Chicago Fire Fall To Philadelphia, Ending Record-Breaking Season
The 2025 Chicago Fire FC’s season is over. The Fire fell 3-0 to the Philadelphia Union at SeatGeek Stadium, exiting their first-round series after two defeats in a row to the Supporters Shielder winners.
Despite the defeat, however, the first season of the Gregg Berhalter era in Chicago should still be considered a success by almost any metric.
In the regular season, the Fire moved from a last place finish in the Eastern Conference last year into the middle of the table as Berhalter introduced an enjoyable, offense-oriented style of play to the squad in his first year as head coach of the team. The performance returned the Fire to the playoffs after a seven season drought, ending the longest active drought in the league.
In the postseason, the Fire hosted Orlando City in the Eastern Conference Wildcard game and thoroughly outplayed the visitors as they earned a 3-1 victory. The result ended the season for Orlando, who many at the beginning of the year considered an outside contender for hardware. More significantly, however, it was the Fire’s first win in the postseason since 2009.
The regular season results came on the heels of the Fire’s 68 goals on the season, the most in team history and in one more than the team managed in their 2000 campaign (which spanned two fewer games). The team also set a club record for away wins with nine. Partly due to the improved results on the pitch, the Fire also had their best-ever season at the gate, averaging 23,420 fans over the course of the regular season.
Although their 53 points on the regular season was enough only for eighth place in the meat-grinder that was the 2025 MLS Eastern Conference, it would have been good enough for fourth place in the conference last year, and in 2023, the first year that MLS adopted the current playoff format, the team’s record would have edged out the Seattle Sounders for second place had the team played in the Western Conference.
The team’s points total this season also represents a 23 point improvement on the 2024 campaign. FC Cincinnati made a similar turnaround, climbing to respectability with 49 points in 2022 after their 2021 campaign left the team with 20 points, the team’s third consecutive bottom-of-the-league finish. A year later, FC Cincinnati went on to win the Supporters Shield as the team with the league’s best record and since then have consistently been one of the top performers in the league.
The Fire will be looking to continue their climb in a similar fashion in Berhalter’s second year in the dugout in Chicago. They have a number of pieces to build on, both from new players slated to return and from improvements seen from within.
Philip Zinckernagel broke the team’s single-season record for goal contributions with 30, spread evenly between goals and assists in his first season in MLS and has three years left on his deal. Djé D’Avilla came in as a young, raw talent from the Portuguese second division and emerged as a competent MLS starter.
Returnees also shown for the Fire. Defender Andrew Gutman had a career year as measured in minutes, goals and goal contributions. Brian Gutiérrez scored more goals and added more assists this year (nine and six) than he did in the previous two seasons combined. Hugo Cuypers became the first Fire player to have Nemanja Nikolić. Sergio Oregel Jr. became a regular contributor after having not made an appearance for the team in the prior two seasons.
While this knowledge will do little to wash the bitter taste from fans who witnessed Saturday’s loss at SeatGeek, those players – and others – make it seem for the first time years that the Fire have a core group that can help progress the team to loftier places than the first round of the playoffs, where the Fire’s 2025 season ended.
