The Fire are back in the belle province for a game against CF Montréal in their penultimate road game of the season, as both teams try to salvage results from what have been disappointing campaigns this year.

The last time these two teams met at Stade Saputo, the game ended in a 0-0 draw, but that was an aberration: These series have been characterized by plenty of goals from both sides, including a total of seven – two in second half stoppage time for the Fire – the last time the teams met in Soldier Field in March.

Series History

All time: 9W-7D-12LLast Match: March 16, 2024: Fire 4-3 Montréal at Soldier Field, Chicago, Ill.Last Away Match: September 16, 2023: Montréal 0-0 Fire at Stade Saputo, Montéal, Qué.

Recent Form

CF Montréal

CF Montréal are on a two game point streak, after a 2-1 over Charlotte last Saturday and a 2-2 draw at New England on Wednesday. The results stopped a three game losing skid that saw the team get smacked with a 5-0 loss by the Revs in late August alongside losses to Toronto and FC Cincinnati

Fire

The Fire shot but couldn’t score, with 10 attempts – 3 on target – on Nashville’s net on Wednesday, and landed with a 1-0 loss off a looping header. After the game, Fabian Herbers said – rightfully – that the team was playing well, and can be “proud” of the team’s play but not the result.

The Storyline

With just four games remaining for the Fire and five for Montréal, it’s safe to say that neither team has had the kind of season they’ve wanted:  Both teams sit out of the postseason spots and have both suffered several losing streaks during the campaign. Montréal has the 3rd worst goal differential in the league (-22), while Chicago is 4th (-16).

And yet: MLS’s incredibly permissive playoff structure means that both teams are, at least mathematically, still in playoff contention, and regardless of the result, neither team will be eliminated from contention after the final whistle.

It’s a far cry from where the teams hoped that they’d be when they last met in March: CF Montréal were in the midst of a six game road swing to start the season and came to Chicago undefeated, having beaten star-laden Inter Miami the week before. There was genuine hope that Laurent Courtois’s tactical approach could return the Canadian team to the heights they experienced under Wilfred Nancy, where the team finished as high as 3rd in the Supporters Shield rankings.

The Fire, meanwhile, had kept up with expected conference heavyweights Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Columbus, drawing one while suffering two narrow defeats.

The Fire prevailed in the match between the two teams in a come-from-behind victory that felt like previous editions of the squad couldn’t have pulled off. Hugo Cuypers scored his first goal for the team, and looked like the bona fide DP striker that had been promised, with key free agent signing Kellyn Acosta notching the game winner.

Since then, both teams have reverted to form: CF Montréal often plays like the discount squad that it is, and things got bad enough that Montréal-area native Mathieu Choinière, one of the true bright spots of the squad, asked to be traded away despite spending most of his life in the organization (eventually making it to Swiss Super League club Grasshopper Club Zurich), while the Fire endured a nine-game winless streak and a separate streak of nearly two months between wins in all competitions.

The Fire, meanwhile, had a nine-game winless streak and just snapped a separate two-month span between wins across all competitions with last Saturday’s victory over the New York Red Bulls. As a result, they’re currently on pace for their worst season since 2018 – incidentally, the year after their last year to make the playoffs.

It’s possible, though unlikely, that one of the teams could turn things around in the remaining games, but the margin for error is basically nil: It is win or go home time for both teams from here on out if they want to make the playoffs, and even then, they need help along the way.

CF Montréal Players to Watch

Josef Martínez: Montréal became the third MLS team for Martínez before the start of the 2024 season. Even if the 2018 MLS Golden Boot winner isn’t the same striker that he was before his 2020 season-ending injury, he’s still managed to score five goals in just 973 minutes so far this season, pushing him up to eighth on the all-time MLS goalscorer list, just 4 goals behind former Fire player Ante Razov. Even if he can’t produce at the prolific rate he once could, he can absolutely still score a banger at the right moment.

Sunusi Ibrahim: Ibrahim, a Nigerian youth international, was signed to CF Montréal as a teenager two years after finishing as the leading scorer in the Nigeria Premier League. It isn’t a form he’s been able to find since coming to MLS, but he is having a career season, with a personal best six goals in the campaign in 921 minutes, pacing the team.

Fire Keys to Victory

• Never say die: At their last meeting, the Fire were down by a goal in second-half stoppage time and the Fire still came away with a win, their first of the season. That lesson doesn’t seem to have stuck with the team but if they can find it and fight through this game and the team’s three after that, they can push for a spot in the postseason, however improbable.
• Next man up: It isn’t clear if Hugo Cuypers will have time to join the team after he and his wife had a son. The once-healthy backline is now missing four key players. It isn’t clear how many minutes Brian Gutiérrez can give the team. For the team’s third game in eight days, rotation is inevitable but especially with that many absences, the Fire are going to rely on strong performances from players who haven’t typically featured in highlight reels if they want to get a result.

Panel Predictions

Alex Calabrese

CF Montréal hasn't kept a clean sheet in nine matches. The Chicago Fire haven't kept a clean sheet in eight matches. Therefore, it will be 0-0.

Prediction: Montréal 0-0 Fire

Jiggly Carollo

Prediction: Montréal 3-1 Fire

Tim Hotze

Neither team has had many satisfying results this season and I don’t see a reason why that should change on Saturday.

Prediction: Montréal 1-1 Fire

Matt Shabelman

Prediction: Montréal 1-3 Fire

Match Information and How to Watch

Date and Time: Saturday, September 21, 2024, 6:30 PM CTLocation: Stade Saputo, Montréal, Qué.Forecast: 69’F expected at kickoff, winds at 4 mph, 73% cloud cover and no chance of precipitationTV: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass