With their first win in the books courtesy of a gutsy performance against Dallas, the Fire head back out on the road to face Toronto FC – the fourth time and final this season that the Fire will play in a team’s home opener.

The match will pit a banged-up Fire squad – with absences at every position group except goalkeeper – against a Toronto FC team still trying to find their first win and as they attempt to find their footing under new Head Coach Robin Fraser.

Toronto FC often has boisterous, noisy crowds but the Fire could, but for reasons beyond the players, the teams, and the badges, encounter more than the usual uproar. This will be the first MLS match of the season played on Canadian soil featuring an American team. Given the saber rattling – to put it mildly – from Washington D.C. directed north of the border, Canadians have taken to booing the Star Spangled banner at sporting events hosted in the True North.

Berhalter, however, says that the jeers won’t affect the team. “We’ll be prepared to play, to compete in a soccer game. You know, their reaction doesn’t have anything to do with the soccer game, it has to do with things outside of soccer that we can’t control. So for us, it really is just focusing on things that we can control. And we’ll be ready to play. We’ll be prepared.”

Series History

All time: 12W-13D-14LLast match: June 15, 2024: Toronto 1-4 Fire at BMO Field, Toronto, Ont.

What to Expect

Toronto FC

Going into the Fire’s current three game road trip, if you had to circle one match of the three to be a win, it would have been this one. Both teams feature new coaches but unlike the Fire, who named Gregg Berhalter to his position last fall, Toronto didn’t hire Robin Fraser to coach Toronto until mid-January with the preseason about to start.

While Berhalter significantly reworked the squad to suit his playing style, in Toronto, GM Jason Hernández’s offseason consisted of making homegrown signings and complimentary pieces. The Toronto executive has also been unable to find a way to move on from Designated Player Lorenzo Insigne, still the league’s second-highest paid player but who has not featured on matchday squads under Fraser.

Fraser seems to want to create a system where the team uses possession more than they did last season, but squad composition – and the fact that his squad is almost entirely homegrown talent or holdovers from a previous régime – have made it slow going so far.

Federico Bernardeschi, the other Italian DP on Toronto’s roster, has looked pedestrian so far this year, after looking dangerous – sometimes deadly – in his time with Toronto. Roster mainstays Jonathan Osorio and Richie Laryea have also yet to thrive for Toronto in 2024, and any turnaround for Toronto will depend on them performing at a higher level than we’ve seen over the course of a year.

Strikers Theo Corbeanu and Ola Brynhildsen, two of Toronto’s few signings aside from homegrowns, have likewise looked impressive so far as the team has struggled to provide them with service.

Fraser, who had been an assistant coach with Toronto during the team’s heyday last decade, has respect, including from Berhalter, who knows him back from their playing days – they were center-back partners with the U.S. Men’s National Team squad around the turn of the millennium. Berhalter respects his former teammate. “I have a lot of respect for what he’s done as a coach and how he organizes his team, how he leads his team. You’ll hear nothing but good things from the players that he’s coached,” the Fire coach and director of football said, continuing that he “thinks about the game in a tactical way, so I’m sure there’ll be some wrinkles that we have to prepare for.”

Wrinkles aside – Fraser, who was also head coach of the Colorado Rapids, is respected around the league but can he find a way to turn Toronto FC, long one of the league’s highest-spending teams, to its status as one of the best performing? Or is he not being given the tools for the job?

Chicago Fire

The Fire’s first win of the season last week in Texas came  at a high cost: Already facing injuries to a number of midfielders, team captain Kellyn Acosta went down with a non-contact injury inside the first half hour. Mauricio Pineda, himself not fully fit, came in his place and Berhalter used the second of two call ups to bring in Sam Williams to see out the match – he will not feature in MLS again this season unless he gets a first team deal.

