FC Dallas (10-3-5, 1st in West) vs. Chicago Fire (6-9-5, 8th in East)
The Brimstone Cup is up for grabs as the Fire take on FC Dallas. Both teams are coming off losses. FC Dallas fell 2-0 to Real Salt Lake last Saturday while the Fire are coming off a 4-3 loss to Philadelphia at home on Wednesday.
Shipping goals like UPS has been a problem for the Fire. They’ve conceded seven in the last two matches and only Orlando has shipped more. Dallas has actually scored four fewer goals than the Fire, but have conceded 17 fewer. Only New York Red Bulls have conceded fewer.
FC Dallas are unbeaten in their last 11 home matches and have won four of their last six overall and expect to have a fully-healthy squad to Toyota Stadium.
Meanwhile, Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic admitted that his side do not have the consistency to improve from matches like Wednesday’sand matches from the start of the season where they were conceding plenty of goals.
“It’s very, very similar to the start of the season, the game against Sporting Kansas City,” said Paunovic. “We conceded very soft goals, I think in the first half especially, and we conceded too many opportunities. It was our image during the whole year. We could change it in some moments for some time, but we don’t have the consistency to improve.”
While Nelson Rodriguez works to add to the roster (Fire fans hope), Nemanja Nikolic, Aleksandar Katai, and Bastian Schweinsteiger will continue to lead the way as much as they can. All three scored on Wednesday, but all three cannot do everything. Others have to step up and we shall see if Nicolas Del Grecco will get some playing time and/or realize that Brandon Vincent is not a center back.
Kickoff is at 7:30pm and will be on ESPN+ for Chicago and the nation and TXA 21 in Dallas.
INJURIES:
FC DALLAS—None
CHICAGO FIRE–OUT: M – Djordje Mihailovic (right ACL surgery), F – Michael de Leeuw (left ACL surgery), D – Matt Polster (MCL surgery), GK – Patrick McLain (hamstring injury), F – Luis Solignac (left quad injury), D – Grant Lillard (right quad injury); QUESTIONABLE: D – Kevin Ellis (undisclosed injury)
Referee: Marcos DeOliveira
Assistant Referees: Cameron Blanchard, Danny Thornberry
4th Official: Alejandro Mariscal
VAR: Ismail Elfath
LAST YEAR:
5/25/17: CHI 2-1 DAL
Chicago Fire
