The Chicago Fire are heading to Charlotte to kick off a four-game road trip that will be the team’s final lengthy stay away from home this season. The last time the team left Soldier Field for multiple weeks, they came back with a perfect nine points out of the three game excursion.

Defender Jack Elliott thinks the team’s performance then will be a catalyst for this excursion, saying “It's not easy in this league to play away from home. The confidence of knowing that we can win away games is going to be huge going into this stretch. I think that's something we definitely have to take and use the confidence from knowing that we've got the ability to do that on long stretches of road games.”

Confidence, meanwhile, is in increasingly scarce supply for their hosts. Charlotte has dropped all four of their previous league matches. Over that stretch the team managed to beat lower-division North Carolina FC 4-1, but the scoreline belies the game on the pitch: The game was 0-0 after 90 minutes and Charlotte required extra time to find the back of the net.

Charlotte’s consolation is that only one of those performances was at home. Bank of America stadium has been a fortress for Charlotte: In each of the last three seasons, they lost just three of their 17 regular season matches at home, and are roughly on pace to do the same again this year, with just one loss out of six matches in the season.

Head Coach Gregg Berhalter is prepared for a different team to take to the pitch against his squad than the one that saw its fourth straight league defeat Wednesday, saying “I think the most important thing is that their coach is going to have them ready to play, and they are going to be hungry to get a home win. I know that for sure. You know, an experienced coach, he knows that home points are very valuable, and they are going to see this as an opportunity.”

How will the Fire fight back? “It's really about matching that early intensity that they have, that early push that they are going to have to score goals and then trying to hurt them as well. We’re third in the league in xG and we need to show our offensive quality as well. We can hurt teams and create chances and that's going to be a very important aspect of the game, withstanding and actually going out and trying to hurt them.”

Although the Fire’s record against Charlotte is not a happy one for the visitors, Chicago’s only victory came at Bank of America Stadium.

Series History

All time: 1W-0D-5LLast match: October 2, 2024: Charlotte FC 4-3 Chicago Fire at Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C.

What to Expect

Charlotte FC

The story going into 2025 was that Charlotte had an elite defense but the team’s offensive potential was limited. To address that, they brought in a big name attacker, Wilfred Zaha, on loan. Was Zaha expected to perform in the league? Well, here’s one take.

https://twitter.com/tombogert/status/1880268002182263206

So far, though, the winger has yet to really set the league on fire, with four goals in just under a thousand minutes. That’s been fine for Charlotte, however, who almost have a goal-scoring-by-select committee situation in their attack.

Berhalter’s take? “They have a number of different attacking options with the wingers, right-footed winger, [Liel] Abada, who has a lot of quickness, speed. Then we go to the left side, right-footed left winger in Zaha who is very good 1v1, very good finishing; and then you have [Patrick] Agyemang up top who runs behind constantly; and then you have [Pep] Biel between the lines who likes to get the final pass. I think it’s almost as good as it gets in the league in terms of the top four attacking players.” Combined, those four players have 13 goals, with Biel serving as a chance creator, with six assists alongside his three tallies.

The revamped attack was expected to be enough to propel Charlotte into the conversation of, if not a top team in MLS’s Eastern Conference, then a top team in the group just behind the leaders: Not Inter Miami. Not the Columbus Crew. Maybe not FC Cincinnati. But maybe, many prognosticators felt, they’d be just a half-step behind those – enough to earn home advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and then you’re off to the races.

It had started to look like it was happening, except suddenly, the defensive rock was whittled away. U.S. Men’s National Team defender Tim Ream, who joined Charlotte last summer after a successful decade at Fulham in the Premier League has been uncharacteristically out of place on several of the goals that Charlotte’s conceded. And goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, who has been elite for Charlotte over the past few seasons, has been… fine? But “fine” hasn’t been good enough in front of a defense that has also looked mortal, depriving head coach Dean Smith’s side of their ace-in-the-hole.

Charlotte are still a good team, with a lot of high-end MLS talent at both ends of the ball, and their home record over the past few years is almost unparalleled in the league. But that narrative is starting to change, and losing at home on Saturday would just make the voices that are already raising questions speak more loudly.

Chicago Fire

Joe Chatz brought up an interesting point when we spoke to Jack Elliott on Thursday – the Fire have allowed just one goal in the past three games. That was an own goal, and although it was created through pressure from Atlanta’s Emmanuel Latte Lath, it means the Fire haven’t actually had an opponent score on them since the disastrous outing in Nashville. That comes despite playing down a man for more than half against Orlando and playing in front of Jeff Gal during his first MLS start.

That’s a pretty solid response from a team who have been too willing to allow simple mistakes to cost them goals for too much of the season. Hold on to the ticker tape for now – the team has still allowed some nervy moments. And, well, Atlanta this year would have a hard time doing damage to much more than a bucket of fried chicken. And Orlando’s only goals in the four games before coming to Chicago came against that same Atlanta team, so they haven’t exactly been lighting up the league.

Progress is progress, and more to the point, the improved defensive results come even though the team hasn’t made a tactical shift. The team is still pressing, still having a high line of confrontation – the Fire’s average line of confrontation was 10 meters higher than Atlanta’s last week. Against Orlando, despite playing down a man, the team didn’t bunker, and the average position for defensive actions for both teams was roughly the same.

Choosing when to move forward and when to stay at home is obviously a balance. When MIR97 Media asked Berhalter whether it was a question of pushing the game to try to take the home crowd out of it or picking moments to push forward, the Fire gaffer said “I think it's about moments. You saw last week against Atlanta, they have a fast attacking group up top. They like to play behind the back line. I think we did really well – our high press and pressing goal kicks and moving up the field at times,” while saying the team needs to be prepared for balls coming in behind.

Jack Elliott said picking those moments “doesn’t happen overnight, and it does take some understanding, and consistency, which I think we’re starting to understand and show a bit more in recent weeks.”

If they do that while maintaining the same offensive output the team has been able to show over the course of the season, then they’re in a good place to get a win against Charlotte, in what would be a statement against a team that was considered to be one of the elite teams in the East.

Projected Starting XI

Panel Predictions

Alex Calabrese

Charlotte FC 2-2 Chicago Fire

DJ Hagenwald

Charlotte FC 3-2 Chicago Fire

Tim Hotze

Charlotte FC 2-2 Chicago Fire

Alan Królikowski

Charlotte FC 1-1 Chicago Fire

Memo Pizano

Charlotte FC 2-1 Chicago Fire

Max Sanchéz Josa

Charlotte FC 3-2 Chicago Fire

Matt Shabelman

Charlotte FC 2-1 Chicago Fire

Match Information and How to Watch

Date and Time: Saturday, May 17th 2025, 6:30 PM CTForecast: Temperatures around 80ºF with relatively high humidity, afternoon thunderstorms possible ahead of the matchLocation: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C.TV: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass