On the road again…
Atlanta United venture back out of friendly confines tonight with a visit to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Fire for the second time this year.
The Five Stripes leave from their latest two game home stretch with only one (disappointing) point, and will look to claim all three from a rough looking Fire side who just last weekend fell 4-0 at home to Real Salt Lake. Atlanta is yet to win on the road this year, losing to Columbus and Toronto before coming away with a draw at Citi Field against NYCFC. After some less than ideal performances the past couple weeks, a result on the road would do a world of good for a team that could do with a solid boost of confidence.
The injury report continues to improve, with center back Stian Gregersen returning and expected to feature in some capacity, whether starting or off the bench. Xande Silva is downgraded again to being listed as out, as is Derrick Williams and Jamal Thiare. All eyes for Chicago fall on the return of our old pal Andrew Gutman to the lineup, who is set to make his home debut for the Fire after suffering an injury in the season opener.
When these two sides met a month ago in the Benz, Atlanta walked away with a 3-0 win following a Giakoumakis goal and a Thiare brace. I want to see that team again. You want to see that team again. I’m sure the players do, too. Will we see that quality return for a much needed win tonight?
Kickoff from Soldier Field and the central time zone is advertised for 8:30 PM ET, with actual kickoff approximately 10 minutes later at 8:40 PM. As always, the match is also streaming on Apple TV as a part of MLS Season Pass. Radio coverage is provided in English on 92.9 The Game and in Spanish on La Mejor.
As we get ready for tonight’s match, be sure to check out our match preview and predictions to prepare yourself for the match to come, then tune in and hop over to our match thread in the comments below to discuss every bit of action from Chicago.
Atlanta United’s Lineup:
Chicago Fire’s Lineup:
How to Watch:
Venue: Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois
Kickoff Time: Saturday, April 27th; 8:40 PM ET
Available TV/Streaming: Apple TV+ (with MLS Season Pass subscription)
Available Radio: 92.9 The Game, La Mejor 1600/1460/1130 AM
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Good – Morales Dax Saba Slisz
Invisible – gg Wiley
+1 and clean sheet ? ( I am reaching to find positives )
Brightest silver lining of the night was Morales, he played very well. He had one mistake and instantly recovered. Wish he’d finished the goal for the dream debut, but oh well; he should still be proud and I LOVE his passion.
Makes my annoyance at Pineda shoehorning in Hernandez last week feel even more justified.
Similar feelings about Dax McCarty. Really frustrating.
The soccer equivalent of blue balls
You win comment of the night!
I’m dead
HOW HAVE WE NOT SCORED
I’ll wait to post my comments in the post game area (win by miracle, lose by heart break, or draw by default), but tonight was telling. We need a serious change.
Ouch. That HURT
And they have to play down… that’s stupid
How have we not scored a goal
PASS THE BALL EKRKFOSLR TFIEKE GKDOWLNRHTFIFJFBFBBDBE:@:@;#&!>@[@(×)$&’BDBDIDYCBSBA &!;!;$^@
I felt this in my soul
At least Almada is starting to play good again, just need it to pay off.
So why did we decide to swap Saba and Mosquera?
Probably because inverting the wingers tends to create top of the box, low xG chances; which for a full 90 is ok, but he’d rather not waste chances with 6m left and want to cut back/cross instead.
I feel they have been swapped for most of the half though. I’m not a huge fan of inverted wingers, but feels weird to go from our tried formation at this point of time.
Maybe it started when Mosquera came one for Wolff? I only noticed recently
agghgh, come on, why do the keepers have to go crazy against us?
That damn goalie – another awesome save
What a play, what a save.
Can this ref just leave? He’s obnoxious with how much he just wants the camera on him
Come on – just one goal guys
RSL beat these guys 4-0 last week. Something needs to change.
Aaahhgghhgagsgshahdhfndncisns
You mean McCarty can play? Crazy we didn’t know that last week…
No adjustment at half… no strategic change… no creativity in movement… boring… predictable… and relying on an individual moment of brilliance or praying to avoid an individual mistake. Sigh.
Does anyone know who I need to talk too to get paid for watching this match?
I would like to add myself to the class action settlement for emotional suffering for watching this
It’s painful.
Good pressure on their attacker
Gutman vs Lennon was probably the highest-octane match up on the field.
People just standing around when we have the ball. WTF?
Subs coming in – that means we score right ?!
That gutman guy looks kind of good.
Surprised we haven’t told Saba to just go at him. We know he can’t defend against quick wingers.
I feel we don’t give the ball enough to Saba in general.
Miss Gutman. He was solid.
I remember when everyone was hating on him for being a defensive liability.
He was. I loved him, but teams figured out they could have someone quick just go at him and tear him to pieces. He was definitely a more attack-oriented WB.
