It’s starting to feel like the honeymoon is over for Gregg Berhalter and the 2025 Chicago Fire, and the pressure is now firmly on the team to win – at home, in Soldier Field. Wednesday’s loss to a heavily-depleted Philadelphia Union side in a match where the Fire felt lifeless and out of ideas was the team’s second consecutive loss at home, and the second time in a row that the team failed to find the back of the net.

As a result, the Fire are still searching for their second home win of the season as the calendar is about to flip to July. The enthusiasm that Fire fans felt at watching their team on TV score seven goals against D.C. United in the nation’s capital has turned to frustration at the team’s difficulty getting results when the home crowd gets to watch them in person.

The Fire have one more chance to get a win – or even score a goal – in front of those home fans before heading back out on the road to face two tough opponents when they take on Charlotte FC this Saturday at Soldier Field.

With the 2025 MLS campaign past the halfway point, this meeting looks to be critical for both teams, tied with 25 points and straddling the line between being in and out of the playoffs, making this a “six-point” opportunity for both sides: Get a win and three points, and deny one of your nearest competitors the chance at the same.

Despite being level in the standings, when these two teams met just over a month ago in Charlotte, the Fire dominated, putting together one of their most complete performances of the season and getting the third-best expected goals total on the road in MLS since the statistic was tracked by American Soccer Analysis back in 2013.

Both teams will be on short rest, having played – and lost – on Wednesday. Both teams are facing key absences, with the CONCACAF Gold Cup taking key players from each squad and the Fire missing several players due to injury. That means it likely won’t be a perfect game from either squad, but perfection isn’t the goal – winning is.

Can the Fire use the confidence of their dominant performance over Charlotte on the road to get a victory at home that has proven so elusive for the team?

Series History

All time: 2W-0D-5LLast match: May 17 2025: Charlotte FC 1-4 Chicago Fire at Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC.

What to Expect

Charlotte FC

When the Fire faced Charlotte in mid-May, the team from North Carolina was on a four game losing streak in league play, extended to a fifth at Chicago’s hands. The team then snapped its losing streak in its next league match, but it’s been far from smooth sailing since: After starting the season with six wins, two losses and a draw, the team has just two wins – and eight losses – in the 10 games since.

Just as the last time the teams met, Charlotte’s problems The defense that looked so sure-footed in the 2024 season now looks pedestrian. The attacking talent is there, but it hasn’t performed at the level the team had hoped, and star acquisition Wilfred Zaha has just two goals in open play since the season opener.

Patrick Agyemang, the team’s leading scorer and subject of rumors of an imminent sale to Europe, is with the U.S. Men’s National Team. As is Tim Ream, their most high-profile (and one of their steadiest) defenders, giving head coach Dean Smith’s side fewer pieces to work with as the team looks to find the form they found so quickly early on this season, but which has eluded them since.

Chicago Fire

After a week and a half off, the Fire didn’t just look rusty: They looked nearly rusted shut. The team struggled to achieve the basics – completing a pass, timing runs, even positional spacing seemed worse than they have virtually all season.

While there’s plenty of blame to go around for the lifeless performance that the team showed, particularly in the first half, Andrew Gutman helped himself to a second helping. Gutman has had a sublime 2025 campaign on both ends of the ball, making him one of the best players at his position in the league. But not last Wednesday. Oh, boy, not on Wednesday. Sticking his hand out into a cross from Philadelphia, he granted the Union a shot from the penalty spot which became the only goal of the match. Still, it’s unlikely that Chase Gasper, who has been playing in MLS Next Pro as he works his way back to full fitness, will replace him and the team has no natural left-backs other than the duo.

The midfield, as Alex Calabrese noted, looked stale compared to the form we saw from the Fire’s homegrown trio earlier in the season, but it is one area where the Fire do have other options, ranging from the veteran Kellyn Acosta to the young Djé D’Avilla. Putting Acosta into the midfield is the more likely option – D’Avilla has just 155 minutes in league play, all off the bench, and none in the past month. It’s likely Berhalter will want to give runs off the bench before throwing him into the Starting XI.

Despite the poor performance of the group, Brian Gutiérrez had one of his best games in recent memory for the team, even if it showed that he can’t yet be relied on to carry the team to victory on his shoulders alone.

One likely change: After having injuries wreck the team’s center-back corps, Sam Rogers, who was an unused substitute against Philadelphia, is back to health and likely in line for a start after the 36-year-old Omar González went the full extent of the match midweek.

Jonathan Bamba is likely to start the game on the bench after struggling to make an impact for 70 minutes on Wednesday. This is the time of year when many players who came over from Europe struggle, having played about a calendar year without a substantial break. It’s likely Maren Haile-Selassie will get the starting spot in this one, with Bamba there to spell him off the bench.

Projected Starting XI

Match Information and How to Watch

Date and Time: Saturday, June 28, 2025, 7:30 PM CTForecast: Sunny with temperatures around 70ºF at kickoffLocation: Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill.TV: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+