No matter how you look at it, the Chicago Fire are a good team. They sit at the no. 2 slot in the MLS Power Rankings, Nemanja Nikolic leads the league with 13 goals in 16 games, and they haven’t lost a match since April.
But the Lions may have found a crack in their shield earlier this month.
The Fire haven’t lost a match since April 29th, when they travelled to the Big Apple to face the New York Red Bulls. Since then, Chicago has only earned two draws. The 2-2 draw against the L.A Galaxy the following week didn’t stop them from finding their winning rhythm. But losing on the road in Orlando when they were up two men and had countless opportunities was certainly a shock to the system.
It was confounding. One of the best offenses in the league-- including the current Golden Boot leader Nemanja Nikolic-- couldn’t find the back of the net against a team that should have been scrambling. The Fire failed to score in a match for only the second time this season-- the first time since the arrival of Bastian Schweinsteiger and the start of their winning streak.
The match against the Chicago Fire wasn’t a point of weakness from the Lions. Far from it-- the scoreless draw was arguably one of their strongest performances of the season.
“I look at this game and obviously a lot of me is disappointed that we can’t get three points at home, that’s always a clear objective. But I think you can look at a game and a performance like this and think this could be real momentum, this could be a game changer for us. We want it to be that,” Kreis said after the match on June 4th. “We’ve had our struggles over the last month defensively, and the fact that we can defend with only eight field players for as long as we did against a full squad shows that we’re capable of defending if we’re all committed to doing it. And so, I hope that’s the biggest takeaway tonight is that we have a real renewed resolve about what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it.”
The circumstances will inevitably be different on Saturday. Both teams will be better prepared for what lies ahead. But one thing is certain. There are few teams this season that have been able to slow down Chicago. Orlando City is one of them. And that’s enough to believe in.