This season, we might be sound enough defensively that it wouldn’t be seriously noticeable, but when he was here it hurt us a few times
I’d rather have him than Hernandez, who costs more and isn’t good at defense or offense.
This is like watching two blind guys boxing – someone might land a good one but it won’t be on purpose
It definitely looks like a battle between two bottom-end East teams
I absolutely hate that I agree with you both 🙁
100%. This is painful to watch. Likely the most boring and clueless that I’ve ever seen us look.
I’m scrolling down at -looks at the clock 1:24 A.M.- and the comments here are gold
Morales has been solid, I couldn’t tell if he was the 5th string player unless I knew. Our academy seems to be great at churning out defensive talent, which makes me wonder if we really need a DP CB in the future.
Saba and Giakomakis might as well not be out there. Nobody can get the ball to them.
Alamada is just off – passes are short , long , missed – what’s up little guy ?
So… does this team practice soccer?
We are so boring and predictable. Funnel it outside and then try and force something. We work nothing through the middle, and pass back half the time. Team looks like they have no ideas. No creative runs. No apparent overall plan.
Yup – sounds like something a professional coach should address. Sadly, I haven’t seen any evidence of that for a while now. So frustrating with all the talent we have this year.
Any idea what the black band caleb is wearing on his right arm is for
What the heck is that trumpet player playing? It sounds like nonsense.
Yeah I was trying to figure it out, it’s pretty awful
Wait, why was that a yellow???
B/c the ref is a little b!t€H… that is the only answer.
I will gladly plus one this, the ref was all about being “in control” in this match. To the point he looked like a South Park character.
Ref is an attention ho…g
Come on dudes – let’s put two in and get on home
Wiley/wolff side mostly invisible
Luckily Chicago is absolutely terrible at finding the net – they have had three gimmes and sky balled them all
Man, Saba has such bad luck with his finishing this year.
That was an awesome save … and horrible call to award a goal kick
Not sure what we need to give Almada, but he’s still off. Not making good decisions, poor pass accuracy, etc.
Probably needs to come off the bench for a game or two to send a message. But I don’t think Pineda has it in him to do it. Especially with his job under increasing pressure.
We need a legitimate alternative to him to put pressure on him I think.
Buuuuuuuut also won two trophies so there’s that
Almada is an incredible individual talent… unfortunately, he is proving that he is an incredible individual talent. Until he learns, he won’t be as valued as he thinks he is.
He’s starting to feel like a much MUCH better version of Pity. Again, way better, but similar characteristics and tendencies IMO
Will be interesting to see how we do tonight. If we can’t win an away game against a team ‘near the bottom’ of our division and with several of their starters injured/out, I don’t know how anybody could continue defending Pineda. The pressure is on tonight.
Hate that we’ve had so many CB injuries this season. BUT! I’ve been really impressed with Cobb, and I hope I feel the same with Morales tonight. Would love to have two solid CB’s as backup/future starters. Especially after we traded Tubbs away
This is kind of out there and not very likely, but Thiago Silva is rumored to be wanting to come to MLS and he’d be available on a free transfer. The downside is he is coming off a contract that paid him around $8.5 million a season. Would he take a massive pay cut to come to MLS? I have my doubts. Well, maybe not for us he wouldn’t.
Welp, that near miss was not good.
Glad to see we’re not putting Hernandez back at CB. Not glad to see that Cobb is still out with issues of some sort, I’m assuming more migraines.
I really hope they turn things around and start getting results.
Doug Roberson said he started not feeling well yesterday, so the team wanted to be cautious with him and removed him from the matchday roster
Thanks. On the plus side, I’m excited to see what Morales can do for us.
i would assuming if we are able to get the lead, Gregersen will go in as the 3rd CB to lock things down, but if we are down by more than 1 goal we won’t see Gregersen at all
Dang Cobb out again…. guess those migraines are still causing him problems
I was wondering what was up with that.He has a lot of problems with migraines in the past?
Semi-related, but I saw that the Bears are trying to win support to build a new stadium and tear down Soldier Field. Wonder where the MLS team would end up playing
I would assume they would end up leasing the new Bears stadium, or find some other temporary home until they can build a separate stadium for themselves.
The Fire have no definite plans at present and are simply watching what happens with the Bears and White Sox (also apparently trying to get a new stadium). The Fire have expressed interest in building a soccer specific stadium somewhere downtown but no specific location has been suggested as far as I can tell.
They won’t go back to Bridgeview though and I think there are rumors that the Red Stars (NWSL team) may move back downtown too, so possibly a combined Fire/Red Stars stadium could work. As to why SeatGeek stadium even exists, all I can say is that it was built by a different owner in a different time with a different Chicago city government that at the time was hugely opposed to ANY new stadiums being built downtown. The city government has only changed in the past few years to one that was willing to consider new downtown stadiums. The previous government was adamantly against it to the point of absurdity. If I remember correctly their argument was that it would take away green space.