The Chicago Fire appear to have hit their stride under coach Gregg Berhalter. CF Montreal — after showing their coach the door — are simply looking to find the back of the net, let alone win.
The Fire, winners of three straight, host struggling Montreal on Saturday night.
Chicago (3-1-1, 10 points) hasn’t made the MLS Cup playoffs since 2017 and last won a postseason match in 2009.
But under Berhalter, the former Columbus Crew and U.S. men’s national team head coach, and thanks in part to a hot start from Hugo Cuypers (five goals in as many matches), the Fire may have caught a spark: They haven’t lost in four matches (3-0-1).
That’s not to say Berhalter and his players will take Montreal (0-4-1, 1 point) lightly, even after the Quebec outfit fired head coach Laurent Courtois on Monday.
“We want the group to be confident, but we also don’t want them to be complacent,” Berhalter said. “We know it’s a very difficult game against Montreal. We’re not taking anything for granted. … This is a team that is good, even though the record doesn’t show it.”
Montreal, who sacked Courtois and appointed assistant coach Marco Donadel to interim head coach two days after a 3-0 loss to Nashville SC, not only hasn’t won a match this season but also hasn’t scored in its past four outings.
“It’s not so much the results or the scores (but) it’s more the performances we’ve been seeing,” CF Montreal CEO Gabriel Gervais said of the club’s decision to dismiss Courtois after just 14 months. “We also saw a team lacking cohesion, frustrated players, and a lack of fighting spirit at times, so we felt that now was the time to do it to really get our season back on track.”
A seven-match road trip to start the year hasn’t helped, nor have injuries to Giacomo Vrioni and Jalen Neal — both have yet to appear after being acquired from the New England Revolution and Los Angeles Galaxy, respectively.
The injuries shouldn’t be excuses, though, according to Gervais.
“Yes, we have some injured players, but we have enough depth and enough quality to offer more convincing performances,” he said.
–Field Level Media
