The Chicago Fire continue their busy run through July that will see the team play five games in two weeks across all competitions as they head to Georgia to take on Atlanta United. Atlanta represents a welcome reprieve from the gauntlet of top teams that the Fire have faced this month: The team currently sits 12th place in the Eastern Conference, just one spot above where they were when the teams met at Soldier Field in May.

Throughout the 2025 season, the Fire have fared well on the road, and the team has generally taken care of business against lower-seeded opposition.

If Fire continue that form against a struggling Atlanta team, they’ll exceed their points total for the entire 2024 campaign as they enter the final third of the regular season.

Series History

All time: 5W-3D-8LLast match: May 10, 2025: Chicago Fire  2-1 Atlanta United at Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill.Last away match: March 31, 2024: Atlanta United 3-0 Chicago Fire at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Ga.

What to Expect

Atlanta United

Some things are more important than the game played on the pitch. Last Thursday, Atlanta United announced that team President and CEO Garth Lagerwey would be taking a leave of absence following a cancer diagnosis.

Atlanta United stated that Lagerwey, who was born and raised in Elmhurst, Ill., has already begun treatment and the prognosis is good for a full recovery. Lagerwey has built a reputation as one of the top executives in the league, working to build winning teams with Real Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders before moving to Atlanta ahead of the 2023 season, and MIR97 Media joins voices from around the sport in wishing Lagerwey a full and speedy recovery.

On the pitch, Atlanta United remains much the same team the Fire faced in May: On paper, they have one of the most talented squads in the league. It is also the most expensive. They paid a league-record €21.25 million for Emmanuel Latte Lath this offseason, mere months after paying just under €12 million to bring Aleksey Miranchuk to the team last summer in what was then the league’s fifth most expensive incoming transfer in history. They also brought back Miguel Almirón from Newcastle for just under €10 million in the offseason.

The game, however, isn’t played on paper, and Head Coach Ronny Deila has struggled to come up with a coherent vision that works for his squad in his first year in Atlanta. Almirón, now 31, looks like a shadow of the player that left Atlanta for England years ago. Miranchuk has been a poster child for why you can’t translate numbers off the bench as a super-sub into predicted output as a game-in, game-out starter. And Lath?

All you can say about Lath’s performance is that at least, last Saturday, he scored. His goal, from the penalty spot deep in second-half stoppage time secured the draw for Atlanta in their game against now-14th place Toronto FC. It was Atlanta’s first goal in the past two matches, with the team playing D.C. United – tied with Atlanta on points – to a 0-0 draw midweek.

The goal was also Lath’s first goal since March, although he remains their leading scorer, now with six goals on the year. Things are bad in Atlanta, and it doesn’t look like they’re about to get better any time soon.

Chicago Fire

When the final whistle blows in Atlanta, the Fire will have played five hours – 300 minutes – of competitive soccer over the past week and a half.

While Fire Head Coach Gregg Berhalter has frequently pointed out that many of the top teams in Europe play three matches over the course of a week, relying on much of the same core throughout those matches, playing midweek games two weeks in a row – with one of those having gone through 30 additional minutes of extra time – is bound to test any player’s endurance, regardless of their fitness level.

If – and how – the team will rotate players is therefore a key question facing Berhalter and his staff with two games that are highly winnable – at least on paper – this week.

Of course, a desire to rotate is one thing – having the players to do so is the other. Sam Rogers had a number of incredible tackles and recoveries against San Diego last Saturday, but by the time he was subbed off for Tom Barlow, to give the team another attacking option, it was looking like exhaustion had begun to set in. On both goals the Fire allowed, although Rogers wasn’t primarily at fault for either, he appeared to struggle with focus at times and could likely have done more to prevent them.

Center-back depth, however, is one luxury the Fire don’t have, particularly with Carlos Terán and Christopher Cupps facing injuries. 36-year-old Omar González has shown some of the form that made him one of the top defenders in the league last decade, but has also shown why is no longer a preferred option to play 90 minutes.

Likewise, despite his hat trick (four words I never thought I’d write) against D.C. United, Tom Barlow is clearly a significant step down from Hugo Cuypers’s level, even if the Belgian striker has at times looked like his form has dipped as he’s been given too many minutes.

Jonathan Bamba has shown flashes of his offensive talent, but hasn’t really produced at a high level in recent games as the team has faced top opposition. There’s a clear argument in resting the winger, who has now played more or less continually for a year without a real offseason break. Maren Haile-Selassie is a capable – if less flashy – player at the position. Still, there’s also a clear argument for giving Bamba every opportunity to be a difference-maker against a team that, frankly, will likely present less of a challenge than the Fire’s other recent opponents.

From what we know of Gregg Berhalter, however, he’s likely to roll out his preferred lineup, possibly with an eye to going to his bench earlier if the game looks well in hand. While we might see Jonathan Dean start instead of 20-year-old Leonardo Barroso, or Rominigue Kouamé get the nod ahead of Mauricio Pineda, I doubt we’ll see many other changes, and all of those players are likely to get plenty of minutes this week.

Projected Starting XI

Match Information and How to Watch

Date and Time: Wednesday, July 16, 2025, 6:30 PM CTForecast: Indoors, climate controlled and played on fake turfLocation: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Ga.TV: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+