1 Philadelphia3

Match Information and How to Watch

Date and Time: Wednesday, July 3, 2024, 7:30 PM CT
Location: Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill.
Forecast: 83’F expected at kickoff, winds at 7 mph, 58% cloud cover and a 1% chance of precipitation
TV: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass