With time running out on them, the Chicago Fire need to start picking up points fast. Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly the place where they do that. They’ll be heading to Southwest Philadelphia to visit the Philadelphia Union, combining two different things that the Fire can’t handle: Playing on the road and playing against Philadelphia. But, with a loss and a draw down in Florida, the Union do look a bit shaken. Unfortunately for the Fire, the cavalry is returning for Philly.
The biggest thing going into this one is the return of most of the players that were missing for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. That means the Chicago Fire will likely be seeing Francisco Calvo breaking into the starting lineup again and the Philadelphia Union will likely be getting back Andre Blake and Cory Burke from Jamaica. The Jamaican they won’t be getting back, however, is Alvas Powell who picked up an injury during their quarterfinal loss to the US earlier in the week.
Here are three things to keep in mind going into Sunday.
Start Offor
I am no longer asking and I’ve stopped being nice about this. Robert Beric has consistently proven that he is incapable of being the goalscorer that the Chicago Fire need and Chinonso Offor has proven time and time again that he is capable of creating and developing attacks on his own. The experiment is over and it’s time to move on from this failed Designated Player. If he can be bought down, then maybe Beric can stay, but he is not worth a Designated Player spot. At this point, the best option at striker is Offor.
Offor is a player who has quietly crept into the conversation for one of the better players for a disappointing Fire team this season. There are others who are much more worthy of that title, but that may also be because of how much more time on the pitch they’ve spent. Offor has barely gotten an opportunity to show off, only showing up late in games nowadays. He was given his only start as a long striker against Columbus, but he didn’t really have enough support from his midfield. I want to see how he does with the full strength of Przemyslaw Frankowski, Ignacio Aliseda, and Alvaro Medran behind him.
Beric has had enough wasted chances, it’s time to see what the next man up can do.
Notable Firefighter: Cory Burke
Usually I come in here with a fun stat that’s really complicated and has to do with analytics. This stat is fun for the reason that it truly exemplifies the beautiful stupidity of following a really bad sports team. For anyone unfamiliar with the Chicago Fire or Philadelphia Union, I’d like you to meet Cory Burke. Cory Burke isn’t a really major player in MLS or really for the Philadelphia Union. He’s spent most of his career on loan for the team, starting with Bethlehem Steel in 2016 and finally getting a chance on the first team in 2018, only to be loaned to the Austrian Bundesliga in late 2019. He scored 10 goals for Philly in 2018, but since then he’s struggled to even reach 10 starts. But now we get to the part that Fire fans should know very well:
Cory Burke has 6 goals scored against the Fire in less than 350 minutes played. That’s 5 appearances. At 6 of 18, nearly half of his career MLS goals have come against the Chicago Fire. Remember that game back in May? The 2-0 win for Philly? Cory Burke scored in that one. Remember the insanity that was the tornado game back in June? Cory Burke scored just before half-time. In every single game where Cory Burke was in the 18 for Philly against the Fire, he has scored a goal. It is clockwork, it is automatic. Former Fire striker Nemanja Nikolic technically has a similar record against the Union, but he was scoring at least 15 goals a season and played almost 90 minutes in each game. Burke, a player who struggles to remain on the squad, scores every time he sees the Chicago Fire.
It’s things like this that makes being on a terrible team just a bit more fun. Burke is returning from the CONCACAF Gold Cup where he barely featured for Jamaica and might not be in coach Jim Curtin’s plans. But if Curtin’s done his research, he knows just how much Cory Burke seems to hate the Fire
Hot at the Wrong Time
Another thing that you notice about a bad team after being around them for long enough is that you notice the patterns that the team follows. My grandfather, a Chicago Cubs fan all his life, would always talk about “when they’d start to blow it.” The Chicago Fire have their own patterns, which make the team even more confusing. The moment that the games stop mattering is the moment that the team finally starts to pick up their performances.
This is a very unscientific view of the game, but it always seems like whenever all hope is lost for the team, that is the moment that they give hope. It’s an excruciating cycle that goes on and on until the team is finally mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. The Fire have spent most of the beginning of this season at home due to wanting to avoid conflicts with the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field later in the year. Unfortunately, that may not have worked out as well, but it still means that most of the latter half of the season will be on the road.
At this point, the season feels like it’s over. Mathematically, they can win out and maybe even win the Supporters Shield, but realistically there’s just no way they do anything. But, as I said, the moment there’s no hope, Chicago finds a way to give you some small amount of empty hope.
Projected XI
Chicago Fire (5-2-2-1): Bobby Shuttleworth; Miguel Navarro, Francisco Calvo, Mauricio Pineda, Wyatt Omsberg, Boris Sekulic; Alvaro Medran, Gaston Gimenez; Ignacio Aliseda, Przemyslaw Frankowski; Chinonso Offor
Philadelphia Union (4-1-2-1-2): Andre Blake; Kai Wagner, Jack Elliott, Jakob Glesnes, Olivier Mbaizo; Jose Andres Martinez; Jamiro Montiero, Alejandro Bedoya; Daniel Gazdag; Cory Burke, Kacper Przybylko
How To Watch
Sunday, August 1st, 5:00PM CDT; At Subaru Park in Chester, PA, broadcasting on UniMas