Chicago Fire will begin their 2021 MLS regular season on Saturday when they host the New England Revolution at Soldier Field.
The Fire won three of their six pre-season games, while the Revolution picked up just one win in their five tune-up matches.
Match preview
Chicago have struggled in the MLS regular season recently, missing the playoffs in each of their last three campaigns, although they were only one point away from making the postseason in 2020.
Swiss manager Raphael Wicky is heading into his second campaign in charge with a relatively unchanged team from last term as he hopes that his ideas will be well ingrained in the heads of his players.
Wicky will be demanding a greater level of consistency this time around, though, having won only two of their final 10 regular season games in 2020, including two losses in the MLS is Back tournament.
The Fire were at their best at home in 2020, with all four of their regular-season victories coming at Soldier Field by an aggregate score of 11-1, although they were beaten four times on home turf too.
Fresh off the back of a season that saw them reach the Eastern Conference Finals, the Revolution are hungry to do even better in 2021.
Under manager Bruce Arena, New England took another step forward last season in what was their best-ever finish to an MLS campaign.
The Revolution have never won the MLS Cup, but given their depth and experience heading into this season, they will have the belief that they can bring home the title to Greater Boston.
In 2020 they were pretty comfortable on the road, winning six regular-season games away from Foxborough while losing only three. They also won twice in the 2020 MLS Cup playoffs as the visiting team.
New England are unbeaten in their last three regular season matches versus the Fire.
Chicago Fire preseason form:
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New England Revolution preseason form:
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Team News
Bulgarian winger Stanislav Ivanov will miss the first half of the season for Chicago after undergoing knee surgery which means they may have to rely on midfielder Alvaro Medran as the sole provider early on.
The departures of Djordje Mihailovic and CJ Sapong will put added pressure on Robert Beric to repeat his strong performance in 2020, when he scored 12 goals for the Fire.
New England added some solid depth players in the off-season to complement an already strong team.
Wilfrid Kaptoum should fill a void in central midfield, while left-back Christian Mafla brings plenty of experience at the back, having made over 190 appearances over the past 10 seasons at club level in Colombia.
The Revs will depend on Carles Gil to create scoring opportunities - he has led the team in assists over the past two seasons - while Teal Bunbury led New England in scoring with eight goals last season and will hope to get into double figures for only the second time in his MLS career.
Chicago Fire possible starting lineup:
Shuttleworth; Bornstein, Calvo, Pineda, Espinoza; Gimenez, Medran, Herbers, Aliseda, Frankowski; Beric
New England Revolution possible starting lineup:
Turner; Kessler, Farrell, Mafla, Bye; Kaptoum, Polster, Traustason, Bou, Gil; Buksa
We say: Chicago Fire 0-2 New England Revolution
The Fire are notoriously slow starters and have not won a regular season opener since 2009.
New England thrived on the road last season, and with some strong balance at every position and an experienced coach who knows what it takes to win, they will be eager to fly out of the gates with a win on Saturday.
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