The Chicago Fire will look to extend their unbeaten streak to five matches when they visit the New England Revolution on Saturday evening in Foxborough, Mass.
With an MLS Cup playoff spot secured, Chicago (15-11-7, 52 points) heads to New England looking to better its position in the Eastern Conference table. The Fire, who are returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2017, sit in eighth place after their 3-0-1 run.
Chicago has not lost an MLS regular-season match since falling 3-1 to New York City FC on Sept. 13.
The Fire could climb out of the wild-card match, host the wild card or be the visiting team in the wild card, depending on the results of Saturday’s matches.
With playoff seeding on the line, there’s no lack of motivation in the Chicago room heading into Saturday’s match.
“You want to win games. Do we have it in hand? No. We have to see what other teams are going to do,” forward Hugo Cuypers said. “The only thing we can focus on is playing. Even if we don’t get the result or the end ranking we would like, this game comes right before the playoffs, so it’s not a game we can take easily.’
Saturday will be the second meeting between the Fire and Revolution this season. Chicago won the first match 3-2 on Sept. 6.
The Revolution enter Saturday’s regular-season finale in the 11th spot in the Eastern Conference.
New England (9-16-8, 35 points) is just 1-2-1 in four MLS matches since its last meeting with Chicago.
With playoff implications on the line for coach Gregg Berhalter’s side, Revolution interim head coach Pablo Moreira knows Saturday will be a big match.
“Gregg’s obviously done a great job in Chicago with the turnaround this year,” Moreira said. “I think the way they come out in games is not always the same.
“A lot of the focus is on us. It’s a big game for them, but it’s a big game for us.”
–Field Level Media
