After three wins straight on the road, the Fire are back at home as they host CF Montréal, a team that made headlines around the league on Monday when they fired Head Coach Laurent Courtois just five games into his second season in the dugout, in a press release so short it could have been a tweet.

It felt unusual, something that Fire Director of Football and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter echoed, saying “It’s somewhat difficult to understand after five games. The team made the Playoffs last year. The team has a very clear identity, they are playing with some very young players. I think at times they play really well, and they have phases of the game that they execute really well. So again, to me, it was a little bit puzzling” to show Courtois the door.

Still, the results hadn’t been there for Montréal: They’ve got a single point on the season – courtesy of a 0-0 draw in Washington, D.C. – have scored just twice in their first five games. The Fire, meanwhile, haven’t lost since the season opener, drawing their home opener against D.C. and winning three in a row since.

That puts the Fire in an unusual position: Heavy favorites, with most sportsbooks showing the home team as heavily favored. The match also pits the league’s two youngest squads – Montréal’s average age is 24.2 years; the Fire are at 25.7 – against each other.

Series History

All time: 9W-7D-13LLast match: September 21, 2024: Montréal 2-4 Fire at Stade Saputo, Montréal, Qué.Last home match: March 16, 2024: Fire 4-3 Montréal at Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill.

What to Expect

CF Montréal

The tactical identity that Berhalter referenced was one that Courtois had put into place starting last year, with the using possession extensively – a return to the form of play that Montréal showed under Wilfred Nancy before his departure after the 2022 season after playing a more run-and-gun style under Hernán Losada the year prior. It worked, and as Berhalter noted, the team made the playoffs last year.

That comes despite having the cheapest roster in MLS and only one aging DP in Victor Wanyama who was, at most, a bit player for the team in that season. In the offseason, the team really didn’t add a lot of pieces: Although a deal with New England brought Giacomo Vrioni in, giving the team a new DP after Wanyama’s departure, he was more of a failure than a success with the Revolution and Montréal needed far more than a single piece to become competitive.

Also contributing to the team’s poor form, the team has played every game on the road: Stade Saputo, their home ground, is not winterized. In other years, they were able to use the nearby Stade Olympique to host early-season games, but work at the fifty-year-old venue has meant that the team’s only option has been a seven-game road trip to begin the season.

While the results haven’t been coming – a single point, courtesy of a 0-0 draw against D.C. is all that Montréal have to their credit five games in – they also haven’t been getting blown out: They came close against Atlanta in their season opener, beating the hosts on xG and losing out on a draw only when Edwin Mosquera scored a goal in the 85th minute.

Still, five games without a win was enough for Montréal’s front office, dismissing Courtois and promoting assistant Marco Donadel to the head coaching position. This is Donadel’s first season as a coach in Montréal but he’d previously played for the club, from 2015 through 2018. Per reports, Donadel was reportedly under consideration for the head coaching job before Courtois was hired.

Bringing Donadel back to Montréal, combined with statements by owner Joey Saputo that make it seem like the Italian will be given every chance to shed the “interim” tag and stay on as head coach, make this seem almost preplanned. That gives the whole situation a kind of cloak-and-dagger feel, especially since the club has said that dismissing Courtois was under consideration since the team’s second game of the season. That’s far too early to make a call about the state of the team, given that both losses were by a single goal.

Although Montréal have two goals on the season, they have actually felt far more dangerous. (They had 2.68 xG in their game against Atlanta alone.) It’s a sentiment shared by Berhalter, who said that Montréal “is very good on offensive set pieces and crosses in the penalty box. They have some big attackers that can finish crosses and even though they only scored two goals, we consider them an offensive threat.”

Will any of that continue under Donadel? Who knows, and it certainly adds a wrinkle to planning, with it unclear what parts of Courtois’s systems and game plans will continue, and what will change. When MIR97 Media asked Berhalter about this, he said “in terms of scouting and planning, it's very difficult, obviously, to plan what we think they are going to do because it is new and we expect there to be some changes.”

Montréal had five players out due to injury last week, including Vrioni and former Fire player Fabian Herbers. A return to health for any of those players, including USMNT defender Jalen Neal, would give Donadel more tools to make those changes, but it’s still a squad that is starved for high-end talent, particularly in the attack.

Chicago Fire

The Fire are riding high at the moment: First three-game road winning streak since 2009, as part of a four game undefeated streak. Although the Fire strung together three wins as recently as 2023, that stretch was part of a summer surge that felt more like the team digging itself out of a hole, rather than riding high.

Is it enough to make the young squad overconfident, particularly against an opponent that hasn’t yet found success this year? “You know, I don't think overconfidence is an issue; I think complacency is an issue,” Berhalter told reporters on Thursday, continuing, “we want the group to be confident. But we also don't want them to be complacent.”

One way to keep complacency out is internal competition. That’s something the Fire, who have dealt with significant injuries to every position group so far this season, haven’t had the luxury of. That’s starting to change, including at the center-back spot. Carlos Terán is back to full health. That gives the team three healthy, starting-caliber center-backs, not including Omar González who certainly has the skill and who was starting games last season in Dallas.

After a shaky start, Rogers’s play has improved and Jack Elliott has been good, but not perfect so far. That gives Berhalter and his coaching staff something to think about. “With Carlos [Terán] and Sam [Rogers] and Jack [Elliott], those are guys that are fighting for starting positions, and again, we talked about competition in spots, and this is definitely, you know, a spot that's contested. And we'll have to evaluate it and see what the decision is for the game on Saturday.”

One area where absences are still forcing the team’s hand, however, is the midfield: Brian Gutiérrez will be out on Saturday, having injured himself in training while on international duty last week, and Kellyn Acosta is “right on the border of out and questionable,” according to Berhalter.

That likely paves the way for Rominigue Kouamé’s first start after an electric performance last week that saw him get a goal in his MLS debut after subbing on late in the game. It also means that Sergio Oregel Jr. will again get the nod. Five games into the season, he’s gone from projecting as a role player for the team to making a credible case for serious minutes, even with the full squad healthy. Sam Williams has also not looked out of place on an MLS pitch, making the team’s midfield crisis seem like a serendipitous opportunity to get the 20-year-old a deal that allows him to play with the first-team squad.

The team has every reason to be confident. This is a game that the team should win. And yet it also feels like a game that the team must win: After this week, the team has two months of games in April and May against tough opponents, starting with MLS Cup finalists New York Red Bulls on the road followed by star-studded Inter Miami at home.

While the team should be confident, even against high-end opponents, the fact is that points will become harder to come by. You need to win the games that you should win in this league – something the Fire have struggled to do in recent seasons. For the Fire to truly change their fate, they need to win winnable games, and right now, that includes Montréal at home.

Projected Starting XI

Panel Predictions

Alex Calabrese

Chicago Fire FC 3 – 0 CF Montréal

The Fire are clicking on offense, but this game is a great opportunity for them to match that on defense. Chris Brady should be able to record his first shutout of 2025 this weekend..

Max Sánchez Josa

Chicago Fire FC 5 – 1 CF Montréal

Montréal’s defense hasn’t been particularly bad this season, but considering the recent news of the firing of Laurent Courtois and the Fire’s form, I can see this being the game they really crack, and one of their lowest points of the season when they look back. The Fire’s front three should have a field day.

DJ Hagenwald

Chicago Fire FC 4 – 0 CF Montréal

Fire should hopefully be able to take advantage of a weak Montreal side, and if they can get a couple goals early enough I don't see why they don't take full advantage of it.

Tim Hotze

Chicago Fire FC 2 – 0 CF Montréal

Despite feeling like there’s a higher-than-average chance of a trap game for the Fire, it still feels like a win for the team, and Brady has more than earned a clean sheet already.

Alan Królikowksi

Chicago Fire FC 3 – 0 CF Montréal

Memo Pizano

Chicago Fire FC 3 – 0 CF Montréal

Matt Shabelman

Chicago Fire FC 3 – 0 CF Montréal

Match Information and How to Watch

Date and Time: Saturday, March 29th 2025, 7:30 PM CTForecast: Temperatures in mid-50s with a 25% chance of rain showersLocation: Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill.TV: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+ (subscription)