Atlanta United (3-4-2, 8th in East) vs. Chicago Fire FC (2-3-4, 13th in East)
Two teams who are struggling and battling with injuries meet at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday. The Fire are hoping April Showers bring May Flowers after going 0-3-2 in the league, elimination in the US Open Cup, and seeing more red cards (four) than goals (three, all from the penalty spot). As if that was not bad enough, newcomer Jairo Torres is a question mark with a left hip issue picked up in his last match with Atlas.
That is on top of Rafael Czichos and Jhon Duran being suspended and several other attacking options being question marks as well (see below). It is more likely that Torres as well as fellow new signing Chris Mueller will make their Fire debuts next weekend against FC Cincinnati.
Atlanta United have problems of their own with injuries and poor form. They went 1-3-1 in April in league play and have injuries to Josef Martinez and Brad Guzan that will keep them out of this match and Ossie Alonso with a torn ACL that will keep him out for the season. Dom Dwyer is a question mark with a leg injury.
One saving grace for Atlanta is that they are unbeaten at home so far at 2-0-2–though the last two home matches in the league were draws.
The Fire need to adopt a “next man up” mentality as well as find some discipline to get something from this match. There’s still plenty of time to turn things around, but they need to start that process sooner rather than later which would take some of the pressure off Torres and Mueller to make immediate impacts for the Fire.
Kickoff for the match is at 5pm CT on WGN-TV.
INJURIES:
ATLANTA UNITED: OUT: Dylan Castanheira (achilles), Machop Chol (leg), Osvaldo Alonso (ACL), Josef Martinez (knee), Brad Guzan (achilles); QUESTIONABLE: Matheus Rossetto (hamstring), Santiago Sosa (lower body), Dom Dwyer (leg), Caleb Wiley (lower body), George Campbell (adductor)
CHICAGO FIRE FC: OUT: Spencer Richey (head), Gaston Gimenez (left hip), Alex Monis (right ankle); QUESTIONABLE: Brian Gutierrez (knee), Fabian Herbers (right hip), Kacper Przybyłko (back), Carlos Terán (left lower leg), Jairo Torres (left hip)
SUSPENDED:
CHI: Jhon Duran, Rafael Czichos
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW:
CHI: Gaston Gimenez, Miguel Navarro
Referee: Ramy Tocuhan
Assistant Referees: Matthew Nelson, Brian Dunn
Fourth Official: Elvis Osmanovic
VAR: Daniel Radford
LAST YEAR:
4/24/21: ATL 3-1 CHI
7/03/21: CHI 3-0 ATL