To give time to recover and could this be the time to give Harold Osorio his first MLS start after playing a matter of seconds against DC United? The midfielder was not in the Fire II team that played against Toronto on Thursday as he served a one-game suspension and if you’ve only got one more league appearance from the El Salvador international, might as well get your money’s worth. If things don’t work out, Pineda is a good insurance policy, but especially since Acosta will be out for at least a matter of weeks, the Fire would best be served if he could be given time to heal rather than a chance to exacerbate an injury.

Barhalter said that the team’s demanding style is the root cause, but he thinks the issues will be transitory, saying, “we want to play with this intensity. We want to play with this certain workload on and off the ball. And it costs energy, and it's a lot of distance for the guys and they need to adapt to it. You know, so you see some guys that are handling it well and some guys that are having difficulty with it. But we hope over time, everyone is going to be handling it well and the team is going to be much better off.”

In a welcome bit of news, Maren Haile-Selassie, who has yet to feature for the Fire this season, and Philip Zinckernagel will both be in the squad, giving the team two options they didn’t have last week, when Omari Glasgow got his career-first MLS start. Will either be ready to start? I hope so, and although we haven’t yet seen Maren, the consistency of having Zinckernagel who’s increasingly grown into the MLS game. By comparison, the Guyanese international has skill but is still clearly adapting to the pace and physicality of the top flight, and giving him the time to learn that off the bench would best benefit both player and club.

With Glasgow still getting his sea legs, once again, although the Fire did occasionally create from the right, the team remained left side dominant, with Jonathan Bamba and Andrew Gutman providing a creative impetus that Jonathan Dean and Omari Glasgow just haven’t.

Being so much stronger on the left, over time, will make the Fire more predictable – and there easier to defend – which is why it was so welcome to see Leonardo Barroso come off the bench in his first competitive appearance with the Fire and instantly change that equation.

Barroso, the U22 Initiative signing who came up through Sporting CP’s academy, didn’t make his MLS debut until the 78th minute last week. He only had eight touches on the ball – but one of those was a goal. If Barroso is able to get his first MLS start this week, that instantly changes the calculus in how you defend against the team in a number of situations.

The game is the first matinee of the season – a return to something the team knows, as Berhalter noted, “all our games were around” Saturday’s afternoon kickoff time in Toronto. He went on to add, “You know, reminds me of days in Germany or in England where you have the afternoon kickoffs. So I think it will be a great atmosphere in the stadium. Get fans in the stadium, and we're looking forward to it.”

Projected Starting XI

Panel Predictions

Alex Calabrese

Toronto FC 2-3 Chicago Fire FC

Lots of action at both ends of the field this season, and it will continue. Some much needed reinforcement in the offense in the shape of Maren Haile-Selassie will be a game-changer, even if the midfield is being stretched to its limit..

Max Sánchez Josa

Toronto FC 1-3 Chicago Fire FCBrady will unfortunately not get a clean sheet. That being said, Toronto hasn’t looked good defensively, and Cuypers, Bamba, and Guti are all on fire. Should be a relatively dominant win away from home..

DJ Hagenwald

Toronto FC 0-3 Chicago Fire FC

The Fire, despite being worse last year, still managed to defeat Toronto (who arguably were better last year) pretty handily on their turf. Despite being held together by duct tape and hopes and dreams, the Fire really should walk away from here with a victory as Brady continues making his case for GKOTY and a national team callup.

Tim Hotze

Toronto FC 0-2 Chicago Fire FC

The Fire are banged up but Toronto have looked listless. While that may change playing at home – especially in front of a home crowd that will be engaged – Toronto’s roster just doesn’t look like it was really made with Fraser in mind. Can Jonathan Bamba find the back of the net and Chris Brady, whose performances have been stellar in 2025, finally get a clean sheet?

Alan Królikowksi

Toronto FC 1-2 Chicago Fire FC

Matt Shabelman

Toronto FC 0-2 Chicago Fire FC

Bad TFC. Bamba. Boys are soooo back.

Match Information and How to Watch

Date and Time: Saturday, March 15th 2025, 1:30 PM CTForecast: Temperatures in mid-40s with a 35% chance of rain showersLocation: BMO Field, Toronto, Ont.TV: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+ (subscription)